Category: Family of Origin

Rick Hanson, PhD looks at the power of your inner child to shape your adult self-concept.  If you carry wounds from early in life, he offers ways to “love your inner child” to move towards healing. As long as you’ve lived,… Read more »

In some photos of myself as a young child I looked sad.  As I stare into my own eyes in some of the pictures from back then I see melancholy and pensiveness.  Distance.  Ambivalence.  A little girl inside her own head…. Read more »

In Family of Origin Work:  Is it Time to Start Digging?, I looked at possible reasons for looking more closely at what might be an unhealthy root system underneath you.  Sometimes our earlier experiences create obstacles to emotional and relationship… Read more »

Being a therapist in private practice working with individuals and couples, I see a vast array of issues that people bring.  It’s understandable that many hope to solve the problems as soon as possible.  Efficiency is always a goal for me… Read more »

Shame is sneaky.  It lurks in the shadows.  Shame is secretive and compelling in it’s ability to impact the way you feel about yourself at the very core.  But in your creativity and wisdom you have learned to deploy defense… Read more »

Amy Eden looks at how to navigate feelings of worthlessness stemming from a difficult past. As you grow, and gain joy in your healing and growing-up-in-adulthood process, it’s just as important to embrace dark moments in your growth as it… Read more »

If you have the awareness that you are somehow blocked in your present as a result of experiences in the past and you are ready to do some work around this, read on.  If it’s with a therapist, there is… Read more »

Your past is connected to your present and future.  Emotional health is a broad term but I see it as an overall sense of “alrightness,” of peace, of emotional flexibility, openness, absence of shame and felt happiness.  Others may define… Read more »

Neuropsychologist and writer, Marsha Lucas, PhD believes that emotional leftovers are similar to leftovers in your fridge.  They’re kind of messy – and much of the time they get old and you might even delay their removal longer than desired.   We’re… Read more »

You all know this phrase.  It makes me want to scream whenever I hear it, these days at least:  They did the best they could. I just asked my spouse what he thought of the term, what it really means,… Read more »