Three Obvious Things to Avoid Asking a Family Member
You might think that these are self-evident. Not so much. Here are my Top 3 things to avoid asking a family member for 2018. 1. To clean up after a suicide. There are companies that can handle that task for you. A suicide is a tragedy. Don't worsen the situation for everyone with asking a family member to clean up a successful suicide. 2. Covering up criminal activity. Rape, molestation, assault, shoplifting, drug trafficking and leaving out a gun with a suicidal person


A Gift on Christmas... A Set of Medical Tests
In keeping with the holiday spirit, I was given a tremendous gift. I was given the gift of a physical check-up. Getting a check-up on Christmas Eve is even more valuable in the sense that it prepares a mindset of health and prosperity in the New Year. I'm writing this post while waiting for the results from my labs and consultation with a physician in Mexico. I live a stone's throw away from the U.S.-Mexico border and I regularly use medical services in Mexico as a means to


Selfishness, Generosity, Fairness, and Tootsie Rolls
After a conversation with an adult patient, I used the following exercise to describe generosity and selfishness, but with actual props. Here's the mental exercise. Imagine you are sitting next to a person. You have six tootsie rolls in front of you. The Tootsie Rolls are yours, and the other person is interested in your Tootsie Rolls. What condition of need does the other person need to satisfy before you offer him (or her) a or some of your Tootsie Rolls? Suppose the co


An Analogy to Use When Working With Someone's Grief
Drawn from my clinical experiences working with grieving people, I've surmised that our grief often comes from our difficulty reconciling competing emotions. Many people believe in the euphoria found in the afterlife. or the eternal condition of the spirit. Yet, despite this belief, we will rightly feel despair, sadness, and regret in the absence of our deceased loved one from our every day life. We miss them terribly and have difficulty envisioning a time when we will fee