jackrosenberger | Spark of Creation Therapy

Holiday Scorecard

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

This holiday season, instead of thinking about what the holidays might mean to someone on a religious or secular level, I thought it might be more helpful to think about how one handled the holidays. It’s easy to postulate about what the holidays should mean or what religious sentiments we should be having. Instead, I thought it might be helpful to do some “Monday morning quarterbacking” and help people ask some questions that might help them think about how they think they handled the holidays on both a human and perhaps an extra-human level. So think of this as a holiday-autopsy. It doesn’t matter how you did really; what really maters is how YOU feel about you did and what changes you might want to make. Indeed, the way you handled the holidays might indicate the kind of changes you might want to make during the New Year.

So to help you along in your self examination, here are some questions that might help you in your search for self knowledge. They don’t presuppose any value set except those that YOU think that are important to you:

1. Did the holidays MEAN anything to you? Did they bring an extra boost of some sense of purpose to your life or were they just another ordeal to survive?

2. Did the holidays bring any strong emotions to the surface to you? Happy? Sad? Angry? Can you figure out why?

3. Did the holidays help you become closer to anyone you consider close to you, friend or family?

4. Did the holidays bring you closer to any sense of Mystery that you consider important? If so how? If not, why not?

5. Did the work of the holidays make the things they are supposed to celebrate less or more relevant to you?

6. Did you attend any kind of religious rituals for the holidays? Did they help make the holidays more relevant?

7. Did the holidays make you more psychologically symptomatic, e.g. more depressed, more anxious, more sad about a death, more sad about being single, etc.

8. Did you find yourself aggravated by the holidays, wishing that they’d “just be over with?”

9. Are the holidays “tough” for you because of the socializing you have to do?

10. Do you find yourself wondering why the holidays bring such cheer to everyone else but you?

There is no real scorecard to this. It’s not like three vs eight “yes’s” are good or bad. The issue is: Do any of these questions throw any light onto yourself? If even one question causes you to engage in some real self reflection, then perhaps something good can from the Holidays after all!

Posted in Blog, The World |

Employment for the 20-somethings

Monday, October 31st, 2011

In a new series of blog posts, I would like to discuss the nature and the problems with employment–you know, that thing that some of us are lucky enough to have to do things that we might or might not like, and most importantly to get paid for these efforts. Since I am not an economist (Heck, my own checkbook proves that one to be true!), I would like to discuss the issue of work from the perspective of the people that sit with me in analytic psychotherapy.

First up are the 20-somethings!

Gotta love the 20-somethings. Born at least in 1991, their first political memories are of Bill Clinton, an economy that would not stop. Jobs were available even if you showed-up to the interview stoned….and the good old days when people discussed the possibility of moving toward a 30 hour work week. The 20-somethings went to college and expected the world to be even more of their oyster. And then some things known as derivatives and sub-prime loans became headline news and the next thing you know, people are talking about Hoover-villes and class war. What does this have to do with the young people in analysis or might need analysis? EVERYTHING!

See, in a way that many older people find difficult to understand, my 20-somethings feel personally betrayed by history, economy, government, schools, parents, and maybe just anyone else they can get their hands on. The real questions are why, and how to get them to move past it.

I don’t know for sure, but I have a hunch that my 20-somethings had components of a dream of what their adult lives would be like. It might have been very nailed down for some, and others just a feeling of how things were going to turn out. Their inner narrative, which they might not have shared even with themselves, goes like this, “I work some now, get a job out of college that starts at $75,000.00 a year, and then I work a bit harder so the real money starts rolling in.” Sounds like a good plan right?

That is until the plan falls apart because the world changed, and history has happened all around us everyday, leaving these young adults the capacity to survive in times like this. How have our 20-somethings responded? For the most part, I have to say they have not responded all that well.

Now I know these are generalizations, but if you’re a 20-something yourself reading this or know and love one, see how much of this applies:

1. Many 20-somethings have not kept up with the rate of how the world is changing both economically and politically. For example, many of my 20-somethings have not registered to vote in the upcoming election. They sometimes even wear their ignorance of what is going on the in the world as a badge of ideological purity. Thus, they do not know what they need to know.

2. Even if they know some of what would be helpful, many young adults find these events so overwhelming and so paradigm crushing, that they reinsert their heads back into the sand. (Other images come to mind but this is a family friendly blog.)

