Blog
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, 2010Digging through the garbage
We all have plenty of garbage. Painful stuff from the past, whether it's harm that was done to us, mistakes we've made or bouts of bad luck that set us back.Crap.Baggage.Stuff.What I'm puzzled by is the way so many of us seem to cling tightly to the garbage, as though it were something precious we need to hold onto. Or we prominently display it in our relational front yards. Or, if it seems to be…
Jul 06, 2010
Therapy, growth and WORK: What work is
I'm doing some work on this beautiful, sunny New York City day from Poet's House in Battery Park City. I've had some inspiring conversations with patients this week about work: what it is, what it isn't, why we're so afraid of it, and what it has to do with therapy and growth.It's a strange feature of an economy of surplus that many people reach adulthood without much of an understanding of what…
Jul 03, 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
Headlines from the land of "no duh"
You really should thank me. If you read this blog or you follow me on twitter or facebook I'm doing you a serious favor that you probably don't realize: I read psychology-related blogs and news stories and pass along to you the ones worth taking note of. Maybe part of why you don't realize what a service I'm doing for you is that there aren't that many worth sharing.If you know me well you've…
Jun 18, 2010
On bullying: What about the group?
There's been an explosion of conversation about bullying in the last few years, ignited further still in the past several months since the suicide of Phoebe Prince, a freshman at South Hadley High School in Massachusetts. Six of her teenage classmates were charged in court with a variety of legal offenses for what clearly represents an ongoing pattern of abuse towards Ms. Prince. They are…
Jun 17, 2010
The funks (Or: When you forget)
What makes funks challenging is that it feels like everything is wrong and broken and will stay that way forever. It's pretty unlikely that that's true, of course. The challenge (as in many instances, such as here, here, here and here) is to live (be, perform) in a way that's other than how you feel.As I've said many times, feelings are highly unreliable; when you base what you do on how you feel…
Jun 15, 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, 2010
Shopping for criticism
The world will always be able to present you with an endless supply of people who will tell you there's something wrong with you. If you're looking for it, any old stroll down a Manhattan sidewalk will leave you liable to bump into any number of people who'll gladly offer their critique: You're walking too slow, You're walking to fast, You're dressed the wrong way. Throw in a bit of online…
Jun 01, 2010Browse all Tribeca Therapy topics
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