Category: Writings

I spent the past few days reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s new book, The Other Wind. This is the fifth installment of a series concerning a place she calls “Earthsea,” an archipelago inhabited by farmers, sailors, tradesmen, wizards and dragons. I’m pretty sure this land doesn’t actually exist, but I wish it did. Like a lot of people, including many… Read more →

…In the morning she was asked how she had slept. “Oh, very badly!” said she. “I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It’s horrible!” Now they knew that she was a real princess… Read more →

Here’s an idea about working with the body that you may not have considered before: that the patient already knows precisely what to do, and that all you have to do is provide a safe place for them to do it. This may not be as crazy as it sounds. Consider what any counselor does when someone with a troubled… Read more →

Every craftsman searches for what’s not there to practice his craft.   – Rumi As a clinician, there’s something about the phrase, “The doctor told me there’s nothing wrong” that lights me up. After many years of hearing this and then proceeding with care, I began to sense that this sort of circumstance often preceded recovery in my office. I… Read more →

For many therapists, it is enough to see and feel things, hear stories and read reports. They measure very carefully the clinical phenomena large enough to reveal itself to external devices, and they are satisfied with the obvious. This has never been enough for me. Paracelsus, the German physician/mystic from the 16th century said: “The physician should speak of that… Read more →

I figured out a while ago that there are several ways to become an exceptional clinician, and all of them have just one thing in common; the ability to communicate profoundly with the patient. To me, this is the thing that separates the expert from the novice and it is undoubtedly the most difficult skill to master. When I examine… Read more →

This is my latest analogy for handling related to Simple Contact. I’ve been working on it for a long time and I think someone out there might find it useful. Imagine yourself standing on one side of a swinging door. There’s no handle on your side, and your only task is to cross the threshold. Unfortunately, every time you press on… Read more →

Once again I’ve fallen in love, or, at least my version of it. After weeks of preparation for my presentations to the Sections Meeting, I allowed myself to wander through the local public library. Now, when I say wander, I mean that I walk about with no intent whatsoever. I open my eyes, I let things come to me, and… Read more →

The location: a dusty back road in Kansas. The characters: A young farm girl named Dorothy Gale and her beloved dog, Toto. The year: 1900. Dorothy has run away from the only home she has ever known. She did this in a desperate attempt to keep her dog from being taken away. She’s unsure of what will happen next, where… Read more →

Here we go again, back to the theatre to explain the nature of my thinking and technique. This time I’m using Tom Hank’s latest movie Cast Away as an example of what happens to us when we are in pain and how we might be freed of that by altering the way in which we see the world around us, as well… Read more →