Not long ago two high-profile 30-something women, Brittany Murphy and Casey Johnson, died suddenly of “natural causes.” This news hit me, as I’m sure it hit most people, as both alarming and deeply disturbing. Although the circumstances that led to their deaths were both unclear and confusing, as an eating disorder specialist, I believe that… Read more »
I don’t need to tell you how the media has reacted to the shocking and strangely circumstanced affairs of Jesse James. You can’t buy your weekly groceries or check your favorite online news site without hearing all about it: the Nazi paraphernalia, the tattooed, bikini clad mistresses. But if you want to know how the… Read more »
One of the scariest things you can experience is the fear that someone you know may be suicidal. When a friend, family member or associate shows some of the warning signs for suicide, it is essential to intervene and take action to get that person to the help they need. When someone is suicidal,… Read more »
An Excerpt from Dr. Daniel Siegel’s New Book Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation. Diving into the Sea Inside Within each of us there is an internal mental world—what I have come to think of as the sea inside—that is a wonderfully rich place, filled with thoughts and feelings, memories and dreams, hopes and… Read more »
All of a sudden, does it seem like the topic of suicide is everywhere? Cornell’s recent rush of suicides and the suicidal Twitter messages reported by celebrities like Demi Moore and Nia Vardalos has caused an often secretive subject to flash brightly on the public radar. But suicide is not a new epidemic. Once… Read more »
In a March 1 blog, Time Magazine‘s Joe Klein reported that “during the month of January, more soldiers committed suicide (24) than were killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan and Iraq combined (16).” Sadly, this upsetting statistic comes as neither a freak occurrence nor a great shock, as it points beyond itself to a longstanding,… Read more »
Yesterday, as I did some shopping for the holidays, I saw an older couple strolling through Fred Meyer, hand in hand. When they paused to look at something, their bodies leaned slightly into one another, and the warm energy between them was palpable in the air. I could feel my body relax and a deep… Read more »
In the last few years, I have become fascinated with the dance and architecture of our brains, just as I had become enchanted with the movement of the stars as a child. I am finding that adding this neurobiological perspective about what it means to be human opens our resources of compassion in a unique… Read more »
This blog is being written for anyone who may be interested in understanding eating disorders, self-injury and compulsive shopping from a psychologically dynamic point of view. It will address the underlying hunger of these symptomatic disorders. I am a psychotherapist in private practice and I work mainly with people struggling with an eating disorder, self-injury… Read more »
By way of introduction in this first blog post, I’d like to say straight away: I’m a fan of the Glendon Association. Almost 25 years ago when I was in graduate school, I attended a psychology conference in New York City and stumbled across Dr. Robert Firestone’s book, The Fantasy Bond. In spite of the… Read more »