It is no secret that maintaining spiritual peace or balance in these tough economic times can be difficult. Fear, anxiety, and worry are pervasive emotions in those around us, in those we work with, in those we are close to. But there is a way to keep your spiritual equilibrium.

Having the finances to study and practice does make keeping a spiritual perspective easier. Reading books helps make the spiritual a regular part of your life. Purchasing books or magazines that you are attracted to and reading the material keeps the spiritual focus, as well as allows your unconscious to guide your choices. Taking a yoga class, a meditation class, or going to spiritual seminars can assist in keeping the focus …

Whenever I tell others that as a therapist I teach anger management, the response is often similar. They usually range from “really, you teach anger management?” to the sarcastic, “yeah, that’s appropriate” followed by some laughter. Once in a while I get a more enlightened response suggesting I look like I used to have an anger management problem. I have to admit, I’m not the stereotypical anger management facilitator. For one, I probably don’t have the look expected. But more importantly, I am a passionate individual. I raise my voice when excited, and have been known to joke about “choking the life” out of some types of drivers. Of course I would never do this, and can’t even remember the …

Recently we have had several clients present for psychotherapy treatment who are court stipulated to a drug program because of drug charges. Of course this is no surprise. But what is surprising is the level of charges and the clients we are seeing. For example, one of our clients could be confused with just about any other hockey mom (perhaps a recent exception). She is white, upper middle class, college educated, and working in a professional position. And although she has drug trafficking charges, which are a felony, the drugs she had in her possession were for private use and were prescription (of course she didn’t have a prescription). What is even more surprising is that she didn’t even …

This paper will address the importance of the grieving process to sustaining addiction recovery. In order to accomplish this I will utilize several sources which discuss the grieving process, including Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s stages of grieving, J. William Worden’s book called “Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy”, and Robert Helgoe’s book “The Hierarchy of Recovery”. Additionally, some personal and professional experience will also be included.

There are three reasons that the grieving process is important to sustained, rewarding recovery. The first is many addicts have unresolved grief issues from their pasts. Perhaps the death of a relative or the dissolution of a close personal relationship has occurred. The use of drugs and alcohol hamper the grieving process, resulting in a delayed grief …

As many people in recovery have probably heard, (and often ignored or debated) it is detrimental to early recovery to become involved in romantic relationships. This article will discuss some of the reasoning behind the often-proposed suggestion “no relationships for the first year.”

Perhaps it is best to start with a definition of a romantic relationship. Romantic in the sense it is being used here refers to experiencing feelings of attraction, infatuation, closeness, or what the individual considers love. Relationship in the sense we are using it refers to ongoing or regular contact between an individual or individuals who are experiencing these feelings. This article will describe some of the reasons that romantic relationships are detrimental to early recovery and …

Many people who enter treatment for addiction recovery are taken aback by the spiritual concepts normally associated with a recovery program. Others initially welcome the spiritual aspects, returning to a religious belief system they once were familiar with, as it instills a sense of hope for them. Still others view the 12-step program as a cult like movement. Others are atheists, and have trouble with any program that suggests they rely upon an unseen force or entity. This article will attempt to address these circumstances, as well as provide some spiritual beliefs that the reader may have been previously unfamiliar with. It will also focus on some of the similarities between religions of the world, spirituality, and the 12 …

It seems the more experience I gain in the field of psychotherapy, the more clients I interact with, the more I live my own life, the more I believe the attempt to inappropriately control events is at the core of unhappiness. The use of control is paradoxical: we believe taking control will bring us security and happiness, yet in many cases it causes unhappiness, anxiety, and malaise. In this article I will explain this premise, and support my observations with some findings regarding happiness.

I am often confronted with clients who have addiction problems, depression, marital issues, anxiety, and anger issues. It is my contention that these difficulties have a common thread: control.

Let’s start with depression. I have several clients …

According to statistics for first marriages listed as “very happy,” there has been a decrease from over half in 1976 to a little more than a third in 1996. I recently attended a conference where the presenter stated “half of marriages end in divorce, while another third of the remaining are held together by a band-aid.” It seems fair to declare that most marriages are not happy. The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the underlying reasons this is so.

There are many explanations for why some people experience difficulty in marriage. Some are easy to identify. Infidelity, substance abuse, arguments, financial trouble, problems raising children (in fact a recent study indicated marriages are more likely to …

When I first decided to write an article about relapse prevention, I felt anxious about what to include or exclude. I initially thought about all the material I have on relapse prevention, and how I could integrate it into one article. The truth is, I consider everything I do in treatment as relapse prevention, with the exception of helping someone get into treatment when they are actively using.

Over the course of my career I have written my own outlines for educational groups and the handouts, which I recently turned into a workbook being edited for publishing. The first educational group in my curriculum is on the disease concept. I believe all relapse prevention starts here. Accepting that one has a …

These days you can’t turn on your television without sitting through a pseudo therapy session. From the trendsetter Dr. Phil to Tony Soprano’s “shrink”, to new series like HBO’s “In Treatment,” and reality TV series “Intervention” and “Celebrity Rehab,” psychotherapy has become home entertainment. However, it is important to discuss how psychotherapy differs from its representation on television.

Although some shows do a reasonable job of portraying the real dynamics of therapy, (albeit slightly more dramatic at times) others can be misleading. As a psychotherapist, my greatest concern is that people are basing their decisions of whether or not to seek treatment on false representations of two critical issues: the prevalence of confrontation, and inappropriate relationships.

For instance, one of the …