Healing Psych

Dr. Katrina Wood's psychotherapy blog

The myth of connection

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How often these days are you stuck in traffic, waiting in a store or sitting in a restaurant and you reach for your smartphone. Not out of need, but simply out of habit. Those addictive little devices that fit oh-so snugly in the palms of our hands. They have such a hold over us that opportunities for chance meetings, conversations and loving gazes are utterly missed. Instead, the enigmatic … [Read more...]

A time for celebration, reflection, renewal

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Whether you observe Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, old Celtic traditions -- or simply the passing of one year and the entry of another -- one thing on which we are all in accord is the celebration of life on this rich and remarkable planet Earth. Marking the passage of time, sharing deeply held traditions -- we attempt to uphold these treasured values to the best of our ability. As Tiny Tim, … [Read more...]

The Legacy: Time to deal with it.

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How many times have you heard someone say, "I'll never be like my father" (or mother). Maybe someone said to you, "You know, your grandfather had a temper just like yours." How shocked you were to hear such a false accusation. You protest, "Not me," or, "I’m never going to raise my children the way I was raised. ... "I will never be impatient like my father, or say those mean things to … [Read more...]

Looking away and looking towards

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In "The Emperor's New Clothes," an entire village "looked away" from their ruler, who was parading naked in the street, in order to support the illusion that he was magnificent and refined. The villagers pretended that he wore fine clothes of silk, bolstering his vanity and protecting him from shame to avoid his wrath and their potential punishment. (Miller 1952) Conditioning children to "look … [Read more...]

Changing ‘This is me’ to ‘This is us’

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If being "in a relationship" is important to you, then making changes and adapting to your partner or spouse is an important developmental process. The adage "This is who I am" underscores a defensiveness that speaks more to a frozen part of who we are, unwilling to reflect on ourselves and make changes benefiting the relationship and the person we profess to love. We all come into … [Read more...]