Along with the extensive use of media technology come several relationship challenges. People don’t feel heard. Part of that problem occurs because we are all becoming numb to violence and the ability to empathize is diminishing in both adults and children. We need to slow down and connect! Carl Roger’s Conflict Resolution techniques are my […]

The late Dorothy Corkille Briggs taught me to choose FREEDOM WORDS (wish, want, choose to, prefer, desire) over PRISON WORDS (should, ought, must, have to, everybody.) Prison words tend to put another person on the defensive. Defensiveness is magnified as most of us were raised by parents who used prison words in their daily communication: […]

If you haven’t watched Ted Lasso on Apple TV, you haven’t seen his demonstration of always finding the positive side of literally everything. Everyone loves that show because it is funny and because Ted is modeling how to find a positive in every negative. Do you know what the happiest animal on earth is? A […]

The broken record is great to use with children, and can be used with adults as well. Do you, by any chance, have someone in your life who rants at you about something you do or don’t do? Not to call someone a pig, my favorite bumper sticker was given to me from my daughter, […]

“When my daughter was a teenager, she came to me asking permission to drive two hours with friends to go to a rock concert. There was no way I was going to let her do that when she was 13. In order to hold the line, I needed to use a technique called the broken […]

Every choice you make is dependent upon your self-esteem. Think of self-esteem as needing two legs to stand on: One is LOVABLE and one is CAPABLE. Lovable embraces the feeling that I am loved no matter what I do. Feeling capable is to embrace that I am able to do something well. That seems like […]

I was talking to an African American eleven year old girl while we were floating in a friend’s pool. “What is it like to be a black girl in an upper class white school?” (Kids are seldom shocked by a direct question, especially if there is no judgment attached.) “It’s hard,” she responded. “Help me […]

The problem with having a critical parent is that you decided nothing you do or are is good enough. Society adds to that by bombarding us with advertisements, modeled for the rich and famous, to compare ourselves with others. We take on the role of criticizing ourselves, and therefore we are never good enough. This […]

If you haven’t watched Ted Lasso on Apple TV, you haven’t seen his demonstration of always finding the positive side of literally everything. Everyone loves that show because it is funny and because Ted is modeling how to find a positive in every negative. Do you know what the happiest animal on earth is? A […]

“I would be so much happier if he talked about his feelings!” “I wish she didn’t talk so much about one thing; I get the message after that first part of her lecture.” “I want my kids to be gracious and have good manners, and they don’t!” Taking the last example first, children only have […]

I was an elementary school teacher and a mother, so my compulsion to help someone “fix it” is extreme. I have a solutions-oriented mind. My caring is as deep as the ocean, high as a sky (sounds like words to put in a song…) One of the things that women often have difficulty understanding is […]

“She makes me so angry!” or “He hurt my feelings!” or “She ruined my day!” are all lies we tell ourselves (or other people) so we set ourselves up as victims. “If only they would change, then I could be happy,” is a great way to give up any thought you had for happiness. It […]

Like taking all the animals at a zoo and trying to make them resemble each other, there is enormous idiocy in our relentless pursuit of being alike. We’ve been given the gift of being an original, and yet we succumb to cultural pressure to be the same. The greatest contributor to divorcing our originality is […]

“I feel really sad about her dog dying, I….” (cut off) “That dog was a pain in the butt, he….” So the person who was sad feels invalidated and not heard. “You’re always so busy, and we never do anything fun together any more. Could we do a date night this week?” (Other person speaks,) […]

I co-authored a self-esteem program called Project Self-Esteem, and one of the lessons was about the importance of focusing on a person’s behavior rather than their being. We had a brown bear puppet, Harmony, who showed up in the lesson saying he hated Yogi. When asked why, he said that Yogi stepped on his new […]

I wish I had told my father what he meant to me before he died. I wish I had thanked my wife for all she did to make our trip work. I wish I had told my kids how many things they did that were right…I wish I had listened to my friend when she […]

As children we heard, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt you.” What each of us know is that judgmental words chosen by someone you love or respect become tattoo’s on your heart, causing you to withdraw from your own potential. It took me too many years to live the […]

My mother was an Olympic criticizer, so I learned to be a people pleaser, trying to keep anyone and everyone off my back. Although I have long-ago given up trying to please others, I can still hit a “button” from the past now and then. Everyone, including my dear mother, is looking at you through […]

As I look back on my 8 decades of life, I remember dearly so many people who loved me and taught me to be a better person. At one time, I also thought of the challenging people who were in my life and kinda shuddered, inviting that memory to pass quickly through. Now, I realize […]