The Mysteries of Masculinity
When I was a child, my parents gave me a framed copy of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If,” which ends (after an endless litany of requirements) with the punch line: “You’ll be a Man, my son!” The truth is, if you can follow all the dictates outlined in that poem, you’ll be...
In Search of the Healthy High
Jungian therapists see the roots of addiction growing in the need to escape the loneliness of human existence. In "The Art of Loving," Erich Fromm show us how we manufacture romance, and even love, as palliatives for the pain and anguish of being alone in the...
Remedies for Loneliness
It was a frightening realization of my early 30s that had I not moved away from my family and my hometown when I did, I would already have been dead. I have no doubt that I would have committed suicide by the time I was 25, I felt so alone and ashamed and afraid of my...
Coming Out All the Way
Both coming out of the closet earlier in life and professional and personal self-actualization (living your true self) later in life require the bravery to stand up for your convictions. In both cases you are standing up for yourself despite the consequences....
Aging and Midlife Crisis
“I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life – that is to say, over 35 – there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.” ― C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul...
The Post-Traumatic Journey Shared
Going to therapy means going on a shared journey with your therapist. For you, as the client, the focus is on finding relief, understanding, resolution, and perhaps, ultimately, change. For me, as the therapist, the focus is on providing you some guidelines, so you...