Having watched the moon set with the sun’s rising, the ancient lunar goddess Hekate is on my mind. And near the Huron river path this morning, a pokeweed plant reaches upward offering a message and posing a hieroglyphic sign as she raises her arms in slender scarlet sleeves. Fresh green pendants nestle beside fully ripe ink-purple fruit on her supple limbs where she drapes luxurious flowing tresses, trailing glossy clusters from slender stems. Wildly flowering, the goddess and plant step from forest edge as one to emerge into the waking world. Hekate dances within her chosen ally pokeweed, just as ancient Greeks thought nymphs ensouled their trees in mutual lifelong union.
Posts filed under Psychology
Book Review: obsessive intrusive magical thinking by Marianne Eloise
Obsessive Intrusive Magical Thinking by Marianne Eloise is a raw and compelling exploration of the author’s journey through the labyrinth of neurodiversity. Eloise candidly invites readers into the intimate corridors of her mind, offering a poignant and authentic account of living with intrusive thoughts, and the relentless pursuit of magical thinking.
We Don’t Talk About Bruno
Mental illness, however, remains stigmatized in much the same way as being sexually assaulted. Both carry a sense of shame, often imposed by an unspoken judgment that implies the illness or injury could have been prevented if only the victim had done something differently. This makes it difficult to have honest conversations with survivors of sexual violence and those who live with mental illness. This inability to have open and compassionate conversations often leaves the one carrying the pain feeling even more isolated and unjustly ashamed.
The Power of Ancestry and Personal Discovery
My sister Lisa and I often joke about our rabbit hole research inquiries. The thrill of the potential finds keeps us searching. What started as separate hobbies eventually merged to combine into writing local history as well as GENMEMS (genealogical memoirs and house histories) for clients. Lisa summed up her genealogy enthusiasm by saying, “It’s like a puzzle, or mystery, to see how everything connects or impacts each other.” That connectivity is what we all need to take a closer look at to understand our inherited (yet transformable) tendencies, how we can gather strength from our ancestors’ stories, and finally, how to keep descendants and future communities in our conscious decision-making.
Book Review: Trauma-Informed Music Therapy: Theory and Practice
The timely book Trauma-Informed Music Therapy: Theory and Practice is a collaboration of the expertise of music therapists, educators with experience in psychological health and trauma-informed education, clinicians, and psychotherapists. Based on the intersection of music therapy and trauma healing, the resulting body of work is an expansive text readers can utilize repeatedly.
Psychedelic Medicines in Trauma Recovery
Life is hard and yes, terrible things can and do happen, oftentimes to people who do not deserve it. Denying trauma and trying to inspire people out of its impact, both individually and collectively, has been the go-to method of dealing with trauma for generations.
A Good Crop of Mental Health: A Conversation about Animal Assisted Therapy with Laura Sanders
Laura Sanders, LMSW, ACSW, has been practicing in the Ann Arbor area for 34 years and has been teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work for 26 years. Her approach to therapy utilizes a wide variety of evidence-based and creative therapies, including trauma recovery methods, art and play therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and relational approaches through Animal Assisted Therapy.
Planting the Seeds of Healing and Growth--Living Grateful
Upon stepping into the Living Grateful Behavioral Health Services’ soothingly sun-drenched office, you find yourself met with an array of beautifully assorted plants as if they have been waiting for you. Owner Bill Mure explains, “They create a sense of the peace and calm I feel.” He goes on to say, “I also use them as a metaphor for your healing. I tell my clients ‘In session is where we plant the seed of growth. Out in the world is where the seeds go to be nurtured. When you grow a garden, you have to water it, tend to it, and nurture it. Sometimes we must trim off the pieces that no longer serve us, so we can facilitate more growth.”
IFS Therapy: More Than the Sum of Our Parts
Psychotherapy has undergone massive shifts and transformations since its inception in the early 20th century. By the 1980s, modalities such as cognitive, psychodynamic, and dialectical behavioral therapies were firmly planted as the gold-standard of the field.
