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It seems to me that ambiguity has a bad rap in our society. We generally don’t like what is ambiguous. We strive for clarity and focus, for being determined and resolute (somewhere in some classroom those attributes must have been set as standards). An employee, a politician, can be subject to criticism for a lack […]

It seems that in the last couple of weeks I must have heard at least half a dozen times someone remark about how fast the year is going by. It’s nearly October. Years move fast. Months move fast. Days move even faster. In fact it can seem as if all of modern life moves at […]

Much of psychotherapy is about identifying the key patterns that have developed in one’s past and changing those that no longer benefit the person. I often refer to these patterns as “templates.” Templates form through repeated experiences, and they then create a way of acting and of thinking about oneself and about others that may […]

Over the past several weeks, I have been posting blogs on the subject of addictions and the treatment of addictions. I have now assembled those various postings into an article which I’ve included in the Library portion of my web site. I hope that people will find this article of interest; that it will give […]

An important dimension in the process of working with addictions is how the client and I examine other ways of healthier coping. I often say to clients that everyone deserves a break, some respite from what is difficult in life. We often talk about some of these more positive respites (developing hobbies, doing meaningful volunteer […]

From my clinical experience, I have often seen that these behaviors have persisted for a very long time in a person’s life. It is not surprising to see that during the person’s childhood (perhaps beginning in adolescence) there was some use of some substance as a means of coping. In these circumstances, it is important […]

When working with addictions, it is vitally important to understand the role that predictability, and the desire for predictability, has in a person’s life. The repetition of these behaviors creates habit; and with any habit, a person comes to know just what he is going to experience. If it is the habit of drinking to […]

Psychotherapy is about discovery. At the heart of the work that the client and I do is the quest for discovery. It might be to discover just what is causing distress and suffering in the person’s life. In this regard, our quest is multi-leveled. There is of course the immediate level: a loss that the […]

Through the use of these habitual behaviors, a person endeavors to cope with something troubling in his or her life. At the heart of the behavior, then, is the intent to cope. But cope with what? Through psychotherapy we make this inquiry, and often what we discover is that the addictive behavior is an attempt […]

A recent New York Times article (“Quality Time, Redefined”) takes a close look at what is happening inside the American living room during this age of rampant technological development. As the article puts it: “One family. One room. Four screens. Four realities, basically.” Given the proliferation and accessibility of communication devices (the laptop, smart phone, […]