How do I know if I’m depressed? You might be surprised to know that the answer to that question may be more subtle than you think. There are several things to consider if you think you could be depressed. How is your sleep? Sleeping too much is a well known symptom, but did you know...
When Knowing Thyself Is Not Enough—Trauma, Neuroscience, and My Job as a Therapist Part of my job as a therapist is to ask good questions. It’s the part of my profession that people are most familiar with, and it understandably gets ragged in today’s popular culture. (So, Matt-the-therapist, how do you feel about that?) Gaining...
How do I help someone who is grieving? Grief comes from the deepest places within us. I heard the author Richard Rohr speaking about this recently, and he said that, “When a person cries, it comes unbidden out of the unconscious. It’s not an object of the will or the intellect.” It’s as if when...
It’s been over 10 months since the world was thrown into a global pandemic the likes of which we haven’t seen in over a century. Two million people have died as fear continues to rage through our society, and a cough in a public place can earn you a dirty look. But, along with the...
The English poet Alexander Pope once wrote, “To err is human, to forgive, divine.” Indeed, forgiveness is an indispensable part of living a healthy emotional and spiritual life. So important, in fact, that when Jesus was teaching his followers how to pray, he instructed them to ask God to forgive them in the same way...
“The LORD said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an...
Why are so many people of my generation killing themselves? I began writing this blog in May after hearing about the death of Chris Cornell and did not finish before learning that another high-profile musician from my era, Chester Bennington, tragically took his own life this past weekend. Some have speculated that Generation X, being...
Dear guys, Just so you know, this might get a bit uncomfortable. I know I only have a few minutes of your time, so I’m going to cut to the chase. Quit asking for nude pics. I’m sure it seems harmless to you. After all, if the girl sends them to you it’s consensual, right?...
“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.” –Og Mandino I’m a night person because that’s when the stars come out. I sometimes sit on my back porch in a wooden chair and stare out into the blackness, hiding from...
I was talking with a group of graduate school students the other day about how important it is to take a break and intentionally care for ourselves. Why is it so difficult to do this? For example, I used to play guitar. Now it has been months–if not years–since I have picked one up and...
