How Growing Up in a Traumatic Family Shapes Us
These days, it feels like the word “trauma” is everywhere—on social media, in everyday conversations, and especially in therapy rooms. But even as awareness grows, healing from trauma can still feel just as hard—sometimes even harder. Knowing what happened doesn’t always make it easier to move forward. Week after week, I support clients suffering in […]
When A Parent or Adolescent Uses Wounding Words
Of course, that old saying, “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me,” is wrong. Particularly between people who are caringly connected, like parent and adolescent for example, unhappy feelings expressed through hasty words can do a lot of damage. Thoughtlessly spoken, they are emotionally driven. Some relationships are particularly […]
Can Literature Help Save Democracy?
Michael Fischer’s recent book, How Books Can Save Democracy, is a worthwhile and timely short read for psychiatrists, therapists, and the general public. Fischer is the Dicke Professor in Public Humanities at Trinity University. He argues that reading fiction and non-fiction can promote relational, cognitive, and emotional qualities that would improve democratic dialogue and bring […]
Evolution, Schedules, and the Quiet Cost to Mental Health
For much of our existence, clocks and calendars did not exist to mark time. Instead, we lived according to the cycle of day and night. Weather, hunger, or seasons dictated when we ate, slept, and moved season to season continuing to survive. As humans, we have always lived spontaneously, in tune with natural rhythms, not […]
How to Move From Harm to Healing in Schools
It’s Friday afternoon, and as you watch the last students file onto the bus, your mind races. There’s talk of an off-campus fight involving several of your students—a conflict that began long before you met them, but now intrudes on your classroom, your lessons, and even your sense of safety in certain moments. You’ve tried […]
Teen Sleep Is Affected Not Just by Parenting, but by Policy
Australia recently announced a ban on social media use for kids under 16, citing concerns about Mental health and online safety. But there’s another issue at stake—sleep. Teenagers’ late-night screen use has quietly become one of the biggest barriers to healthy development. The consequences of teen sleep loss are serious Sleep-deprived teens face higher risks […]
Depression and the Heart | Psychology Today
For decades, we’ve divided health into neat categories: Mental health on one side, physical health on the other. The brain over here. The heart over there. Different specialists. Different appointments. Different silos. But biology doesn’t respect those boundaries—and neither does depression. A growing body of research now makes something unmistakably clear: Depression is not only […]
Set Boundaries With Difficult Parents Using Detachment
Austin threw his hands up. “No matter what I say or do, it’s always the same thing!” he said, voice raised in frustration. We had been talking about his most recent visit with his mother, one he had begun with cautious optimism, hoping that if he explained himself just a little more clearly this time, […]
Where Did My Loving Child Go?
It is not unusual for me to hear from parents whose now-estranged adult child once expressed deep gratitude for their upbringing and for the role their parent played in their life. Often, these affirmations were written or spoken not long before the estrangement occurred. Then, sometimes abruptly, communication stops—or resumes in ways that feel hostile, […]
Is My Life Turning Into A Checklist?
In recent years, people have been infatuated by the idea that the more productive you are, the better you will be. Productivity culture, wellness trends, and social media have fostered the belief that we should continually improve, whether physically, emotionally, or professionally. Self-improvement is usually positive, but the pressure to optimize every part of life […]