Hello! I have completed my treatment for prostate cancer and recently had a follow up appointment at the urologist’s office. My PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) level was 0.009. Anything under 0.1 is often labeled as “undetectable,” so that was extremely good news.I completed 28 radiation treatments on March 16, and will not need any more Androgen… Continue Reading Undetectable!
To all my current and previous clients and colleagues: I am letting you know that I was diagnosed just before the holidays with prostate cancer. I’m aware that confidentiality of health information is a very sensitive topic. But I feel like I don’t have any real reason to keep the information private: I am self-employed… Continue Reading Health challenges
Following the horrific mass shootings in the Atlanta area this week, people have been trying to make sense of why and how an individual could kill a number of people, apparently targeting women of Asian background. Our need to make sense of something like this serves two very strong needs for all of us: First,… Continue Reading Intersections of violence
No, this isn’t a post about Medicare for All (which is a great goal, but a problematic 2020 campaign platform, in my humble opinion). But this post is about you, if you have Medicare and are seeking psychotherapy, and me, in my quest to be able to provide you with services.
Among counseling students and faculty, there is a fun exercise that consists of naming the diagnostic categories for the characters from “Winnie-the-Pooh.” Tigger has ADHD, Eeyore has dysthymic disorder, and Piglet has generalized anxiety disorder. But Winnie-the-Pooh himself seems to have all the hallmarks of an addictive personality. He just needs a “little something” (or,… Continue Reading Is there an “Addictive Personality”…?
After last week’s mass shootings, people have been busy pointing fingers, and “white supremacy” has become a point of contention. We’re even hearing that the far right is attempting to co-opt the term as a badge of honor, the way they did with the label, “deplorables.” But a thoughtful essay in the New York Times… Continue Reading Masculinity – Healthy and Toxic: Our Society’s Challenge
At this time of year, we tend to think of what we’re thankful for in terms of the basic human needs – the ones that lie along the bottom three tiers of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.Those are survival, safety, and belonging. Our images of Thanksgiving center around harvest, food, gathering together, and celebrating togetherness.… Continue Reading Thanksgiving – “Grateful for” and “Grateful to”
One of the basic tenets of Alfred Adler’s theory is that most social realities are fictions – and they are either socially useful fictions, or else socially useless (harmful) ones. This “psychology of ‘as-if,’” which Adler adopted from the philosopher Hans Vaihinger, is similar to the post-modern or social constructivist way of thinking, and says… Continue Reading No, We’re Not “Divided” – Some of Us Are Simply Lost from Social Reality
Earlier this year, I gave a talk at Adler University for their “Transformative Empowerment” conference put on by the Center for Adlerian Practice and Scholarship. As part of my talk, I created a document that recasts the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous in Adlerian terms. For a number of years, I have discussed both the… Continue Reading Adlerian Interpretation of the Twelve Steps
With the recent spate of revelations about sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and sexual assault being reported in the media, many people of conscience wonder exactly what the aggressors owe the people who were the targets of their hurtful behavior. There are a lot of components to the hurt that people may have suffered, but the… Continue Reading Sin and Injury: When Sorry Is Not Enough