Death anxiety encompasses a broad spectrum of emotions ranging from a few passing moments of fear to a complete state of panic. In either case, the experience is painful on a feeling level or, at its worst, terrifying. For this reason, most people find a way to obliterate images of death’s finality from their conscious… Read more »
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Seeing the familiar faces of beloved figures who have died by suicide is a pain that’s hard to reconcile. We are left stunned and saddened. How could this happen? How could someone so valued not feel their own value? Waking up to news of these tragedies forcefully reminds us that suicide is a real threat… Read more »
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As professional psychotherapists, we offer our authentic self as an ally in a healing relationship. On the journey of trauma-informed care, the client can witness the therapist’s authentic self at work during a therapy session. But another core concept deserves more attention: helping clients become aware of and nurture their own authentic self. At a… Read more »
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As human beings, we may be designed to be on high-alert for danger, but with information coming at us from all directions and at high-speeds, anxiety is sharply rising, and this adaptation is starting to impair us. Many of us can’t seem to stop our minds from racing forward into fixation over what could go… Read more »
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Faced with the painful awareness of death’s finality, individuals try to recreate a parent or parents in other people, groups, or institutions, or they search for a personal savior on earth or in the heavens. Just as the imagined merger with one’s family once provided its members with an illusion of immortality, group identification offers… Read more »
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From The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, Second Edition. By Daniel J. Siegel. Copyright 2012 by Mind Your Brain, Inc. Published by The Guilford Press. All rights reserved. As we come to the end of our journey into the developing mind, I want to make some brief… Read more »
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What is trauma, and why do we need trauma-informed care? When a person feels overwhelmed, threatened and endangered, the mind and body react for survival. If the person can’t find ways to feel safe again, the threat-response system tends to stay active, even though it’s not obvious. That person is likely to experience traumatic stress…. Read more »
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Although largely unconscious, the awareness of our finite existence, the fact that we all must die, has a profound impact on our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The fear and emotional anguish associated with anticipating the end of life are so painful that we must protect ourselves. People find it difficult to tolerate facing their mortality… Read more »
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There is a famous scene in the film Good Will Hunting where Robin Williams, playing a therapist, compassionately repeats the line “It’s not your fault” to Will, a troubled young man with self-destructive tendencies, who happens to be a genius. The line is a response to the revelation of abuse Will endured as a child…. Read more »
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In my work as a clinical psychologist, I love when I get contacted by someone who wants therapy for anxiety. From OCD to phobias, I know that there are things that I can tell them in our first meeting that will help them to start to overcome a condition that, for many people, is excruciating… Read more »
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