Thoughts and Musings

While the allure of quick fixes is understandable in our results-driven society, embracing a slower, more thoughtful therapeutic process can foster deeper and more sustainable personal growth.

There are a staggering number of Tarot decks out there, and trying to pick one can feel utterly overwhelming. If you’re just starting out here are the things I look for when selecting a deck, along with a few of my favorite recommendations for beginners. Look for Art That Speaks to You This sounds obvious, but it matters more than people think. It does absolutely no good to pick a deck you dislike just because someone on the Internet said it was good. If the imagery puts you

Each of us has a unique symbolic language through which our psyche tries to communicate. Every night we dream, receiving personalized symbols that attempt to convey something important to our conscious mind. Learning to work with Tarot can develop a collaborative relationship with your psyche that serves a similar function to dreams—but with a little more conscious participation and a common underlying structure that translates across contexts. Over time, it can even provide

The Smith-Waite Tarot deck that I feature in my Tarot Course As a Jungian and depth psychotherapist and a long-time Tarotist, I spend a lot of time at the intersection of psychology and symbolism. There are many tools that can give voice to the collective and personal unconscious elements the reside within each of us, but Tarot is one of my favorites. It’s simultaneously systematic yet open-ended, personalized yet universal—not unlike our own psyches. But for those who aren’t

Depression is disruptive. It can feel heavy and painful—at times downright debilitating. Within a known context, such as the death of a loved one, that heavy, consuming darkness gets named “grief.” It’s not pleasant, but we give it permission to exist despite the suffering because we recognize it as an important process in the face of loss. But when that same level of malaise settles in without an apparent “good” reason, we’re quick to label it with words implying it shouldn’

Artificial intelligence is rapidly entering healthcare, and therapy is no exception. From automated progress notes to AI “assistants” that summarize sessions, the appeal is obvious, especially for solo practitioners stretched thin. But beneath the convenience lies a set of confidentiality risks that are rarely explained clearly to patients or therapists. They strike at the core of what therapy depends on: privacy, trust, and safety. As both a provider and a patient, I do not

When someone you care about joins a cult, shifts in their behavior, beliefs, or social circle can feel alarming and disorienting. The person you once knew may suddenly seem gone, replaced by someone you barely recognize. The natural impulse is to give them a wake-up call—to argue, to intervene, to rescue. But here’s the difficult truth: those action urges, however well-intentioned, can actually backfire. Rather than breaking your loved one away from the group, a confrontation

In my time at Antioch University, I had the pleasure of hearing Tim Desmond, author of Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy and The...