No one gets through childhood without some degree of wounding. If we stay blind to these wounds, they have a way of unconsciously ruling us. Our inner child is the full complement of childhood feelings, needs and...

We can become so used to dysfunctional relationships that when we are finally presented with a healthy one, it seems foreign. Yet what is normal is often not natural. Our natural state is soul fulfillment, reflected through rewarding relationships. Anything else...

In many marriages, women grow resentful of their husbands when they are expected to work, clean, care for the children, shop, cook, do laundry, and then make love. Mothers feel the burden of expectation from their spouses to juggle too many commitments...

School was never designed to replace parents, but that is what has happened. In the past, whether the parents were farmers or shopkeepers, their children were with them throughout the workday which gave children a very real...

Take out your journal and write the names of two women you admire. Women who for you embody the word "god­dess." For me, this first list might include Michelle Obama and Helen Mirren. If you're...

The best thing we can do is offer our children a good and protected childhood that simultaneously prepares them for the future they will live in. That means we have to change how we parent...

Women as well as men often receive strong indoctrination against showing love. It’s too often viewed as a sign of weakness. I have to admit, I fell into this category when I was eighteen and newly in relationship with Joyce...

We need to acknowledge our mutual human suffering. While it is, of course, natural for human beings to talk and communicate with one another, unless we have a good excuse or reason to do so we seem to maintain our typical everyday stranger status with the entire general public surrounding us.

Do you ever wonder if you’re too much for those you love? Do you ever worry that you will burden them? Do you ever feel that your loved ones already have enough on their plate to be concerned about your upsets?

When I was twenty-seven, a woman friend became frustrated with how much love and attention I was giving my husband. I was making my relationship with him my top priority, even over career and friends. She saw my devotion as old fashioned and “unliberated.”

Certain rights in life are taken for granted. And in most countries, that includes maternity leave. But not in the USA, apparently. There are four countries in the world that do not offer government-mandated maternity leave, and the USA is one of them. That is an honor (NOT!) that we could do without.

The funny thing about love is that the more you try to organize it, the less like love it becomes. As spiritual master Meher Baba noted, "Love and coercion can never go together. Love has to spring spontaneously from within...."

Older cultures did not have the kinds of adolescent problems we are now experiencing. However, they did have to deal with typical adolescent dynamics. Even in ancient times and primitive cultures, parents wrestled with their adolescents’ moods, desires, and rebelliousness....

Can men and women really understand each other? Sometimes it seems like the wall between the sexes is impenetrable. At my annual men’s retreat last month, the difficulty understanding women became a central theme. One after another of the men shared his challenges with his female partner...

Somehow, in that moment, I finally stopped struggling and allowed myself to relax. And then it came — the shift from my will to my heart. When I finally slipped into my heart center it was as though I had been there all along — my mind had been blinding me...

It is time to stop being your own worst enemy and begin to become your own best friend. As a psychotherapist, I see time and time again the adverse effects of my clients' lack of self-care. In general...

Our beliefs about love no longer match up with what's going on in the world, and they are contradicted when our relationships end. I call these out-of-date notions the obsolete mythologies of love.

The statement that time heals all wounds is such a cliché that even the mention of time as a healer may seem either irrelevant or insulting. Neverthe­less, it is patently true that time is a miracle healer. When we are go­ing through a difficult experience, however...

Once upon a time many thousands of years ago, the Devil Himself was sitting in his boiling hot corporate headquarters in Hell, looking at his mission statement. It read: "To make as many people as possible as unhappy as possible for as long as possible." The Devil was actually a bit...

Meet somebody, fall in love, get married. That’s how it goes, right? Then what? We hear of astronomical divorce rates, couple therapy, and extramarital affairs, but we also hear of the picture-perfect fifty-year happy marriages. What is this need to get married, and why do we think it will fulfill us?

Though relationships can provide a lot of pleasure and reward, they can also deliver their share of hurt, pain, and misunderstanding. Whether intentionally or not, others may let you down. Learning how to cope with...

What does ADHD have to do with toxins? Well, there have been a number of theories and studies done on the effects of environmental toxins influencing the increase in ADHD in individuals, most notably artificial flavoring, preservatives and coloring...

A farmer knocked heavily at a convent’s door. When the brother doorkeeper opened the door, the farmer stretched out a magnificent bunch of grapes to him. “Dear brother doorkeeper, these are the most beautiful grapes produced in my vineyard. And I come here to give them to you as a gift.”