The Healthy Caregiver In order to take care of others, we also have to be able to take care of ourselves. Sacrifice can be misinterpreted as only loving your neighbor and not yourself. As adults, we have to Mother and Father ourselves from within. Unless we develop our “Inner Caregiver” we’ll be dependent on others …
Mick & His Air Fiddle Every full moon in August I meet up with an old friend south of Ensenada to camp at the edge of the ocean. Mick Hamilton has settled down during his middle years, but was a total madman when we went to school together in the late sixties. One psychology professor, …
There are quite a few men who never grow up and get stuck in adolescence. In research I did many moons ago, I found these ‘eternal adolescents’ usually had fathers who were either partially or totally absent. Others had fathers who were weak or passive, which left the upbringing totally to the mothers. Over …
This is part two in my two-part series on ‘What happens in Psychotherapy’. In my last article I distinguished between real suffering, which is imposed upon us by loss and fateful external events, and neurotic suffering which is ‘inauthentic suffering’, because we create it ourselves. The good news is, if we create our own suffering …
All psychotherapists have to answer the above question for themselves. Soulful psychotherapy is not about running a ‘psychological technique’ on people. Our work is primarily based on how we have handled the experiences life has dealt us and the teachers we’ve encountered from early on. I was fortunate, in so far, as many teachers have …
Persona vs Shadow Confrontation. Look at it from an energy viewpoint. The amount of energy we put into our masks looking industrious, entertaining, responsible, good or oppositional, macho, non-needy, and rebellious, is absolutely awesome. Doing ‘Inner Shadow Work’ liberates all of this energy to live according to our natural self, no longer living up to …
All of us wear masks at different times. For example, we are one way at work, different with our friends, still different with our lovers, children, mothers in law, etc. Our masks, or in modern parlance our Personas, are usually developed to gain affirmation and acceptance in the outside world, i.e.,‘Nice Guy’. ‘Good Girl’. ‘Loyal …
Last time we discussed the first step of initiation, i.e., Separation. Today we’ll conclude with steps 2) Liminality and 3) Integration. Liminality When our former sense of identity is further dissolved, when we’re drifting in uncharted waters floating through a ghostlike existence being ‘betwixt and between’, neither here nor there and feeling utterly lost, we …
“Everything Seems Meaningless, I have No Pleasure” – Mid-life Crises Pt II Read More »
Sound familiar? You might be in the midst of a mid-life crisis. It’s that time when we find out that security does not lie in another person. It can only be found within. The time has arrived when we need to be still, reflect inward and not subdue anxiety and depression with excessive drinking, gambling …
“I Have No Energy For The Daily Grind” – Mid-life Crises? Read More »
The hysterical personality has an infantile need for exclusive love and demand for attention. Self-dramatization, exhibitionism, uncontrolled emotional outbursts, obstinate hard headedness, and lack of consideration for others can all be personality characteristics. Frequently they adopt a helpless and dependent posture, however when dependent needs are not met they throw a temper tantrum or a …