read the blog
hear from our therapists
How Change Makes Space for Something New
When you think you are dying you might actually be in the middle of coming back to life. I love fall because it teaches us this. The air turns crisp and the ground gets colorful and crunchy from the fallen leaves and limbs. The flourishing of spring and summer has...
This Is How to Find Your Place in the Family of Things
This year, the maples all turned purple. They usually die all at once in an explosion of blood red and burning orange. This year, though, it looks as if they all got together—had a tree-meeting of sorts—and agreed to die differently. Purple, at first, instead of red....
How Your Phone Is Robbing You of You
My son is waiting by the road for his ride to school. I remember being fourteen and waiting for my ride to school. Sometimes, I would try to walk the balance beam of railroad ties separating our yard from the shoulder of the road. But I bored of that quickly. Then, I...
A Shrink Analyzes His Own Nightmare
I haven’t had a recurring nightmare since childhood. Until recently. It begins with me standing in our kitchen, looking out upon our front yard. Then, suddenly, a large black-and-white conversion van comes barreling recklessly up our driveway toward the house. It...
How Can You Trust Your Therapist’s Authority?
Confession: the first time I went to therapy, I’d been a therapist for more than five years. I asked a friend for a recommendation. He gave me the name of a therapist. I conveniently lost the number. Several weeks later, I asked him for it again, and he gave it to me...
This Is What Therapy Cannot Do For You (Says the Therapist)
“How does this work?” It’s the first question many therapy clients ask. Those who don’t are probably just being polite. And it should be the first question. When I go to a medical doctor, I want to know what they’re doing and how it will heal my body. It’s totally...
Chase Your Dreams, but Chase Them for the Right Reasons (A Commencement Address)
Keynote speech delivered on April 26, 2017, at the Dixon High School 65th Annual Scholastic Honors Banquet coordinated by the Kiwanis Club of Dixon… Students, twenty-two years ago this spring, I too was on the brink of graduating from Dixon High School, and I too was...
What No One Ever Told You About How to Live a Loveable Life
Several weeks ago, at Artisan Clinical Associates, the sliding door that separates the waiting room from the therapy rooms fell apart. Literally.* By the time we gave up on fixing it, the white door was covered in black, greasy handprints, and it hung open and askew...
The One Simple (But Not Easy) Solution to 80% of Your Problems
“You’ll see, the ice cubes will still be there tonight.” The summer weather is sultry when I show my friend my new water bottle. Boasting state of the art technology, it can sit in the heat all day, while the ice cubes barely melt at all. He and I will be spending the...
How Therapy Helps You Find the Hero Inside of You
My kids think I’m a god. No matter what I do to correct this notion—no matter how many mistakes I make, how many times I lose my cool, how many times I have to apologize, how many times my back goes out, how many times I can’t be in two places at once or speak to more...
