In October I was invited to visit Alpine Horizons, a new rehabilitation facility in Switzerland that deals with addiction treatment and preventative programs for those at risk. I was given access to some of the program activities and taken through the program structures, all of which are impressive. Their team of international experts is headed
Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff. — Catherine M. Wallace — Listening is
Are we there yet? This was the persistent refrain from the backseat of the blue Chevy impala with no air- conditioning, in August, where my sister, brother, grandmother and I sat, fought and slept for the three day, 1179 mile road trip between Miami Beach and Dayton Ohio to visit our cousins. Are
We’ve all heard it—from yoga teachers, from therapists, from ministers, from other holistic practitioners: “You’re in a safe place.” Many guided meditations directly write this line into the scripts with the intention of setting a tone for safety and security. The LGBT and other socially progressive movements also like to make use of phrases like
Blue, Baby, Blue One of my clients recently lamented, “I always feel blue around the holidays.” How often have you, or someone else, said the very same thing? Anxiousness & Isolation are the primary complaints. How ironic we feel isolation when it turns out there’s plenty of company with those same feelings. Is this particular
I am full of resentments this election cycle in the U.S. I resent the candidate whose way of being in the world triggers all of my trauma issues down to their deepest core. I resent the loyal masses of followers voting for said candidate, including family and friends who belong to this group. I resent
Here’s something easy I bet you won’t do. Not that I’m being negative, but invariably when we hear something’s easy, despite wanting something easy, we dismiss it as being too easy and then we don’t do it. Seriously how often have you said, “I wish there was an easy way to lose weight, find a
Have you ever found yourself the recipient or sender of hate mail? Let me back up, Not exactly hate mail spewing vitriolic bullying slander, but a note that is raw Unguarded, accusatory, blaming, needy, demanding or anything else you know will provoke a heated response . Of course there’s a place for honest communication and
There is no doubt that validation is an important aspect in human life. As children it is a vital learning tool when obtaining basic skills. For example, when learning to speak, we are validated by the reactions of people around us to our first mutterings of “mama” or “dada.” We see the joy and excitement
When I don’t know what else to do I make chicken soup. I called a girlfriend I hadn’t spoken to in a couple of months. “I have breast cancer,” she said. “This s a bump in the road. I’m having surgery next week. We’ll see what happens.” I hung up digesting the weight of
