What do you do when you are faced with adversity and feel like you are drowning in it? My previous entry discussed the subject of hope. I believe that part of finding hope is finding meaning. Various theoretical orientations include approaches that focus on shifting or changing negative cognitions to positive ones. Encouraging the client [...]

I was six years old running with a wild pack comprised of my thirteen cousins, equal parts boys and girls, at our Grandmother’s farm in upstate New York. As our mother’s drank coffee and chatted and our dad’s played poker and tried to solve the world’s problems me and my kin were not only allowed, [...]

My email inboxes have recently been bombarded with spam excitedly pitching custom-made university diplomas, fake college degrees and transcripts purportedly belonging to “world famous” people. If that wasn’t enough, there are also spam mails meant to entice with offers of “high-end” Rolex replicas for gift-giving. As we celebrate the winter solstice, the holidays and a [...]

It is funny how our clients all know that life is not fair, but still they expect it to be! It is one thing to know intellectually that life is not fair, but another thing to give up the sense of entitlement and expectations that it should in our day to day lives. Sometimes it [...]

My work with the free clinic has both challenged and inspired me in a number of ways, not just professionally, but personally as well. I could probably write a short novel about my experiences so far and what I have learned, but I want to discuss one that seems to permeate through all my interactions [...]

The year before last my husband and I began a gutsy tradition – gutsy if you were brought up in the Roman Catholic faith that is, as we both were – we decided to forgo celebrating Easter. Yes, out of the clear, blue sky we pulled a three-sixty and began welcoming that celebrated spring holiday [...]

I am happy to say I have just had the privilege of completing a time in Ireland as a Fulbright Scholar. (This is somewhat to explain my absence as a frequent blogger but really it is no excuse!) I will try to share some insights as I integrate them, as my experience here gave me [...]

Many a graduate student and frustrated agency clinician have approached me to find out how they too can open a small not for profit counseling agency. They typically have an idealistic view of how it will be and what it will look like. I myself pictured a small office, humble beginnings, not a lot of [...]