Dina – and 5 reasons to say Yes.
Many years ago I was asked if I wanted to have a counseling intern “help me out” in my high school classroom. I remember clearly that I was reluctant, to put it mildly. Kind of bratty about it, if I’m being honest. I was picturing some young college student who wouldn’t know how to interact […]
Can we sing Stairway to Heaven?
My friend Melissa is a choral conductor and because of that, she is uniquely attuned to communicating intentions. She uses things like tempo, tone, phrasing, and volume to help her choirs understand the pieces they are performing and to convey that emotional understanding to their audiences. It is her vision that is interpreted. Communicating emotional […]
Quit fighting the facts.
My friend Lauren was talking to me recently about being stuck in her journey toward buying her first home. She wanted to buy at her pre-approved price, in a certain part of town and she wanted a home with a certain amount of square footage. And no matter how she computed those three variables, there […]
Broaden and Build.
Most of us live in a culture where we send others positive wishes. “Happy Easter”, “Merry Christmas”, “Good Morning”, “Pleased to meet you”, “Nice to see you”, “Warm wishes on your anniversary”, “Have a generous Ramadan”, “Sending you peace” – and on and on and on. We use those positive words, words like: Yet, did […]
Uncle Jeff – and a few trillion gallons of water.
Some of my earliest memories involve my Uncle Jeff. Uncle Jeff was my dad’s cooler and less risk-averse younger brother. He was a Marine and an attorney and wore stylish clothes and big sunglasses with his big dark hair. And when he and his family came to visit us from California, or met us […]
Mr. Ficks and Alligator River.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, psychology is “the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.” And I love it. It is the thing in this world that has received the very most of my attention, time, brain power, and resources. It is something I have […]
Becoming our own wayfinders.
I have spent the majority of my life in a ‘grid’ city. According to Wikipedia, “In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. The grid plan dates from antiquity and originated in […]
The reframe your brain needs.
I have a step-daughter-in-law and a little sister who are both Registered Nurses, or RNs. One is in the first couple years of her career and one has been a nighttime newborn ICU nurse for almost 30 years. Imagine that! Almost 30 years of being a witness to some of the toughest and most tender […]
Efficacy and “Question Coleen.”
Recently I had a client tell me that she thought she’d done a disservice to her teenager. “She’s so used to me fixing everything for her that now she can’t figure out how to do it on her own. I can see so clearly that it’s my fault,” she told me. I decided to tell […]
Fortune Cookies and Optimistic Action.
Please pick a number between 1 and 10. Really. Pick it. Got it?? Ok, now kindly hold on to it for a moment. When I retired from education about a year and a half ago, my tribe of girlfriends threw me a brunch. It was so kind of them. I decided I wanted to […]
