relationships require emotional creativity
Emotional creativity involves relating to your own negative emotional reactions as raw material with which to build and create. Once you take this perspective, you will no longer see yourself as a passive victim of your own negative emotions. Nor will you allow yourself to believe that your partner is “making you” feel this way.
helping men be more needy
There’s a particular challenge to discussing emotional needs in therapy with men because our social conditioning so often idealizes being macho, playing it cool, being detached and above it all, etc. In reality this hyper-guarded and aloof posture that men are explicitly and implicitly trained to assume turns into a private hell over time.
codependency & personal power
Far too many people have learned to automatically and habitually give away their personal power. Without realizing what they’re doing, they repeatedly idealize other people (particularly authority figures and romantic interests) and then subjugate themselves to those people.
negative emotions: toxic or healthy?
Experiencing negative emotions is an unavoidable dimension of human life: fear, anger, jealousy/envy, anxiety, depression, insecurity, hopelessness, inadequacy, etc. We all grapple with these feelings at one time or another, and on any given day their intensity can be minute, moderate or severe.
a bias toward action
Therapists are known to empathize. More and more, however, we need to mobilize. The passive, quiet, detached therapist is not […]
anger management & the holidays
Shortly after the holidays there is an uptick in people seeking therapy in NYC for anger management. It’s as if […]
deconstructing fear
Fear can be a life killer. It really can. I see people struggling with this every day in my therapy […]
emotional mastery
We all know of people who pursue mastery in such things as chess, golf, painting, cooking, musicianship, martial arts and […]
your daily practice
What does your daily practice consist of? If you’re like most people, this question leads you to draw a blank. […]
befriending anxiety
It is crucial for psychiatrists and therapists in NYC to educate clients that anxiety is not to be avoided, feared […]