Search Results for: lisa firestone/feed/2009/11/fear-of-intimacy

Dr. Kirk Schneider on Romantic Awe

…k Schneider , author of The Polarized Mind, talks about romantic awe. Lisa Firestone: In your new book, The Polarized Mind, you describe romantic awe. Is this something partners could aspire to in their relationship? Kirk Schneider: I hope so. I mean, my wife and I have tried to aspire to that. Definitely. What does that mean? I suppose everybody has their own definition of that. But, what does it mean to take an adventure together? Travel, you kn…

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How to Make Your Life More Meaningful

…e all, keep holding yourself accountable in your actions. Dare to be your own person, and the rest of the world will reap the rewards. Join Dr. Lisa Firestone for the eCourse “Overcoming Your Inner Critic.”…

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I Feel Lonely: What To Do When You’re Feeling Alone

…ritic In their research, father and daughter psychologists Drs. Robert and Lisa Firestone found that the most common negative thought people have toward themselves is that they are “different from other people.” These self-limiting beliefs can keep you stuck in a cycle of loneliness. Your critical inner voices try to keep you from challenging yourself to step outside your comfort zone, then stab you in the back for avoiding taking action. When you…

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VIDEO: Dr. John C. Norcross on Neuroscience and Psychotherapy

…following transcript contains part of an exclusive interview with Dr. Lisa Firestone and Dr. John C. Norcross. LF: And what do you think about all the new findings in neuroscience? Are they really informing psychotherapy or are they not so important? JN: Well, I’m excited by it. But my answer is, really; not much — and profoundly influencing it. The ‘not much’ comes from those of us who already believed there was a brain. I suppose if you started…

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Our Human Capacity for Emotional Honesty

Lisa Firestone: It seems like part of what you’re talking about is honesty. Carol Gilligan: Yes, that’s a good name for it. I mean emotional honesty, intellectual honesty, yes, absolutely, Lisa. That’s exactly right. LF: Because honesty doesn’t necessarily mean saying everything you think every moment but knowing what you think and letting yourself see what you see. CG: And discovering, you know, what you really think and at least knowing that. T…

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Feeling Like a Failure

…we’re not, but it contributes to self-limiting behavior that can lead our fear around failure to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. “Destructive thoughts or internal voices strongly influence our actions and the way we conduct our daily lives,” wrote Firestone. “For example, a man about to give a speech thinks: “You’re going to make a fool of yourself. You’re going to sound stupid. Who wants to listen to what you have to say anyway?” As a result…

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It’s Not Your Fault: Overcoming Trauma

…ual within a family is something my father, psychologist and author Robert Firestone, has described as a “human rights violation.” He’s written extensively about the toll interpersonal pain and traumatic childhood conditions can have on a person’s freedom and expression of individuality, including that they lead to the formation of powerful psychological defenses. “No child is born bad or sinful; rather, the psychological defenses that children fo…

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The Over-Parenting Syndrome

…shape them to conform to our vision of what they should be as adults. The fear of death figures prominently in this scenario of family life. In their book Beyond Death Anxiety, Dr. Robert Firestone and Joyce Catlett explain how many parents envision family continuity as a form of symbolic immortality — a kind of living on through their sons and daughters and their grandchildren in an endless chain of biological attachment. In one sense, our child…

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How Childhood Defenses Hurt Us As Adults

…pointment. In response, he withdrew from social situations and developed a fear that he would let a woman down. His “defense” did keep him from being rejected, but it also kept him from meeting someone he really liked. In addition, due to his passivity, the women he did meet tended to be more dominating, a trait that further replicated dynamics from his childhood. If we were hurt as kids in a certain way, throughout our lives we will tend to uncon…

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The Price of Being Strong: Risks to the Mental Health of Athletes

…rnational readers can click here for a list of helplines and crisis centers around the world. To see upcoming webinars with Dr. Lisa Firestone, click here.  …

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