Beyond the delusions, behind the defenses is a person; a reality that was absorbed deep into a soul trying to survive. As therapists, listening with that third ear helps us reach the person.

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“Techniques for facilitating the development of the therapeutic alliance include:

1) Consistent empathic and affective attunement - paying attention to and inquiring about what the patient is feeling in the here and now

2) Clearly defining/negotiating therapist and patient roles…”

“We don’t know how to let ourselves linger long enough in feared emotions to discover the gold of information in them”.

- Mary Jo Peebles, p. 108
When Psychotherapy Feels Stuck

I know a woman who can hover a MEDEVAC chopper on the tip of a mountain in Afghanistan while under fire with wounded soldiers and marines being loaded for transport.

Women in Combat

Acceptance does not mean absence of emotion.

“The experience of speaking from the heart and being taken seriously builds the psychic architecture that supports the capacity to bear life.” - Nancy McWilliams, Ph.D.

I’ll take a Bavarian Scream and 2 Freud Fritters, please.

I am someone w/o others, yet in relationship w/others I’m someone else. Perhaps the ultimate wellness, psychologically so, is when I balance both the *me* w/o others and the *me* with others. The music moves me one way alone. With the *other* present, my movement must then accommodate or collide.

Shall we just reduce the fever or should we work on finding its cause?

Welcome to meaningful psychotherapy - where we find causes and make seek to make change.

Nm duh

How do I make sure I’m following you?

“Our future is not one we have to accept. Our future is one we have to share”. - Wes Moore

@govwesmoore.bsky.social

Yes, and. Yes, and. Yes, and. Yes, and…..

And sometimes, Nope, there’s a clear truth. No and to it.

Key is flexibility in our critical thinking to know the difference.

And now, here’s a pic of a flower from my garden….

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu

My first post under the sky will be to announce that change can be annoying but some of the people I’m here to follow have led me to my fate. This isn’t the first time I’ve followed people b/c I like them. I followed my hubby recently into the woods then I got spooked by snakes and ran.