Category: Psychology and Relationships
These are very personal questions: What is spiritual to you? When and where do you feel spiritual? How do these spiritual feelings get blocked or expanded?
We can carry these questions throughout our lives. Spiritual practice aims to refine and deepen our understanding of them.
I will focus on three specific spiritual practices: psychological relationships, meditation, and psychedelic plant medicines, including cannabis.
Spiritual practice is about psychological relationships because if our spiritual practice doesn’t improve our relationships with others, what’s the point?
The practice of psychological relationships with others and with one’s inner life is a personal experience with spiritual meaning. This involves experiences of vulnerability, hurt, and confusion that teach us the depth of human love and kindness.
Spiritual practice is not only personal but also universal and objective. We need to look at our minds as they are, our human instincts as they are, and our relationship with the natural world. We are born, go through all the developmental stages, and then die. Life is both precious and painful. We cannot change most of life, but we can learn to connect with it gracefully, little by little.
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Psychiatrist, Counseling Psychologist, MFT or LCSW?
Here are some basic differences to be aware of when you are choosing a counselor or psychotherapist. They all fit under that category. They all provide psychological guidance. What is the difference between: Psychiatrist, Counseling Psychologist, MFT or LCSW? What is a psychiatrist? They are the only ones that can write a prescription for medication,…
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Marriage and Family Therapists; AAMFT,CAMFT,MADMFT
Professional organizations for marriage and family therapists set ethical and legal standards, advocate for the MFT at state and federal levels, and provide the basic guidelines for practicing marriage and family therapy within a safe and reasonably effective manner. Generally, the intention is to “do no harm”, of course. There has been a demand by…
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Finding a Psychotherapist
Whether it is your first time to psychotherapy or you are looking to find another therapist, it is important to consider a few things. Yes, they need to be a licensed psychologist, licensed marriage and family therapist or licensed clinical social worker. But the main consideration is, do you like them as a person, do…
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, A Good Place to Start
A definition of Cognitive behavioral therapy from the National Alliance of Mental Illness: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of treatment that focuses on examining the relationships between thoughts, feelings and behaviors. By exploring patterns of thinking that lead to self-destructive actions and the beliefs that direct these thoughts, people with mental illness can…
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Time for a Little Help
In a 2001 World Health Organization mental health report, it was estimated that, in the year 2000, obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD was among the top 20 causes of illness-related disability, worldwide, for individuals between 15 and 44 years of age. http://www.ocdeducationstation.org/ocd-facts/incidence-of-ocd The Mayo Clinic describes Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in the following: Obsession symptoms OCD obsessions…
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Autism, Fathers and Life
I facilitated a support group for fathers who recently had a child diagnosed with autism. This group was even more specific than that. Fathers with children under the age of three who had recently been diagnosed. Many of these men had never attended a group for emotional support and direction. Now, because of their child’s…
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Marriage Counseling With One Person
Marriage counseling with one person is focused on the marriage. The non-attending partner may not be ready or may never be ready. Someone in the marriage needs to begin. The emotional pain and confusion in the marriage is both personal and relational. What is my work? What is your work? And what is our work?…
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Anger Management, Going a Little Deeper
I would like to go a little farther with this very good explanation of anger management that was written by: Jeanne Segal, Ph.D., and Melinda Smith, M.A. http://www.helpguide.org/mental/anger_management_control_tips_techniques.htm Please read this first to get a broader picture. Segal and Smith wrote that anger is often a cover-up for other feelings. “In order to get your…
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Parenting Teens: Ten Basic Attitudes
Parenting teens, begins with a few basic principles that apply in almost all situations. 1. Be as patient as possible. Teens are beginning a new stage of life that is very unknown to them. Their arrogance is to cover up vulnerability and lack of understanding. 2. Criticizing their mistakes makes it worse. They feel bad…
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The Art of Suffering Emotional Pain
Everyone has emotional pain, some have less, some have more. Emotional pain is something we all share. What we do with it and what it does with us is the art and the work. Therefore, we are able to relate with emotional experiences to benefit our life. We are moving our life toward a conscious…
