Another potentially disastrous drinking holiday is upon us. This year, St. Patrick’s Day falls on Saturday, March 17 Oh no. Not a weekend! Doubly scary time to have a knock-down, drag out fight under the influence with your date. So how do you avoid a drunken shouting match with your guy over green-dyed beer? Keep…
Social media has found another way to make us feel bad about ourselves. It even has a name:Snapchat Dysmorphia. With Snapchat Dysmorphia, we’re devastated when we look in the mirror and don’t see the face staring back at us that the Instagram and Snapchat filters gave us. What happened to my Angelina Jolie lips and flawless skin?…
Oxytocin is a powerful brain chemical that is an important part of many dimensions of our lives. And, surprisingly, it plays a very large role at work, since most work depends on relationships. With my practice in San Francisco, I have many clients who work in the tech industry, so I hear from the front…
I was first introduced to Dr. Hanson’s work on neuroplasticity at the 2016 Symposium on Neuroscience in Berkeley, CA. I immediately thought this could be very useful for some of my clients. One of my most stressed-out people actually calmed themselves down by repeating this right before first dates and big work presentations. He’s happily coupled up…
This striking piece of insight comes from the work of Stan Tatkin, MFT, PsyD, and founder of the Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy Institute. Most people are surprised to hear it. It’s the kind of counter-intuitive thing that science does a good job of discovering. You’d never guess your way there, but research protocols can reveal it.…
This article originally appeared on Discovery Fit & Health and How Stuff Works: Health in March 2012. You think your mom is obsessive. Your best friend thinks your mom is obsessive. And even your little brother thinks so. But what’s the best way to talk to her about it? Let’s start with some facts. The…
A review of Over the Influence: The Harm Reduction Guide For Managing Drugs and Alcohol This article originally appeared in The Bridge, Fall 2007. Harm reduction, one of the alternatives to the disease model of addiction, has slowly been gaining acceptance in the psychological community. Over the last ten years, a number of books have…
This article originally appeared in The Therapist, May-June 2006 My new client sat across from me with her hands folded in her lap. Irene, (not her real name) was in her early forties. She fidgeted, her generous body in constant motion as she tugged at her cropped brown hair. Irene’s Story Irene had a problem,…
This article originally appeared in The Therapist, Nov-Dec 2004. Many therapists get frustrated when working with teens, especially in the context of substance abuse. Adolescent clients are often forced into therapy by their parents or other authority figures, and often resist buying in. Resistance to treatment, missing appointments, arriving late, and spending therapy sessions talking about…
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