Bill O'Brien, LCSW

Some articles you might find interesting.

 

Jung as a Pioneer of Relational Analysis by David Sedgwick

I include this as a way of putting my cards on the table. It begins to explain relational psychotherapy, my preferred method. Jung: “In any effective psychological treatment, the doctor is bound to influence the patient; but this influence can only take place if the patient has a reciprocal influence on the doctor. You can exert no influence if you are not susceptible to influence.”  Jung says psychoanalysis is a risky profession, which I like the sound of.

 

 

The Selfish Side of Gratitude by Barbara Ehrenreich

Ehrenreich puts me in my place, time and again.  One of my favorite writers. “Saying grace to an abstract God is an evasion; there are crowds, whole communities of actual people, many of them with aching backs and tenuous finances, who made the meal possible.”

 

 

How to Move Forward Once You’ve Hit Rock Bottom by Pema Chödrön

When I first started reading Pema Chödrön, maybe twenty-five years ago, I found her a little cold and a little mean. At the time, I wanted very badly to be rescued from my pain and she kept insisting that there was no escape. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, even though it turns out to be true.