Hi there! I’m a psychotherapist and mindfulness/yoga facilitator in private practice in Seattle, Washington. Before I became a therapist, though, my primary focus was on writing, literature, and philosophy.
As a practicing therapist, most of my psychology-related reading and thinking is oriented towards what I can use in sessions with patients. At the same time, I find that some of the fields I read in — particularly psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience — just keep providing so much interesting material, I can’t even begin to explore it in therapy with folks.
In therapy sessions, it’s important to me that intellectual concepts be usefully applied to my patients’/clients’ lives. For example, in EMDR, the theory is that it works by taxing working memory, and that somehow allows the brain to “re-process” past trauma. That’s important for the actual, clinical use of EMDR.
But then, outside of sessions, I wonder things. Like, what does it even mean to “re-process” something? Also, what does it mean for humans to have these different parts of their brains that sometimes do and sometimes don’t talk to each other? Is this what a theory like Internal Family Systems means by “parts”? If there are physical correlates to different parts of ourselves, does it make sense to think of humans as somehow multiple? And how does (or doesn’t) IFS map onto systems like Yoga, Samkhya, and Buddhist psychology?
Another example that comes up frequently has to do with spirituality. I have patients who fall across all kinds of spectrums, both politically and religiously. If a patient believes, say, that after we die, we go to a place like heaven or hell, how much does it matter to me if that doesn’t align with my own beliefs? Personally, I incline to thinking we either simply cease to exist, or in reincarnation. What do I believe a soul or spirit is, if anything? Does anything of us persist past death? Frequently, I think my own beliefs are completely irrelevant in therapy. I’m there for my patients’ well-being. I think of these things, but I don’t want to turn therapy into a philosophical debate, so I’m careful to keep things clinically focused.
But I want somewhere to explore these things!
So that’s my plan for this blog. I make no promises in terms of frequency. I will generally try to keep things on the short side. I have a lot of other writing projects at this time — one Substack going, possibly another on the way, and a collection of essays I’m working on — so I’m a little busy! Also, I don’t want blog posts here to take readers more than a few minutes. Think of the posts here as tasters, with maybe some suggestions for further reading if you’re interested.
So, as a preview, here are some of the topics I’ll be writing about here:
Buddhism and Buddhist psychology and philosophy
Existentialism, and existential psychology and psychotherapy
Somatic theory and psychotherapy
Neuroscience, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science
Yogic philosophy, including Vedanta and Samkhya
Political psychology and behavioral economics
Ecopsychology and ecosophy (fancy term for eco-philosophy)
Technology, cyberpsychology, and philosophy of technology
Note: This is one of my strongest interests right now. I’m thinking a lot these days about AI and AI ethics; how social media has changed our brains; how young men are being sucked into some very, very dark spaces; how the internet is impacting democratic pathways; and how cancel culture impacts both the individuals that get canceled, and those of us who keep our mouths shut for fear of the same.
Also, I might do some cross-posting with my Substack(s) or other website(s), if the topics feel aligned.
So that’s it! A quick intro to what you can expect to find here. Oh, and — side note — I cuss. I debated over trying to be more professional, but I need to enjoy this process or I won’t do it, so there. In the same vein, I plan on keeping comments off (all blogs should have their comments off), but you can always feel free to reach out directly to me via the contact form here on this site. I likely won’t have information in my blog posts about my availability, but I do try to keep my website and Psychology Today profile up-to-date with that info.
AND LASTLY. . . Sometimes at the end of a post, I want to offer you a quick invitation to pause. Maybe close your eyes, take a slow breath, and consider whether you want to stay on your screen after this. Maybe you do! And maybe it’s time for a break, time to stop scrolling and clicking and reconnect with the real world. I’m a big fan of breaks. We all need them.
:)