In 1971, Jim Walkup and I had a dream of creating a psychotherapy center in Bronxville, NY. We imagined o place where people of all financial circumstances, and from all backgrounds, could come fo receive quality mental health care — the same high level of care for oll recipients. Now, 53 years later, I am […]
Hope does not provide assurances, but it does help in finding strength and direction in adversity. Whether we are challenged with conflict in a relationship or workplace, or considering the social or political conflicts of our times, hope allows for possibility, just as crisis allows for opportunity and vital new ways for growth and resolution. […]
Filmmaker and documentarian Ken Burns gave an eloquent and poignant commencement speech at Brandeis University in May 2024, at which he quoted James Baldwin… “In a filmed interview I conducted with the writer James Baldwin, more than 40years ago, he said, “No one was ever born who agreed to be a slave, who accepted it. […]
Patience in a busy, crowded, demanding world is not easy to achieve for us humans. Recently, on a trip to Namibia, I observed the politics of the watering hole visited by elephants, zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, ostriches, and springbok – amazingly each animal waited their turn. This was their natural habitat, and one herd of elephants […]
In the therapy room, there is a metaphor frequently used about anger. Its like an iceberg: what we see is just the tip, and there is much more going on below the surface. When we present as angry, there are often a whole host of more vulnerable feelings lying underneath. Overwhelm? Hurt? Shame? Fear? Resentment? […]
As one of her surprise songs in the London shows of her tour, Taylor Swift chose to play “Thank You alMee” from her newly released Tortured Poets Department. Not familiar with these lyrics, a review of them led to the realization that they are an anthem for adolescents, teens, and adults alike. Who among us […]
Queer individuals frequently find their way to the therapy room. The path to carving out one’s unique identity can be emotionally taxing at times, testing one’s courage and mental stamina. Finding oneself not in the “mainstream” but as a member of a protected minority can be a difficult challenge, but critical when one realizes that […]
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back… The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves, too… All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have occurred otherwise. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and […]
As humans we often seek comfort in certainty, in definitive black and white explanations. Yet certainty is hard to come by, and binary thinking can undermine the vast richness of human experience that resides between the extremes. When young, we are vulnerable to polarized messaging: I’m either good or bad, right or wrong, winner or […]
Our founder and treasured beacon on staff, Catherine Nicholas, turned 90 in January, and was asked to offer nuggets of wisdom from her vantage point. The first words she offered were the same words her father, Greek in origin, offered to her some 80 years ago. “Napezi to Matisou,” which means, “Your eye should be […]
