From Feeling Unloved to Hugged
I have a client whose mother died when she was still a baby, and her dad remarried a woman who constantly berated her and made her feel unlovable. Her father was distant and never filled the void and abandonment that she felt after losing her mother. Consequently, she has struggled all her life with feeling unlovable, and desperately craved affection. Whenever I talked with her, her pattern was to criticize herself.
From Feeling Unloved to Hugged
We were working together to release subconscious barriers that made her feel unloved when she suddenly felt
Read MoreHow to Talk to Someone with Alzheimer’s Disease
Have you ever tried to talk to someone with Alzheimer’s disease and ended up feeling awkward or frustrated? Communicating with someone with Alzheimer’s disease can be challenging especially if the diseases has progressed to advanced stages.
Alzheimer’s disease usually attacks the brain in a way that it makes it difficult for the affected person to communicate effectively as well as remember past events. This is challenging especially for caregivers because they have to adjust the way they communicate to their loved ones. The good news is that there are effective ways for dementia caregivers to communicate with loved ones impacted by this disease, as discussed below.
Read MoreLetting Go of Holiday Loneliness
Right before the holidays, my client’s boyfriend dumped her. She did not have family or close friends to spend the holidays with. This caused distress for her. In addition to the heartbreak she felt, she had feelings of being left alone and abandoned.
Releasing feelings that cause loneliness is the first step.
Our first step to address holiday loneliness was
Read MoreHelp Others More Effectively
Do you have someone in your family who just can’t seem to get their life together? You might have family members who won’t engage in healthy behaviors, are depressed, and are often addicts.
Do you find yourself worrying about them so much that it is taking away from your enjoyment of life? Do you feel compelled to help, yet frustrated, hopeless and helpless about the situation?
If so, you are not alone. I regularly talk with anxious caretakers who want me to help their loved ones. Some realize that they would be more effective as caretakers if
Read MoreHow to Get From Conflict to Understanding
When we get frustrated with others, we can get mired in our stories and locked into repeating patterns of behavior. It’s easy to get stuck in the blaming game.
I went to a workshop with dementia care expert, Teepa Snow, this week. She gave a perfect example of why so many of us can get stuck in frustration mode with members of our family.
The biggest mistake we make in relationships is this:
Read MoreFrom Trauma Drama to Ease in Relationships
I have a client who had 2 difficult housemates and didn’t feel like he could move. He called them entitled, and he felt like they regularly demanded far more from him than they were willing to do themselves. He often felt enraged, like a seething volcano about ready to erupt! He didn’t feel like he knew how to react to these kinds of stressful relationships!
He felt resentful because he was doing a large majority of the shared responsibilities. He was very concerned about saying something because he felt that, no matter how respectful he tried to be, they had a pattern of lashing out, being vindictive, or undermining his needs.
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