Friday, May 3, 2024 There are many factors that shape identity, and they can be shaped through both external and internal factors. Society, family, friends, ethnicity, culture, location, media, interests, self-expression, and life experiences are all common factors that shape identity. Psychologist Kenneth Gergen detailed his description of the ‘saturated self’ to describe being overwhelmed […]
I have been thinking quite a bit lately about forgiveness. Forgiving those who offend us is not a widely practiced habit or seemingly even highly valued these days. Among our close relationships there is usually pressure to reconcile and preserve the connection. But this is generally not the case among strangers. We are offended by […]
I’ve long lost count of hearing people tell me that they want nothing to do with organized religion. In some cases they’ve concluded that the whole enterprise conflicts with their understanding of scientific knowledge. It’s hard to resolve how they see our universe with the notion of a supreme being. And for many it’s rejecting […]
On an unremarkable August Monday in 2009 I was feeling a little bit queasy and thought about going home. I started going out of the building down two long hallways.When I reached the front office I looked into the main office and said to Sandy; “I don’t feel well …” But that’s all I got […]
Perhaps the most universal challenge of every human being is the reality of aging. The fantasy idea is that I will live a long, productive and happy life into my late years. But what does that mean? Let’s postpone the ‘productive and happy’ variable for now and focus on ‘long’ for a moment. What is […]
With the election face off between Biden and Trump the next seven months will be full of angst and tension. No one is neutral about the situation. And some if not many are in a full blown anxiety state. It’s understandable given the real fears that democracy itself might be at stake. But spending endless […]
I have long known, both as an individual and as a therapist, that personal control is a challenging notion for all of us. Control is a gift and wonderful feature of being human. In psychology they refer to this as ‘agency’. It’s our capacity to direct our life and efforts. But it is not lost […]
For Catholics and other Christian’s we are now in the season of Lent. Growing up in the Catholic Church this was a typical and predictable part of the year for us. But if you were not a Church goer, or with no Christian religious history or knowledge, Lent certainly seems strange. Right from the start […]
Anyone studying to become a mental health practitioner learns the term ‘biopsychosocial’.It’s a mouthful but captures the essence of understanding the dimensions of the challenges affecting an individual’s life. Clinicians are given the task of understanding what organic issues are at play for a new client. Are there biological issues at work affecting the person’s […]
Across the several decades of my life here in the U.S., I have experienced multiple times of social and cultural disturbances. There was the heat of my World War II parent’s generation over the disruptions of the 1960’s. There was the horrific assassination of President Kennedy, followed by the fear and anger over the war […]