In commenting on an earlier post entitled “Trust: How Avoiding Risk Damages Us” Joy poses two questions: In your paragraph titled “Destructive Testing, at the end you say, “Inevitably, sooner...
Dr. Smith's Latest Articles
The Affect Avoidance Model 2018
A CBT therapist wonders why the client is so adamant about letting go of unhealthy core values. A psychodynamically trained therapist wonders if might be acceptable to assign homework. How can each...
Attachment to Therapist: A Primer
This very long post is intended to replace the previous one on transference disasters and give patients and therapists a sense of how attachment to one’s therapist can come about and what to...
Q&A: How to know if I’m done?
This is in response to TLC, who wrote a series of comments. She summarizes her questions thus: “I want to know how I know when I am done.” Some time ago I promised TLC I would write a...
Q&A: Burn Out Your Therapist?
Question: Can my neediness, strong attachment, and “borderline” traits repel my new and wonderful therapist? (Photo: Marina del Castell, Flickr, CC BY 2.0) Answer: This is a tricky one...
Addiction
Do We Have Free Will?
I read something recently suggesting that most of our decisions are made outside of consciousness...
Why is “Adulting” so Hard?
I’ve been thinking about my patients of all ages who are having trouble becoming fully adult...
Relationships
Mindfulness
Working With the Inner Child
Many of the questions that have come up recently around attachment to your therapist boil down to...
A Guide to Personal Change
Dear Readers, my new book, How We Heal and Grow: The Power of Facing Your Feelings is available...