(This article is dedicated to R.M. who inspired it. Thank you for reminding me of what we are supposed to be doing.) 
For some reason lately I have been seeing quite a number of brand new social workers for supervision, some of whom are still in graduate school. It has been a poignant and privileged rite of passage for me after all these years to be passing on what I’ve learned.
More on On The Way to Becoming A Healer: The Journey of a Young Social Worker
Filed under Albuquerque Counseling, Holistic Psychotherapy, Psychotherapy, Verbal First Aid, homeopathy by 
Pharisees, Hiltons, Uggs. There’s always a new elite, a new “in-crowd,” a new huddle to exclude and set one group apart from (read: “above”) another. Adults are familiar with it, perhaps even inured to it at some point. Or at least one would hope that they become inured to this elitist effect.
Filed under Albuquerque Counseling, Blog, Christian Counseling, Faith-based Counseling, Psychotherapy, Verbal First Aid by
Another article excerpt from Ezinearticles.com (http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Wages-of-Fear—The-Seven-Deadly-Sins-and-American-Pathology&id=3540022)
It's axiomatic that you get what you pay for. On observation, however, I believe that there are times we get more than we bargain for, not all of it good. In the case of current media-incitements, we get much more and we are rarely aware of it.
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Although raised in Montana in a traditional home, my husband is not technically a conservative man. His guiding principle is “live and let live.” So it is highly unusual to see him incensed by anything, no less a commercial for chicken tenders. But he was so irate that he has committed himself to never, ever buying the product they were selling and spent more than 45 minutes ranting about the decay of American civilization the following day and the need for everyone under thirty to be in therapy.
More on Chicken Tenders and The Decline of American Civilization
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I know a young woman who has had symptoms of anxiety for many years and the allopathic doctors she has seen diagnosed her as depressed. But as her latest incident demonstrates, these broad terms–anxiety, depression–do us very little good if we are to truly help someone heal. What they do–and the reason why doctors continue to use them as sweepingly as they do–is they are convenient forms of shorthand that directly point to pharmaceutical interventions. They do not, however, tell us anything about the nature of the anxiety, the way it manifests, what about the person and their health (or lack thereof) to which it is both pointing and from which it is springing. If those terms are all we use, we can get ourselves into serious trouble.
Filed under Albuquerque Counseling, Holistic Psychotherapy, homeopathy by
Reality TV is loathsome. It's inevitably the worst of American culture parading half-naked or screaming at the top of its lungs for its 15 minutes of fame. Loathing may be too harsh a word, though. Embarrassed would be more like it. Two seconds of it and I am covering my ears and averting my eyes, scrambling for the remote.
Filed under Albuquerque Counseling, Christian Counseling, Faith-based Counseling by
As you watch your favorite shows this evening, notice the endless advertising for beauty products aimed directly at your weakest spots–your insecurities. It starts with cellulite and goes on to target thin lips, sexual dysfunction, abdominal flab, and fatigue. The people we watch on television are almost always the antithesis of what we see in real life. They are perky, puffed up and perfectly happy juggling mahhhhvelous acting careers, baby bumps, and award ceremonies.
More on Shall We Trance Part III: The Eruption of Ugly and The I'm-1-N-1 Virus
What are the pathologies, the uniquely American diseases or delusions that drive our culture? How do they affect us? How aware are we of them?
Rebooting the Mind
The other day I was leading a group for multiple DWI offenders. One of them, a middle-aged man who was particularly angered by the bracelet he was being forced to wear on his ankle, the legal routines that filled his life, and the fact that he had to go to two A.A. meetings a week interrupted the group process with a rant on how he was being brainwashed.
Filed under Albuquerque Counseling, Blog, Faith-based Counseling, Keynote Speaker, Santa Fe Counseling by
Lately, I've been noticing that one of the things my clients suffer from is a pervasive lack of rest. They come down with colds and go to work. They never give themselves a minute to convalesce. They don't get enough sleep and can't find the time to catch up. Some work full time and go to school and run a home, others work two or three jobs, others take care of families and have barely two seconds to rub together. There is simply no downtime whatsoever. No one takes a break–not even here in New Mexico where siestas used to be a way of life, no one stops working, no one stops shopping.
Filed under Albuquerque Counseling, Christian Counseling, Faith-based Counseling, Santa Fe Counseling by