Healers of Ann Arbor: Psychologist Christi Bemister—Healing Trauma and Chronic Pain
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone in chronic pain, myself, who doesn’t have a history with trauma,” Christi Bemister said as she opened up a weekend retreat on trauma and chronic pain. The retreat covered the work of healing the mind and body together through the Realization Process created by Judith Blackstone. “They’re very intricately related, because chronic pain is actually a brain issue versus simply a physiological one. It’s a very complex issue,” she added.
Unsiiciyapi, Wawoohola, Cantognake: Humility, Respect, Love-- Healing through Service
What do you get when you merge a life called to support adolescents, spiritual awakening that all are one, and an ongoing relationship with the Lakota people? Omega Commons and a staff that lives to serve in higher truth and humility.
The Process of ‘Becoming’ Through the Diamond Approach – As Taught and Practiced by Lou Weir
The Diamond Approach, as taught and practiced by Lou Weir at the Ridhwan School in Ann Arbor, can be likened to the pupa stage of metamorphoses. It is a cognizant, individualized, un-becoming process through active inquiry (psychologically and emotionally). It is a process which transforms students to becoming their most beautiful, authentic selves.
Talking While Walking
My name is Fran Adler, and I’ve been a licensed therapist in private practice for over two decades. Over the years there have been many aspects of this work that I’ve greatly enjoyed. But, there is one thing about being a therapist that I’ve never been crazy about—too much sitting!
Shadows that Illuminate
I invite you to get curious with me before you read the rest of this article. Look around the room and find an object that catches your eye. Study it closely. Look at where the shadows and light meet each other, and wonder at their points of engagement. Do you see areas that abruptly go from light to dark? Any areas that softly and gradually transition through more subtle lighting? Notice lines and curves, and how they reveal details about your chosen object. Can you tell which direction the light is coming from and how it affects the shadows being cast?
Healers of Ann Arbor
You can try a new type of massage or read a chiropractor’s online reviews, but how do you really know when a healing modality is right for you? This new column, from tech and wellness journalist and meditation coach Laura K. Cowan goes in depth with local healers to give you a behind the scenes look at what they really do to help people relax and heal.
Stepping Into The Current of Wisdom
I recently came across a photo of an autumn leaf inside a hand. The veins of the leaf lined up with the lifelines of the palm, blending into one another. A beautiful image of our interconnectedness. I think of the psyche similarly, as an extension of nature, an invisible landscape with its various terrains, different weather patterns, and inhabitants.
A Conversation with Erin Stohl and Dan DeSena about Somatic-Oriented Psychotherapies
An Ann Arbor couple, Erin Stohl and Dan DeSena, has found a place within the local somatic psychotherapy community. I sat down with Stohl and DeSena, pre-pandemic, to learn about how they came to somatic psychotherapy, and how their experiences as somatic psychotherapists have impacted their relationship. Stohl and DeSena are both seeing patients via video chat and doing appointments by phone.
Book Reviews, Fall 2020
Whether you are new to Pema Chodron’s work, or you are already a fan, Welcoming The Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World, her first work in over seven years, is incredibly timely and sounds like a kind of mantra for 2020, or perhaps the entire decade. It seems either on a global scale, or a smaller more personal one, each and every one of us has something on our doorstep we would rather not let inside. Yet, allowing what we don’t desire to enter is precisely what we must do. As Chodron points out, it isn’t going anywhere.
The Science of Breath and Spirit: A Young Scientist’s Adventures in Breath at the Ann Arbor Zen Buddhist Temple
“Are you connecting with your breath?” Rev. Haju asks me, leaning forward to inspect my posture. Her eyes are hawk-sharp but loving. It’s a powerful combination. I close my eyes and let go. I am not always good at that. For someone with ambition, letting go can be quite alien. Striving, trying to force things to be a certain way, are habits I slip into as soon as I stop paying attention. But the Rev.’s watchful eyes are incentive to pay attention. To prove that I can let go. That I know how. And the act of proving reminds me what it feels like.
A Journey Through the Stages of Personal Power
Where do you derive your sense of “personal power”? How is it influenced by your environment, whether it’s a professional organization or a college campus? In her book Real Power: Stages of Personal Power in Organizations, Janet Hagberg explores six stages through which our ego travels in search of personal power, demonstrating that real power transcends achievements and external successes.
