Whether you are a therapist or a patient, you may have noticed that there is a lot of debate about what type of therapy is most effective. What if the most effective type of therapy isn’t one single type at all?

Having big conversations in budding relationships.

In the days after the Boston bombings I had been obsessively reading every headline and article to get to the bottom of all of our questions surrounding the attacks. Then a kind of numbness and despair took over, an overwhelming feeling that none of my questions would ever get satisfactory answers. I started to avoid reading more about it, as I felt that my quest started to increase my anxiety rather than relieve it.

I am sure I was not the only person to be overjoyed at the much shared opinion piece in the Times, titled “Relax, you’ll be more productive”. You can read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/opinion/sunday/relax-youll-be-more-pro....

A mother of two adolescents I was working with a few years ago shared with me that she was having trouble attending to her parenting because she was so crippled by her anxiety about the degradation of the environment that she couldn’t feel optimistic about her children’s future.

When I first became a parent, and up until recently, I prided myself in the fact that I was commited to helping my children develop a healthy sense of themselves by giving them a lot of choices. I presented them with choices at every turn: from what to eat, to what to wear, and even allowed them to contribute to negotiations about what to do on the weekend or after school. This has not been an easy path. I was raised with much more of a “benevolent dictatorship” model, where for the most part, my parents told me what to do and I did it.

I was recently reminiscing about how when I first moved to NYC I longed for quiet space, and in my quest for tranquility took to walking into churches when I needed a break from the hustle and bustle of the people and traffic.

In my 15+ years in the city I have been able to carve out some quiet time into my schedule, even with two school age kids, but it has taken effort, perseverance, and discipline to maintain opportunities to be somewhat still and contemplative.

I just picked up a copy of "The Emotional Life of your Brain", and am looking forward to reading it and keeping you informed on the discoveries within.