I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about health and wellness and its relationship to moving past troubles–both emotional and physical. I’ve been thinking about ideas such as whether meaning, purpose, and belonging make a difference in helping people live the life they want; I’ve been thinking about the relationship between mental health and physical [...]

There is a lot of information and support for people who have experienced sexual, physical, and verbal abuse and neglect. Traditional support seems to regard people who have been abused as somehow damaged, dysfunctional, and deficient. There is, however, a growing idea that people respond to abuse in a variety of ways, that they do [...]

Ideas about Change:
The psychology and coaching fields have lots of ideas about change–what facilitates change, what maintains change, and whether change is even possible.
Systems theorists talked about trying to get to a ’state of homeostasis’, where the system—i.e. your life within your context–was balanced. Change was considered bad within this context and ‘maintaining’ healthy ‘patterns’ [...]

For a couple of weeks I’ve been talking about sadness and depression. I.e. how you know if you’re sad or depressed, and imagining what your life will be like when sadness or depression are no longer a part of it. As you read last week’s post, you may have asked yourself, is this woman off her [...]

Last week in my blog, I talked about how you know if you’re depressed. Whether you’re clinically depressed or feeling really sad, I know it’s not where you or someone you know wants to be. This week I’m going to help you create an image of the way you would like your life to be [...]

Helping professionals look at a number of factors when assessing depression. We may ask you questions about your sleep, your appetite, your energy, your ability to think, your mood, and thoughts of dying.
Signs of depression or deep sadness: 
When people are feeling sad, low, or flat, they may not feel like doing things they used to [...]

Change always comes bearing gifts. ~Price Pritchett

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been writing about goals. See

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars… [...]

On New Year’s Eve, we went out for dinner with some friends. We started talking about New Year’s resolutions and they quickly told us they didn’t make resolutions—they made “to do lists.” To do lists, we were told, are based on things they want to accomplish over the next year and are action oriented. So [...]

Inspiration exists, but it must find us working. ~Pablo Picasso
It’s the time of year when people start thinking about New Year’s resolutions.  All of us make them with the best intentions in mind. But how do you make them last? What makes them meaningful enough to follow through on?
The first step: What is your New [...]