More Than Peeling Potatoes

There is an old story about Napoleon that I’ve always loved. As the story goes, Napoleon was walking through a military camp when he came across three men peeling potatoes. He asked the first man, “What are you doing?” Without looking up, the man...

The Losses That Shape Us

There is so much loss in a lifetime. We lose time. We lose money. We lose beloved dogs that once waited for us at the door. We lose childhood toys that seemed irreplaceable. We lose innocence, certainty, safety, dreams, our parents, our health, and eventually, pieces...

The Space Between Two Hearts

In couples therapy, people often arrive carrying years of unfinished conversations.Defensiveness. Exhaustion. Hurt. Longing. Some of these are deep resentments. Two people can sit only feet apart and still feel impossibly distant from one another. Sometimes words...

Letting Go of Mother

There is a moment in development that rarely announces itself.No clear threshold. No ritual to mark its arrival.And yet, without it, something in us remains unfinished. It is the moment we begin to let go of mother. Not in the sense of rejection or distance.Not in...

The Symptom Is Not the Problem

Alfred Adler spoke about symptoms as having purpose—sometimes serving to safeguard the ego. For Adler, emotions were not simply things that happen to us. They were not accidental storms we are caught in. They were, in many cases, used—often outside of...