Tackling expenses, immigration and packing — My quality of life is compromised by the cost of living, overcrowding, inadequate municipal services, unethical government policies, lack of sufficient affordable healthcare and an untenable spike in crime. It’s time to relocate. I can no longer abide by the unhealthy conditions in New York City. Yet as the move to Montreal materializes, agitation permeates every fiber of my being. Immigration forms, exorbitant moving expenses, frequent flights, cross-border banking, endless packing and managing work responsibilities along with the daily minutiae of day to day existence, comprise the groundwork for establishing a new life in a new land.

The psychological and sociological practice of destroying others — On the heels of ending a long-term relationship to a malignant narcissist, Lauren vehemently and unceasingly blamed herself for ‘allowing’ him to sadistically debase her. Although she intellectually concurred with M. Scott Peck’s premise that genuine love is volitional, that true intimacy is contingent on honoring one another’s humanity and…

How dumping differs from constructive self-disclosure — I have met many wonderful folks through this platform, some who I even had, or continue to have the privilege of working with. In some cases, their initial correspondence was a thoughtful segue into exploring the possibility of setting up a therapeutic assessment, so that more pressing issues and concerns…

When sacrifice in the name of love is detrimental — When a child is given time, attention, direction, physical nurturing, and all other needs are attended she feels loved and held in warm personal regard. Ever-present adoration and attention are essential to knowing she is worthy and has intrinsic value. On the other hand, when a family system is noxious…

Witnessing the collapse of a traumatized nation — Astrophysicist and Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar wisely imparted that, “nature has shown over and over again that the kinds of truth which underlie nature transcend the most powerful minds.” Chandrasekhar suggests that in spite of evidence that ‘nature acts on the planet on a scale that dwarfs most human processes,’…

Emerging from my cave in NYC to resuscitate in Montreal — “In New York I have always felt lonely, the loneliness of the caged animal, which brings on crime, sex, alcohol and other madnesses.” ~ Henry Miller In a city of close to nine million people, it may appear as if cultivating a social network and forming lifelong bonds would be…

The need to be seen and understood — Loneliness, defined by psychiatrist Fromm-Reichmann as the want of intimacy, is a global pandemic. It’s estimated that 162,000 Americans die every year from loneliness and social isolation. Associated with higher rates of mortality, surges in adrenal hormones, high blood pressure, addictions, obesity, and relational trauma, loneliness undeniably takes a physical and mental toll.

When mistreatment is hard to detect — Abominable, morally depraved abusers are easy to spot and always remembered. People such as Leona Helmsley (The Queen of Mean), Starlet Joan Crawford (Mommie Dearest), knighted BBC notable Jimmy Seville, brutal Haitian dictator 'Papa Doc,' sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, and Tele-evangelist Jim Bakker, whose empire fell from Grace…

Learning to accommodate all that you are — Although we all need to employ guile and assume roles that accommodate the variability of life’s demands, a line is crossed when necessary ‘as if’ decorum shifts into what British psychoanalyst and pediatrician Dr. Donald Winnicott referred to as the false self. Also known as the fake self, idealized self…