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Befriending the Problem
Whether you suffer from depression, anxiety, mood swings, anger, or substance use, the most important element is befriending it. This may sound rather bizarre since this society basically tries to avoid issues in hopes of them going away. I ask you has it? Our repeating problems are repeating for a reason. In learning from and befriending an ailment we can release it.
What does befriending...
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Have Hope, Dare to Dream
If you have the opportunity, a great book to read is “Love, Miracles, and Medicine” by Dr. Bernie Segal. He helped people with advanced cases of cancer heal and sometimes without medical interventions. He advocated having the desire to live. There aren’t a lot of clinical books on the value of hope, but with hope, we can suffer through a lot and make it to the other side.
In the book, “Man’s...
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Rising Suicide Rates in Washington
The rising rates of suicide are alarming. Already in the state of Washington, there have been over 1,200 people who have taken their life. What if a person you knew told you they wanted to kill themselves?
I worked at a crisis center for 11 years and dealt with people who were suicidal on a daily basis and here are the important steps to take.
Ask them if they were thinking about killing...
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Dad’s Memorial
A rainbow followed me as I drove to work this morning. The morning before my father’s memorial celebration. He lived a good 90 years and seemed to have a good life. I came to love my father after the rocky start of his abuse in my younger years. Because of this I went through extensive therapy and was then able to confront him as an adult. From that moment we began to build a wonderful...
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What is Therapy?
With our influx of new clients recently, I’ve found myself explaining what the process of therapy is. It seems that for so long people have sluffed it off, avoided it, realized their problems were not going away on their own and needed some assistance. I recall thinking that I was weak for going into therapy, and lost the fight in trying to help myself. I feel for that younger me who meekly...
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Tis’ the Season for Depression
Welcome to the holiday season. If you’ve had issues in the past, they tend to surface this period of time. Remembrances of family, relationships, friends can stir up a lot of difficult emotions and memories. In school, they would say, “If you think you are enlightened, wait till you go home for Thanksgiving.”
Using the holiday season as a healing journey can be empowering. Avoiding these...
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A Message to New Therapists
If you are an intern and starting in this profession, toss away everything you have learned and pay attention to one thing – the customer. This isn’t a time to dazzle them with theory, or prove to them that you are really brilliant, simply let go of that and be yourself. You have to understand that the most important aspect in the healing profession is your bedside manner – so to speak.
New...
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The Three Foot Plan
Excited, I grabbed the basketball and toed the marker some 12 feet away from the basket. Same game, different environment. I was standing in front of my classmates at the University of Santa Monica, the graduate school where I studied Spiritual Psychology. It wasn’t new for me to shoot in front of a lot of people. I had once shot at halftime at a Lakers game at the Forum in from of 17,505...
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Managing Withdrawals
After writing three books, back-to-back, I have to admit that I am going through withdrawals. It isn’t as severe as when I was coming off drugs in 1981, but still, they are withdrawal symptoms nonetheless. It struck me that I go through this same process when I am dieting. Is everything in life an addiction? Okay, if I have to confess, I may be addicted to the little games I play on my phone....
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How to Change Others
So you want to learn how to change other people, but why? If they change to how you want them to be, would that make you feel better? If they said I’m sorry, would it make your problems go away? So many go to great lengths to change others, to make them love you, respect you, or simply to stop bothering you. I have some bad news for you – you can’t change them, that is their job.
Many people...
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