Stopping unwanted thoughts and daydreams

  Quick summary: you have quite a large degree of control over where you keep your attention but often there is an exceedingly appealing reward for keeping our attention on the thoughts and imaginary scenarios, which are the source of our dis-ease and stress. The other day in Colorado I had three hours to myself [...]

Feedback loop in a Couples interaction

Quick summary: In a Couples interaction there tend to be dynamics that are reoccurring which spiral out of control and lead to a vicious cycle in which resolution in highly unlikely. I will offer a tool to be used by a therapist to help a couple in isolating and reflecting upon their cycle. Once the [...]

What is a mentally healthy person? Characteristics of an emotionally, spiritually, and socially intelligent person.

The purpose of this post is to give a list of the variables that I believe impact a person’s mental health. As a therapist, I help people to augment their abilities in the below attributes. Therapy is very often thought of a means of intervening to assist people who have significant mental health concerns… I [...]

Is Depression the Result of Self-Centeredness?

In this post I will be laying out a hypothesis for how the US’s value of freedom and individualism may be affecting our national depression rates.

Feelings are important in growing consciousness – Existential and Mindfulness Based Emotional Reflection Therapy

Accepting your emotional reality and holding an awareness of those feelings helps us to be conscious of how we are currently being influenced … understanding this influence opens up the possibility to use reflection to guide your actions towards your best interests and towards the most ideal interaction patterns.

Reflection and Psychotherapy

Reflection is the ability to hold a stimulus in the present moment without reacting automatically. In a state of reflection, a person can notice or observe the presence of a thought or feeling that they are experiencing… noticing or observing can then lead to two different reflective actions; either the person can continue to observe [...]

Systemics in Psychotherapy

Systems therapists are interested in helping a family, couple, community, school system, country etc. to function with dynamics and structures which best support the well being and potential of the pieces which make up the system. Systems theory taken to a radical (and dichotomous) position would state that problems do not exist within individuals; instead, ‘problems’ are the result of a systems inability to effectively attend to the needs of the individuals in the system… labeling a person as the problem is a symptom of the systems inability to augment its strengths and to adapt in ways that facilitate dynamics and structures which are best suited to the ‘pieces’ (people) in the system.

Democratically Denying Education – the internal flaw of democracy

Democracy needs education to function properly; without an informed electorate it would be unclear as to what any given person’s vote was based on… this turns voting into a game of chance where we the people are choosing one person or policy based on either no information, false information, or fallacious information. Yet the freedoms inherent in democracy allows for the electorate to vote against policies which would ensure that the electorate was properly informed. We can democratically choose to deny the resources needed for us to be properly informed … in such an instance it is actually democracy which causes the dysfunction of democracy.

Integrity and Your Social Potential

Perhaps it is at times better to measure your integrity on the degree to which you are asserting your potential to best positively influence the community and to manifest your purpose as opposed to measuring your integrity by the degree to which you conform to an overgeneralized social value, an overgeneralized social perception, or a bureaucratic regulation.

Scientism

Scientism is essentially the result of dogmatism for the scientific method, which leads to gross overgeneralization about the importance or ability of the scientific method. Most speakers on the subject relay their concern of the impact that scientism has had on the field of human psychology and spirituality.

The thoughts, emotions, and behaviors triangle

The Diagram below can be used to understand the interconnectedness of thoughts, emotions and behaviors. Additionally the diagram gives an easy to understand explanation of the many different means of offering a psychotherapy intervention. I use this Diagram to offer a visual depiction of all the different options which are available to help the client in achieving a desired change. I use this diagram to unify all theories… personally I am an eclectic therapist… I believe in all the various interventions and I would propose that perhaps being open to offering any of a diverse array of interventions is a sure way of increasing your ability to assist a diverse array of people (multi-cultural competence).

Respecting Elders in a Society of Rugged Individualism

My intention is to stir up a conversation as to a possible answer to why there seems to be a decreasing degree of 'respecting your elders' in the United Stated and other individual focused cultures (as opposed to collectivist cultures).

The difference between good intentions and good actions = understanding, humility, and empathy

There are many saying about how many “evil actions” have been the result of good intentions. So how are we to know if our actions are good? Are there actions which are indisputably wrong and indisputably right? Instead of going into a heady philosophical investigation as to why good and bad are infinitely one, inseparable, and transient constructs of the collective… let us move forward with some thoughts on how to ensure that your good intentions can do better at manifesting good actions.

Face your Suffering on your way towards Freedom and Balance | The Effects of Resistance

There is a widely held belief (especially by males) that it is a person’s duty in life to “just get over it” … which in my experience entails using a great deal of energy to deny and repress what is.

What is a systemic approach in psychotherapy? Family systems theory intervention

The major difference between Family therapy and individual therapy is something called systems theory… therapist using such an approach are said to look at problems and solution systemically. In viewing a problem systemically a therapist will look at all the factors which bear some relation to the reported symptoms… ‘Factors’ could be family members, friends, culture, communication dynamics, the education system, the natural environment etc.