New York City…circa 1984. Crime had overwhelmed New York at all levels. It was chaotic, seedy, drug ridden and dangerous. And then suddenly, in just a few short years, things changed. By the mid 1990’s, New York had become the safest “big city” in the nation. How? How in the world did a large, crime [...]

Dreams are amazing! Don’t you just love dreaming? As a child, going to sleep was one of the things I was always looking forward to, because in my sleep I could always dream. Nobody ever told me “no”, or “don’t” or give me any negative reinforcement. I would wake up and try to remember my [...]

“Courage is the capacity to meet the anxiety which arises as one achieves freedom. It is the willingness to differentiate, to move from the protecting realms of parental dependence to new levels of freedom and integration. ” Rollo May, The Meaning of Anxiety I am an older student who should be thinking of my retirement [...]

Many counselors have complained about low reimbursement rates from managed care and insurance companies. Some have gone to fee for service payments and abandoned managed care altogether. Dropping all managed care contracts and only accepting fees paid by clients is one way to handle the problem. Doing that cuts out many clients that have paid [...]

Massachusetts passed a new law entitled, “An Act Relative to Bullying in Schools,” in 2010. The purpose of this new law is to “create more positive school climates and age-appropriate instruction on bullying prevention in each grade, and schools must offer information to parents on bullying prevention.” (Worcester Medicine, July/August 2010). School personnel (teachers, guidance [...]

In the past few days, I’ve experienced more than one alert that our area was receiving IDF–indirect fire from Taliban (most likely) outside our perimeter—and instructing us to put on our body armor and seek shelter.  I actually heard one of the rockets fly over my housing and felt/heard the impact as it landed.  This [...]

We’ve all seen the children’s book “Are you my Mother?” (P.D. Eastman, 1960) and it is a perennial favorite among children. But I am using this and inspired by recent films to open a discussion of the issue of children wanting to know who their parents are. Two recent movies have me thinking about it- [...]

Being a well-trained and ethical counselor is the foundation for being successful in private practice. While competence is essential, you also need to challenge yourself to think outside of your “helper” training. But “just” being a good counselor doesn’t mean you will make it in private practice. You need to challenge your belief system in [...]