Communication is essential for relationships; it allows us to resolve conflicts, set boundaries, express our feelings, and understand each other. Without it, we probably won’t get our needs met, and we may get stuck in patterns of conflict and disconnection, as many couples will readily attest. Nevertheless, communication is very challenging, and most people don’t do it well.
Continue reading “Self-Awareness: The Key To Better Communication”
Most of us have difficulty accepting our authentic feelings, simply allowing them to exist as they are. We try to control our inner experience based on our preferences and our ideas about what we should and shouldn’t feel. We also have unconscious psychological defenses and automatic patterns of avoiding certain feelings.
All of this means that we aren’t able to be fully present with ourselves – with what is going on inside of us. However, feelings we avoid don’t go away, they get pushed out of our awareness and shape our lives without our realizing it. Our bodies may become tense holding back repressed emotions, which can contribute to physical problems, such as disease and chronic pain.
Our society is highly polarized by political and cultural issues. Understandably, someone undergoing therapy might want to know what positions their therapist holds, or may feel concerned about what response they will get if they discuss their own views in therapy. How a therapist handles these issues may affect a client’s trust or sense of safety in therapy. Likewise, the way a therapist deals with political discussion can be useful or not for the therapy process. Continue reading “Political Division And Therapy”
Imagine that a mean, judgmental person followed you around all the time, criticizing you. As you went about your life, they were there putting you down and accusing you of doing things wrong. To make matters worse, let’s assume that you believed everything that they said to you. How do you think that this would affect the way you feel about yourself, and how you live your life?