Me Pleasing
Things are back in full swing at Basic Steps Mental Health and the popularity of our IOP program has been steadily increasing. Our IOP program is conducted Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 9:00 am to noon. What is beautiful about the group experience is that I as a therapist don’t have to work as hard because the group supports and inspires each other. A new person started this week and...Learn More
Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place?
Have you ever been at a crossroads in your life? When we are faced with making a decision to do one thing or another, it could be very difficult. Then the “what ifs” begin. This happens when we are faced with a new job, leaving a current relationship, or even starting one, also with addiction our inner battle will rage over whether to stop using or not. When faced with a difficult decision,...Learn More
Life Process
We joked about enlightenment in graduate school. Many in our ranks bragged about reaching that state and our teacher said, “If you think you are enlightened, go home for the holidays.” Better face it, there will always be issues. Therefore, the only way to breeze through them is to create a good relationship with yourself. Yes, I’ve heard it for almost 29 years, that it is selfish or...Learn More
A Client Returns
A client I had seen five years ago came in for a court assessment. The case was pending since that time and this report was to bring it to a close. One thing for certain was the person had completely changed. As a therapist, you treat people, let them go, and in my case rarely see them again. If they return or call and say hi, it is a bonus. The key is to not get attached to the outcomes of...Learn More
A Tribute – Thank You for My Tears
I often call myself a dinosaur because I grew up in a different era where the social norms were much different. As a child, we only had a handful of television stations that came in fuzzy most of the time. Often I turned to the radio for entertainment and especially to listen to sporting events. You have to understand that we didn’t have the luxury of seeing every sporting event like they do...Learn More
The Law of Attraction
Do these statements look familiar? “When you’re down people kick you.” – Well, what happens when you are up? “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” – Well, why can’t we think of the best things? It is interesting how we have been trained to focus on the negatives. In our lives, this is how we create the negative things. It is called: The Law of Attraction. Why don’t we instead...Learn More
Relationship with You
Our relationships reflect back to our relationship with ourselves. This is what Sigmund Freud wrote about in the 1890s. He coined the term “Projections”. Since the film projector just came out, he could see somebody projecting all of their negativity onto another person – the screen. My dad always said, “When you point your finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back to you.” If you...Learn More
I Am Sorry
My father, who recently died, came to me in a dream last night. All he repeated was, “I am sorry.” I miss my father. He suffered from depression for the last few years of his life. At 91 he had a lengthy and mostly happy life until his vision and hearing went. “I am sorry” was hard to stomach. It reminded me of how I was trained to punish myself when I did something wrong. As a child, I had...Learn More
The Start of a New Year
With the start of a new year our thoughts can go one of two ways: To grow, adapt, and be a better person, or to drag the familiar past with us. How do you envision your new year? Are you hopeless or hopeful? To me, life has always been a battle to remain positive. It seems as if there are so many forces in the world, trying to bring us down. It isn’t that hard to see the suffering, the anger,...Learn More