By Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

“The journey of a thousand miles, begins with one step”~ Lao Tzu

Many clients come to me with an inkling of the life they want to live, but they aren’t really sure how to make that inkling manifest. “Where do I or should I start?” they ask.

Theodore Roosevelt was quoted as saying “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”. What can you do? What is one small step you could take in the direction of your passion? Could you talk to others who are doing what you’d like to do? Could you read inspiring books? Could you go to the library or peruse the internet to research your interests? Could you go the place where your heroes worked and walk on their hollowed ground? (more…)

By Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

We’ve all been there! We’ve begun the process and we are making headway, and then we hit a plateau. It might be weight loss, a spiritual practice, a career endeavor or a home makeover. You feel stuck and you don’t want to regress back to how things were before, but you feel discouraged, and perhaps bored and uninspired. What should you do? (more…)

By Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

The other day I bumped into a quote by John Fitzgerald Kennedy that stopped me in my tracks. With my mouth agape, I read, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” For some reason, this quote by JFK had eluded me until now. Perhaps only now, in my own personal development would I be impacted in such a direct way by the honesty and succinct nature of this quote. I began to wonder, when we conform, how much of our freedom and our personal growth do we forgo? What is the price that we pay by consciously or unconsciously conforming, if any? Ken Wilber, renowned prolific writer and consciousness map maker discusses in his Kosmic Consciousness CD-set that few people grow emotionally, intellectually and spiritually from their mid-twenties to their fifties. One has to wonder if this is because we are all busy chasing the trappings of conformity; possibly without even realizing it! (more…)

By Mitchell Milch, LCSW

Click here to contact Mitchell and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile

Have you ever noticed that we live in an era when it has become fashionable to self-righteously defend the right to behave like vending machines?    Now, I imagine that many of you reading this article might take instantaneous exception to anybody who treated you like a vending machine or accused you of regarding someone else as nothing more than an extension of your wishes for immediate gratification.  Yet, there are times when we and our loved ones invoke unwritten, unspoken agreements that if one picks a fight, the other when provoked will morph into a vending machine.  Once we pay with a dollar’s worth of sarcasm, emotional withdrawal or threats and correctly depress the other person’s “hot button” the response we want(whether or not we are aware of desiring it or not) drops down, bounces out of the retrieval slot and hits us right between the eyes.  And to add insult to injury we, who are having our buttons pushed and being degraded wind up making the degradation a reality by throwing respect and consideration out the window and returning the “vending machine favor.”   I know. This is not a very flattering mirror to run and stand in front of and ask:  “How do I look?”  Still, we all with varying degrees of frequency behave this way.     (more…)

By Mitchell Milch, LCSW

Click here to contact Mitchell and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile

Here you come with your signature limp and stifled grimace of pain.  Your stark look of disappointment suggests that ice, anti-inflammatory drugs and electro stimulation therapy have collectively done little to alleviate your demoralizing leg pains.  Your doctor, the reluctant physician, knows what’s coming next and how he would like to respond. However, fidelity to his Hippocratic Oath will not permit a surrender to the impulse to run and hide underneath his desk.   The first imploring words out of your mouth are: “Doc, I’ve been training for six months to run/bike/swim/ a PR in this upcoming race.  I’m soooooooo close to reaching my goal.  I can’t stop training now. You’ve gotta help me.” (more…)

By Jerry Rothman, Ph.D., LCSW and David Fireman, LCSW

August and September are poignant times for most of us. The days get shorter and signal the end of summer. Evenings begin to cool off letting us know that winter approaches. The end of the summer growing season is at hand, and yet we are expected to begin anew. Most of us long ago have forgotten that September is the big time for new beginnings. We have let it slip from our memory that every September (August for some), for 13 years, we have started school (if we went to college we added 4 years, and graduate or technical schools might add even more). New teachers, new classes, new friends: a whole new world arrives every September with the start of school. (more…)

By Jennifer B Baxt, LMFT, LMHC

While there have been many advances made in the mental health field over the last quarter century, with mental health professionals acknowledging more and more mental illnesses and how they develop, one aspect of mental health is still not widely discussed. This is the actual impact that physical illness has on one’s mental health. (more…)

By Jon Rhodes

What is a panic attack?
It is normal, natural and common to get panicky from time to time.  You may be late for work, think you can hear a burglar downstairs, or be ready to sit an exam.  These feelings are normal and pass fairly quickly.  They are simply down to our ‘flight or fight’ responses that our body has been equipped with to prepare for potentially threatening situations.  The heart beats quicker and the digestive system closes down in order to allow the body to concentrate on the perceived threat. (more…)

By Pamela Simmons

Click here to contact Pamela and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

Are you ambitious, focused on achievement, the bearer of parental authority and values? Do you take yourself seriously, seek the approval of others, and come down hard on yourself when making mistakes? Chances are that you are the first-born child in your family. First-born children tend to be responsible, conservative, and more suggestible than their siblings. (more…)