Healing Psych

Dr. Katrina Wood's psychotherapy blog

Going it alone is no fun — expand your horizons

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Wish you could see things from another perspective, breaking with your old habits? Those habits die hard -- yet they are uncomfortably familiar. Carl Jung once said, "There is no growth without pain." Perhaps that's why we're often afraid to grow -- it's painful. Makes sense, yet perhaps there is another way of coping with the growing pains that we all have to go through to face life’s … [Read more...]

A pill a day, but don’t keep the doctor away

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Medicine alone is simply not enough to ensure wellness when treating depression, anxiety and many other mental health ailments. Psychotherapy, in the form of talking sessions with a qualified professional, is essential to recovery, researchers have found. We are created as social human beings. We did not come to this earth to be alone. Our connections -- emotionally, intellectually and … [Read more...]

Fighting fair and protecting yourself: a guide

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Here are my Rules of Fair Fighting: 1. When involved in an argument, speak about yourself, your experience, your feelings. Use language such as, "I felt angry" or "I felt sad" or "That caused me pain." Avoid: "You were an idiot" and "You made me mad!" Only the behavior of the other person caused you to feel a feeling. But whatever you felt was unique to you; the other person probably felt … [Read more...]

The mystery of you: Help your lover solve it

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How many times do we refuse to ask for help from our life partners -- or not tell them how we feel about something -- because "they should already know." How many times have you heard yourself or someone else say: "If he (or she) really loved me, they would already know how I feel about this problem." Sorry to break the bad news: This is simply not true. Perhaps in a perfect world we might … [Read more...]

Don’t keep your creativity bottled up

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Just how well do you know the genie that lies within you? So many of us haven’t even begun to explore the wealth of creativity inside us, that's kept bottled up like a genie. Often it's because we are afraid to experience shame if we fail at something new -- so why try at all? This is such a harsh message we give ourselves. Be a little kinder, a little more encouraging to your inner self. Do … [Read more...]