Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can cause brain damage

Sticks and Stones – Hurtful Words Damage the Brain – from Psychology Today A column describing how verbal taunting or abuse, whether from parents or other kids, can hinder development of critical structures in the brain, causing greater risks for future depression, anxiety, drug abuse, and other psychological issues. What you say matters.  

More writing by me, in a new spot

I’ve been busy setting up my profile and getting some content going over at YourTango, a site that focuses on sex and relationship expertise.  My profile is right here, and so far I’ve mirrored a few of my posts from this blog to that one. The forum is slightly different than this one: I’ll mainly

“Sometimes the way to milk and honey is through the body.”

From David Kanigan, great collector of the gorgeous, comes this photo and poem this morning.  I share without further comment. Sometimes the way to milk and honey is through the body. Sometimes the way in is a song. But there are three ways in the world: dangerous, wounding and beauty. To enter stone, be water. To

Anything Can Happen

This spring, I’m working on a new choral piece with the Back Bay Chorale, called Anything Can Happen.  The five-movement work is by the young Arab-American composer Mohammed Fairouz, and is based around three poems by Seamus Heaney, and two sections of the Arabic Injeel, the equivalent to the New Testament.  The result is a

Friday Favorites – Humility, Picaresqueness, Queer Narratives, and Balloons Goslings

Here’s my roundup of stuff I enjoyed this week in the ol’ blogosphere. First, hovercraftdoggy per usual brings me all the pictorial love: Scott Williams writes about humility and its crucial role in relationships: “I have come to understand that my personal self-worth, happiness, and completeness cannot be based on another fallible person. I have

Understanding: getting literal with it

Happy almost-Thanksgiving, everyone here in the States!  As we ease into the holidays, I want to return to the GROUND series, especially since we all need a bit of extra grounding during this time.  Today, then, we bring it to U.  🙂 The ‘U’ in GROUND is for ‘Understanding,’ something that all therapists strive for

The GROUND of RSM

The entire GROUND series is now available at the following links: Gentleness, Respect, Openness, Understanding, Noticing, and Discovery. I’ll never forget the moment.  It was May of 2008, and I was walking into my first module of Rubenfeld Synergy training.  I had recently arrived at the beautiful Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, and didn’t

New series ideas

As reported last week, I’ve finished my series on the 18 Principles of Rubenfeld Synergy Method.  About which I’m pretty psyched.  So I’m taking this Wednesday to put forth a couple of ideas on what the next series might be.  If you have opinions or thoughts as to what you’d like to hear about, please

Principles of RSM #14: Reflecting clients’ verbal expressions validates their experience

When I first saw a Rubenfeld Synergy session, it was Joe Weldon, Master Synergist and possibly my greatest teacher, conducting it.  One of the first things I noticed – and it annoyed me at first – was how he kept repeating back things that the client said.  Joe might ask the client what she noticed

[Re-run] Hack Yourself

Sorting through some old emails yesterday, I found a link that a friend sent to me long ago, that I probably wasn’t ready for around then. Yesterday I clicked that link and, to my delight, it was still there. Or rather, its author – horror and fantasy writer Michael Montoure – had pulled it from