Depression & Suicide Prevention: It does Get Better. There are SO Many Reasons to Live. Thank You for Staying Here!

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Depression & Suicide Prevention: It does Get Better. There are SO Many Reasons to Live. Thank You for Staying Here!

This is article is long. It's not short and pithy. There are no quick fixes to depression and suicide. Quick, cliched, trite, pat answers don't work. Real answers take time and patience and lots of empathy and love. I am going to share some things here, though, that aren't elsewhere from my clients and my experiences together which may be helpful in addition to all the great information that is out there on this topic.

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Guest Blogger: "Hyde, Hulk, Gollum, and I: An Exploration of Our Dark Sides"

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Guest Blogger: "Hyde, Hulk, Gollum, and I: An Exploration of Our Dark Sides"

Our bad emotions are what people usually call their dark side, C. G. Jung likes to call this part the “shadow”.  But just as everyone’s personality is different, everybody’s dark side is different too someone could have problems controlling their anger, frustration, sadness, etc. These differences can be explored by looking at Dr. Jekyll from the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Marvel’s super hero Dr. Bruce Banner, the character Smeagol from the trilogy The Lord of the Rings, and myself.

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Self-Mastery: De-fusing Triggering Words with CBT

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Self-Mastery: De-fusing Triggering Words with CBT

"Sometimes words can become your worst enemy. Clinical psychologist and cognitive behavioural therapist Dr Jane Gregory tells how to defuse their power." —Helen Zaltzman, The Allusionist Podcast

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7 Red Lines: The Importance of Having a Realistic Approach to Change

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7 Red Lines: The Importance of Having a Realistic Approach to Change

People come wanting a solution to a train wreck of a marriage: Save our marriage and transform it into a truly GREAT relationship. "Certainly. That's what I'm here for and I love to help people do... Let's get cracking...". And then they proceed to tell me how it should be constructed based on myths, what they heard, opinions and preferences that are contrary to how healthy relationships actually function; in what ridiculously short time frame it should occur; with minimal to no actual study, practice and effort on their part because  "really it shouldn't be this hard" nor "take this long." And then if they don't accomplish their goals in those parameters they quit therapy saying, "Well, we tried. Counseling just doesn't work." And they stay discouraged and stuck. 

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Guest Blogger Kara Sherman on "Managing My Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)"

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Guest Blogger Kara Sherman on "Managing My Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)"

Over the past month my Seasonal Affective Disorder has gone into overdrive with the onset of winter and less sunlight every day. I experience it in different degrees every year. Some years I don't experience it at all. This year it's obnoxious in it's intensity. My chronic neck pain has returned and my head has hurt for 5 days in a row (thank goodness for Exedrin and Dr Pepper) not to mention wanting to sleep All. The. Time. and becoming a hermit. But there are things I do to keep myself above and on top of the depression

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From Ignorance to Mastery

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From Ignorance to Mastery

I am ignorant. So are you. Face it. The reality is if I take every single thing I know, big and small, silly and profound, and compare it to all that there is to know in this vast universe then the only conclusion I can arrive at is that my knowledge is infinitesimally small and that I am VASTLY ignorant. I'm okay with that. It keeps my ego grounded and my mind open to learning. Fortunately, there is a solution to ignorance... 
 

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