The Book of Genesis tells us the story of Adam and Eve and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Far from being simply a tale of mythic ancestors, it is in fact a precise, scientifically accurate accounting of a choice you and I make many times daily. In this post I lookContinue Reading: Adam & Eve & CBT

We oftentimes tell ourselves and other people what we should or shouldn’t think, feel or do. This post looks at some ways these statements work for us, at the price we pay for making them, and at two alternatives to shoulding on ourselves and others

The connection between memory and self-perception is clinically significant, as distorted self-perceptions are at the core of many disorders. These include PTSD, depression, social anxiety and personality and eating disorders. Negative self perceptions encapsulate patients’ self-defeating beliefs about themselves, others and the world at large. Such perceptions often arise from abuse, neglect or bullying andContinue Reading: Memory Rescripting: Building A Brighter Yesterday

    The American pastor Reinhold Niebuhr Reinhold gave us the Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.    Cognitive-behavioral therapy provides the ways and means to turn Niebuhr’s prayer into a lived reality in even theContinue Reading: CBT & Serenity

We can invite another person to change in two ways. One is to offer a straightforward invitation. “You are currently X, might you prefer Y?” We can, for instance, invite a patient, friend or family member out of emotional suffering or self-defeating behavior and into a new way of being, feeling or doing. A secondContinue Reading: Paradoxical Invitations: To Change Or Not To Change