Should I Consider Medications or Psychotherapy for a Mental Health Concern?
We live in a world where lots of people are struggling with mental health concerns and looking for help. A question lots of people have is: Should I try therapy or medications? It’s a big question, and there isn’t one easy answer. However, if you are mulling this over, there are some things you can […]
What is Mental Health?
As a therapist, it’s my job to help people achieve their optimal mental health. Well, what do we mean by “mental health”? It’s a very good question! In more traditional psychological thinking, mental health was equated with the lack of mental illness. In this view, if you’re not schizophrenic, depressed, or anxious, then you’ve got […]
Thoughts on mindfulness
If you’ve been on the Internet at all over the past few years, you’ve probably seen multiple references to mindfulness. These articles tend to feature pictures of blissful, fit, young people sitting in the lotus position and exuding radiant inner peace, while the text extols the life-changing virtues of mindfulness. You may have wondered if […]
Challenges to Empathy
I’ve been fascinated lately with the question of empathy. As a therapist, it seems very important to my work: trying to deeply understand someone’s experience so that I can be of help is a pretty good working definition of what I aim to do. I’ve come across two things that have got me thinking about […]
Forgiveness
I’ve been thinking about the issue of forgiveness lately, and how it might play a role in my work. As a therapist, at first I thought there’s something almost counter-intuitive about it. One of the ways people heal in therapy is by getting a chance to talk about how they’ve been hurt in the past, […]