A common occurrence that happens all over the country in counseling offices every day is people wanting to be "happier." Almost every counselor asks the client, "How will you know when our time is done? What are your goals for counseling? A very common answer is that the client wants to be happier. Many of…
A friend shared this on my facebook wall. What are your thoughts as you watch it?
*This post is the fictional conversation that is a fairly typical conversation about being heard** Jane and Robert had met in college. They started out hot and heavy. Married a year later, they moved for his job. While they didn’t like his job or the location of where they lived, they loved each…
I want to lose 50 pounds…. I want to write a novel… I want to travel to France… I want to help children in Africa… I want to start a small business… I want my marriage to be better than it is… I want my relationship with my child/parent to be restored… We all have…
Sometimes, when I go out to eat I embarrass my family. Well, mostly I embarrass my kids. I love to ask the server one of two questions. And now, I would like to ask you one of those questions. Your answer to this question will impact how you treat other people in your life. Your…
Occasionally, I run into people who will ask me if I know of “one thing” that will improve their marriage? Isn’t there “one thing” we can do that will save our marriage. I almost always tell them no. Then I proceed to tell them that there is many things that they can do that will…
I was having a conversation lately with someone who was stuck in a really bad story. She is dating the same guy over and over again. And while his name has changed, his character has been the same. It’s messing with her head.It’s keeping her up at night. It’s making her feel hollow inside. Then…
A constant theme in mental health that I have written about is that what happens to you is less important than how you make sense of what happens to you. This is a very important concept. So important, I want to write it again. What happens to you is not as important as how you…
One of the things that I am constantly pondering is my inner dialogue and the inner dialogue of those around me. Depending on who you read, it is estimated that we have somewhere near 60,000 thoughts a day. Some suggests that almost 80% of those are negative. If that’s true, that means we have almost…
Yesterday I wrote about the fact that we are telling a story with our life. We are producing a movie in real time. Sometimes that story is not so good. Sometimes we tell a bad story. We get caught in things that do not matter or plot lines that are toxic, corrosive and destructive. In…
