All Good Things

The therapy relationship contains its ending from the very beginning as every therapy comes to an end eventually. Under ideal conditions, therapist and patient arrive together at the decision to
Read More

What is the Frame in psychotherapy?

I have always found the therapeutic frame to be one of the most important and useful concepts in the practice of psychotherapy. The frame is the container for the therapy,
Read More
red and yellow flower image

After the pause

Spring usually comes rather reluctantly to Maine. Long after people living south of here start posting photos of spring flowers, I look out at bare trees and brown ground. And
Read More

A Light in the Window

We are living in a dark time. War in Europe fills social media and news. The COVID-19 pandemic continues in spite of desires to return to “normal”, whatever that is.
Read More

So it has been a long time…

I took the last 4 months off from writing. It wasn’t planned. But after doing this blog for 15 years, I just needed to let myself be silent and consider
Read More

Conversations in the Third Act

“We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the programme of life’s morning, for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the
Read More
bent branch

Healing?

“Psychoanalysis cannot be considered a method of education if by education we mean the topiary art of clipping a tree into a beautiful artificial shape. But those who have a
Read More

It’s the relationship

Many, maybe most people believe that therapists “do” something which makes patients feel better because it is hard to believe that it is the relationship between the therapist and the
Read More

You Don’t Always Get What You Want

A couple of years ago I read The Last Asylum, by Barbara Thomas. It’s one of those books that has stayed with me and leads me to think more deeply
Read More

Words that shaped me

I have always been a reader and books have played an important role in shaping me as a person and as a psychotherapist. So in no particular order of importance,
Read More

Slow

Summer is the time for slowness. I have been reading a lot but not writing much, though I expect to remedy that in the next little while. Meanwhile, here is
Read More

Leo Shows His Past

This noble beast is Leo. He is three years old and has been with us since he was about nine weeks old when we adopted him and brought him home.
Read More