It would be hard to overstate the massive impact of this past year’s pandemic on individuals’ mental health. Last August, the Centers for Disease Control reported results of a survey that showed anxiety disorder symptoms in 2020 to be three times those reported in the same period of 2019, and depressive disorder about four times… Read more »
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Why we need gratitude more than ever. Throughout the internet, it seems like even more people than usual are writing about gratitude this Thanksgiving. Most are puzzling about what there is to be grateful for during this horrific pandemic. People the world over are grappling with the shutdown of businesses and schools, the recommendations of… Read more »
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While most of us say we want love, pretty much all of us have some degree of fear around intimacy. The type and extent of this fear can vary based on our personal history: the attachment patterns we developed and the psychological defenses we formed to protect ourselves from early hurts. These patterns and defenses… Read more »
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As a therapist, I spend a good amount of time exploring the push and pull that occurs in relationships. For example, between couples, a lot of friction occurs when one person is wanting more closeness, while the other is seeking more space. With individuals, I observe many people who say they want love and intimacy,… Read more »
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One of the hardest things about living through a pandemic is being separated from people we love and the activities we used to share. Between social distancing, travel restrictions, and in some cases the need to quarantine, we are all grappling with new levels of isolation. I’ve written a lot about coping with loneliness during… Read more »
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Two weeks ago, I was talking to a friend who has been depressed. Because of COVID-19 and her age, she is quarantined and has been unable to visit with many of her friends. As she described the details of her life and her loneliness, she broke down crying, “I don’t recognize my life! I don’t… Read more »
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For many of us, not a day goes by where we aren’t affected by insecurity. In my last blog, I wrote about two primary sources of insecurity. Here, I will talk about an approach to challenging our negative self-concept by seeking inner security, bolstering self-compassion, and countering the “critical inner voice” that resides in all of us. Developing Inner… Read more »
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One of the biggest afflictions I see people struggle with is insecurity. This is in large part why I’ve dedicated much of my life to studying the self-critical thoughts or “critical inner voices” people experience. It’s probably no surprise to you that in decades of research, one of the most common self-attacks I’ve seen people… Read more »
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Part 1: Overcoming the inner enemy that haunts us when we’re isolated. In late 2019, the team I work with at PsychAlive decided to offer a webinar on overcoming loneliness that would run in April of 2020. At the time, we had no idea that a global pandemic would give the subject of loneliness an entirely new… Read more »
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Receiving compliments may be one of the areas we all have room to stretch and grow! Whether compliments are from someone we know and love or a complete stranger, we can struggle to accept the kind words of others. However, this struggle goes deeper than manners or cultural norms, it shows that the recipient is… Read more »
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