No one likes being challenged–but not being challenged can be incredibly dangerous. Research is showing that the trend towards celebrity status CEO’s of companies can potentially lead to their downfall. As a CEO become a celebrity and an increasingly powerful head of the organization, the realtionship with the Human Resources department changes–the amount of discretion …
Hungering for Beauty
I forgot how much beauty restores the soul. I’ve just returned from spending several days with friends on the West Coast. I feel like my heart has been defibrillated by the sights, sounds and smells of beauty that is on the coast and has woken up restored and refreshed. I have energy and enthusiasm for …
Change
If change did not exist, a flower would be just a seed hidden in the ground. This on a beautiful card I received this week, encapsulating better than I ever could about what Bergen and Associates Counseling is all about. Our logo has a seed planted in dirt, recognizing that it is at …
When Hanging On is Impossible…but Happens
The bottom tree in this photo are growing out of the side of a cliff. This is a close up of the bottom of those trees: I realize I’m not an excellent photographer, so it may be difficult to see that the bottom of the trees literally curve into the side of the cliff…there is …
Loving expansively
It is interesting to me that we are so captivated by what is essentially a capitalistic discourse of grieving. Listen to the terms we use. We should finish unfinished business. We need to seek closure. We ought to withdraw emotional energy from the one who has died in order to invest it into other relationships. …
You are the butter to my bread
…and the breath to my life. So goes a line of love repeated in the movie Julie and Julia. I went to see it tonight…a lovely summer night that allowed me the treat of the long walk to and from the movie theater. It was a lovely movie, and no doubt, men from all over …
The Long Scream
Depression is a condition that many who have “not been there” is difficult to understand. Henri Nouwen, writes in one of my favorite books, The Inner Voice of Love, a description of his own depression. It captures feelings and concepts that parallel the descriptions people have described to me. It hit shortly after he began …
A Thought
“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’” -C.S. Lewis
Success with Sushi
“Backward chaining” and “Just right challenge” are words I hear regularly at the School of Occupational Therapy, where another year of teaching starts shortly. As Occupational Therapists, we use both of these principles all the time as we help people work on physical, emotional and cognitive deficits through purposeful activity. “Backward chaining” is a concept …
A Tangible Success
The “IKEA effect” is alive and well in my household. I talk and listen for a living. Clients will tell me ways in which their therapy sessions change their lives in ways which I find awesome and humbling. However, there isn’t always a lot of tangible signs that I have made a difference when I …