NATURAL QUIET AND SIMPLICITY INSPIRE ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT August 2022 At midlife, I had been building and launching both my family and my career for over 20 years.  I was stressed out from trying to make ends meet.  My business supported employees and counselors, but during its last years, I reached a point where I […]

PSYCHOLOGY 101: MAKING SENSE OF MOTIVATION   Ever wonder why two brothers or sisters turn out to be so different from each other? What drives some people to love so strong, or work or play so hard? What makes your personality the way it is? The view of human nature you will find below does […]

THE BEST USES OF EMOTIONS AND BELIEFS A client recently taught me a helpful little verse: Feel your feelings,      and talk them out. Believe your beliefs,      and act them out. I can think of three ways we often violate this helpful little guideline. We neglect it altogether. When we mess up a situation, […]

  IS YOUR FAITH HEALTHY?   What is healthy faith, anyway, and who am I to judge it? As a psychologist, I can tell when people’s religious beliefs and lifestyles are enabling them to enjoy life, be enjoyable to others, and leave the world a better place each day. No matter what a person’s religious […]

Can People Recover from Trauma and Abuse?              It is with both pride and embarrassment that America has become known as a victims’ society.  We can be proud that we prosecute perpetrators of rape, domestic violence, and child abuse at least as severely as most developed nations.  But we should […]

A TOOL KIT FOR SOLVING LIFE’S PROBLEMS   The Chinese written language is marvelously colorful.  Their words are illustrated by little sketches or diagrams.  The Chinese character for danger is a sketch of a scary scene, and their word for opportunity is naturally a more hopeful drawing.  When these two characters are put on top […]

GROWING YOUNGER ON THE INSIDE WHILE YOUR BODY IS AGING ON THE OUTSIDE At seventy-two, I am less and less interested in the exterior of people’s lives – what their bodies, clothes, houses, vacations, or social media images look like.  I pay more attention now to how their eyes twinkle, how their voice dances, how […]

  Fight off Depression from Winter Cold, Long Nights, and Holiday Stress The winter crud that climbed into me last year sat into my sinuses and didn't leave for two months.  So this Friday I'm getting my flu shot.  And to prevent Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and  the holiday burn-out blues,  I'm going to give […]

MY FIVE COMMUNITIES AND WISDOM STREAMS Wisdom is knowing what matters, what is good, what lasts, what is real, and especially, what is best for all concerned in the long run.  I have five sources of truth from which I draw regularly, to guide my life and my work.  They all confirm each other, so […]

ARE YOU SELFISH AS A GRANDPARENT? by Dr. Paul Schmidt             A client recently shared with me a very helpful sermon he had heard from his pastor, Brian Tome at Crossroads Church in Lexington.  It helped me as a grandparent, and it made me think about the various styles of grandparenting I have heard described […]