Inspired by many great writers, I want to offer you a different kind of love story for Valentine’s Day 2022. Amanda Gorman – the youngest U.S. Poet Laureate who recited “The hill we climb” at Biden’s inauguration -- also wrote “Call us what we carry,” ending in these words: We are not me— We are we. Call us What we carry. I was meditating on this poem as I thought about how Valentine's Day is a celebration of love, and not just romantic love. I'm talking about the love that exists in all kinds of relationships, all of which needs to be celebrated and contemplated. Dr. Sue Johnson's keynote at the 2019 Psychotherapy Networker, titled … [Read more...]
Welcome to 2022 and to Martin Luther King Day weekend!
(This blog post ends with a UNCG sponsored public event in honor of Martin Luther King, so please read to the bottom!) My day began with my son, who lives with autism, reading me a quote from St. Francis of Assisi entitled “Stages”: Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and before you know it, you will be doing the impossible. What a good reminder this is as we face a new year with a world dominated by all the uncertainties of COVID, the growing efforts to build a better future in a world dominated by systemic racism and oppression, and a climate crisis! There are a few contexts for which I personally draw … [Read more...]
It’s August. It’s time to rest and revise!
June and July 2022, some of the hottest summer months on record in North America, brought massive wild fires! Formerly celebratory holidays at the beginning of July in both Canada and the USA became days of mourning and cultural reckoning. Outside and inside, fire and dry tears burn with growing anguish and recognition of the residuals of colonialism and slavery and how I as a white person am part of this oppressive system! Given that I am white, hetero, cis female and that EFT was traditionally developed by white clinicians with white clients in a dominantly heterosexual context, I realize that my best efforts at times are hurtful. The past … [Read more...]
Love or Indifference?
“We are obsessed with love and relationships. But what do we really know about love?” These are the opening words of Dr. Sue Johnson’s 2013 book Love Sense: The revolutionary science of romantic love. Ever since that book was published, I have made it my mission to explore how this search for love pertains as relevantly to individuals not in romantic relationships as to those who are. Love We know that love, as defined by attachment science, means that we are bonding mammals needing a safe connection with at least 1 or 2 others in order to survive and thrive. There are no options. Without human connection we die. The search for secure … [Read more...]
Acknowledging Unearned Privilege and Creating Emotional Balance with EFT
April 2021 begins with markers of spring and climate-change induced weather calamities. It is a month filled with diverse reminders of death and new life, hope and horror, darkness and light. North America is facing the reckoning of the murder trial in the killing of George Floyd, the impacts of mass murders in Atlanta and Boulder, and violence in quiet communities in Canada; humanitarian crises and atrocities unfold in Ethiopia, Myanmar faces death and destruction, and the list goes on and on. Our world, like the EFT community is diverse, spanning many continents, with many racial, ethnic and cultural differences. Humanity has many … [Read more...]