On the Blog
Relationships, Psychology & Being Human
Essays on love, conflict, connection, identity, community, and the strange business of being human.
Browse Topics
Feeling Overwhelmed by Tragedy? Understanding Shock Trauma and Bystander Guilt
Shock trauma and its ripple effects take time to process, whether you’re directly affected or holding space as a bystander. There’s no “right” way to navigate this—only ways that honor your humanity and the humanity of others. These things I offer here in this blog post are useful tools to help yourself right now and you may have many wise others too. Wherever you are in this process, you’re not alone. Compassion can create the path forward for yourself and those around you.
Your Family Holiday SOS Plan: This Year Can Be Better
New and unusual insights and actionable things you can do this year to make hanging out with your family better.
The Freedom of Madness: Why Being a Little Crazy is Psychologically Healthy
Key Article Themes:
The psychological benefits of embracing madness and investigating conformity.
How excessive clarity and control in therapy can be harmful and stifle creativity.
The dangers of relying on external validation to deal with uncertainty.
How illiberal social justice movements may demand conformity and shut down crazy in the name of fighting oppression.
How therapy can either enforce social control or empower individuals to embrace their unique madness for personal and societal good.
A Note About How I Write
I write from more than 20 years of clinical experience, ongoing professional study, and a fairly relentless curiosity about why humans do what we do.
I use AI as a thinking and writing partner to research, chase ideas, develop drafts, and edit. Then I question it, fact-check it, rewrite it, and make the final piece mine. The clinical thinking and conclusions here are my own.
Any clinical stories are composites drawn from patterns across many years of practice, with details changed to protect confidentiality.
The fine print: This blog is for education and reflection, not individualized psychotherapy, mental health care, medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
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