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But why?
Last night I finally got around to watching the stunning documentary Man on Wire, chronicling Frenchman Philippe Petit's astonishing 1974 tight-wire walk between the recently erected twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center. The feat took years to plan (not to mention a lifetime of practice on Petit's part). Petit and his crew of supporters plotted every detail of the seemingly…
Feb 22, 2011
Two meanings of catastrophe
I've had a number of conversations in the past few weeks with folks who's lives, in one way or another, are falling apart. Being a psychotherapist, it's not so unusual. What seems different is in just how many of these cases what fell apart needed to fall apart:A pursuit of a PhD 9 years on, without much progress but at great expense (and opportunity cost). A business that's been making everyone…
Jan 25, 2011
Other people, who are a pain in the ass
When I was a freshman in college things were bad, and I dragged myself to therapy. I'd stopped being able to cope with the depression I'd just barely coped with most of my life. College was hard, and I didn't have a clue. There was this girl who was into me and then not into me and then into me again. And I had this roommate... It was college.Dr. R. and I talked about a lot of things. We talked…
Jan 04, 2011The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers (from the NY Times)
I've been excited about this article from the New York Times for weeks. Basically, a group of researchers at Harvard "found" some credible evidence for more-than modest implications of a high-quality kindergarten teacher over the life of a child. By implications, of course, this is to say that the team of economists measured the impact of good teaching in the first year of elementary school on…
Oct 25, 2010
"It'll take time"
There are few trite phrases that bug me more than the common rejoinder to a sharing of loss, grief, or sadness--the words "It'll take time."Hard-boiling an egg takes about 10 minutes; a haircut takes about a half hour; college typically about 4 years. All of this varies a bit, depending on how hard you like your eggs, how fancy a haircut you're getting, or how many times you change your major.…
Jul 21, 2010
Why TriBeCa?
Let me catch up those of you who aren't familiar with TriBeCa and it's history. TriBeCa is a relatively small neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It's boundaries are, roughly, Canal Street on the north, Broadway to the east, and the World Trade Center to the south. Its name, invariably spelled TriBeCa or Tribeca (I prefer TriBeCa, even though it's more work to type), is a portmanteau…
Jul 16, 2010
Adding growth (and growthful)
I launched TriBeCa Therapy (the website, not the practice) in early March of 2010 and excitedly shared it with my friends, colleagues and therapy patients. The feedback was terrific. Aside from having a few typos pointed out (a genuine "thank you" for those, always) the only complaint I got was unexpected. "This looks great but, um......I don't think growthful is a word.". If you know me (and…
Jul 13, 2010
Do you want to be normal or do you want to grow?
Yes, people do ask, "Am I normal?" Or sometimes, of course, "Is this normal?" Psychotherapists have endless strategies for avoiding the question (though many answer on face value, weighing the person or the behavior described against the therapist's understanding of what's normal).Perhaps it's evasive, but I tend to respond by telling the asker that I don't consider myself much of an expert on…
Jul 12, 2010My interview with Tribeca Citizen
I was interviewed last week by Erik Torkells, whose blog, Tribeca Citizen, is all about the New York City neighborhood from which my therapy practice (and this website) gets it's name. I spend most of the day talking about and writing about psychotherapy, group therapy, learning, and development, so it was great to have the opportunity to talk about this great neighborhood in which I live and…
Jul 09, 2010
Finding a therapist (or psychologist, or psychiatrist, or... Help!)
Finding a therapist can be a bit perplexing, especially given the various professions involved. Here are a few thoughts to guide you in your search.Umm, what's a therapist?. Believe it or not, this isn't as easy (or uncommon) a question as you might think. Technically, it could mean a lot of things. There are occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech and language therapist, and on and…
Jul 08, 2010
A culture of stress
Of course you know that there are all sorts of medical conditions caused by stress: obesity, heart disease, problems sleeping, skin conditions, and on and on. It's likely your doctor tells you she wants you to "reduce stress" about as frequently as she tells you to loose a few pounds or cut back on your drinking.It's also one of the more common complaints I hear at coffee shops and in my therapy…
Jun 28, 2010
A perfectly good game of catch
My first job out of college (not counting a few highly-forgettable temping nightmares--definitely another blog post) was at a wonderful, progressive child welfare agency in Chicago. The agency was a pioneer in an approach that's now common in social services called wraparound. As the name implies, wraparound grew out of the idea that kids and families (and foster families) could make it through…
Jun 14, 2010Browse all Tribeca Therapy topics
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