3. Since their emotions freeze their emotional advancement, they loose the nimbleness necessary to compete and thus to thrive. For example, they might read in the New York Times that schools in India are so competitive that those young people are applying to Yale. When they learn of this, I can see them melting in front of me in complete despair, which robs them of the energy they need to compete.

So, what’s the solution? I don’t have a magic pill. I’m sorry. But I do have some suggestions that might help this age group.

1. 20-somethings need from somewhere a supportive, but challenging, relationship that will help keep them moving forward… but will not be too much of a Drill Instructor. All the work that is ahead of them will be too much for them on their own. Thus, if their butts are not on some shrink’s couch, they need to be and SPARK is here to help.

2. These young people need to examine their assumptions about what life was going to be like with a ruthless honesty. Here again, we get nowhere if they cannot embrace the painful truths. This might require digging inside of themselves in order to see what DID they think was going to happen.

3. Then based on full embrace of the facts about the world today, 20-somethings need to go through a mourning process about the world they expected to join and cannot because it no longer exists. This arc of mourning will include many feelings, often contradictory but all very real.

4. Simultaneously to working through their emotions, this age group needs to begin to develop an action plan. This is essential for several reasons. First, we might not have the luxury even in full bore analytic work 3 – 4 days a week to take that kind of break. Second, this can degenerate into feeling so discouraging that despair can set in. As Soren Kierkegaard would assert, depression can be worked through, especially with the new meds and a skillful analyst. But despair can be a sickness of the soul and thus is even more dangerous. We can make up for lost things from depression. Getting one’s soul back is a very painful process.

5. Once my people have emerged from the bunkers of their minds to look at the world as it truly is, not what they want it to be, they again, need to be ruthless in their honesty about what they are doing. Some of my more honest people will admit that they are waiting for the family to step in and deus ex machina style, somehow save the day. This is where parents might have to change script and think about how they are helping their children.

6. In order to do all this very intensive work on themselves, they need to bring their A game to everyday life. Or for my gamers, everyday is day they are picking up the remote and becoming their character in this game called “Life.” As a result of the intensity of what they need to do , they need to be open to trying to be aware of and jump on whatever little chances the world might be offering them.

What am I suggesting that these young people do in order to change the trajectory of their lives?

1. Young people should place themselves in the care of a good therapist that will understand how issues of employment can have deep psychological ramifications. Therapists that don’t incorporate this insight into their practice not only give their patients incomplete help, but dangerously inadequate care. Patients trust their therapists to be able to devise a plan to help them reach their goals.

2. Young people need to identify their own goals and dreams that have gotten delayed and possibly even aborted. Many of these hopes and dreams are often best identified in their day dreams of fantasies about what they want their lives to look like when they are 30 years old.

3. They need to identify what gifts, talents and assets they do have… and then capitalize on them immediately. Even very pedestrian habits like procrastination and avoidance can be goal killer in this situation. They have to bring an intensity to the goal with a focus and desire they might not have thought they had. As one of my high school coaches told us, “Success is a child of desire.”

4. Marshaling all their gifts and talents they need to develop a game plan- exactly how are they going to go about the task of acquiring a employment. Again, this is where a therapist that can deal with the outside as well as the inside is indispensable. This is not easy work, even for therapists who might be willing to wear more than one hat. We might have to serve as analyst, proofreader for resumes, motivation maintainer and sometimes the right kick in the tuches!

5. Taking all this information, the therapist and his/her patient have to form a plan that will enhance the chances of success for every endeavor the patient attempts. Even things like socializing and exercise can be very important. The plan needs to take on all kinds of issues: time management, how they are looking for a job, the resumes and cover letters, even how the patient spends his/her free time is key. Have it be organized and organic to the young person’s identity. And it must specific bite sized do-able goals that the young person can engage without feeling overwhelmed with feelings of worthlessness.

6. Finally, the young person needs to get know more people, professional network like he/she means it. Who knows, they might meet someone who might want to spend time with them on romantic level. But there will be time for that later! Right now there is a job to be won!

7. A great mental exercise for my people is for them to pretend that they are the demon charged with the mission of messing this their life in the most destructive and long lasting ways as possible. In this exercise, I have found people to be amazingly honest. They will admit things like, “I would mess up my sleep schedule and wake up too late;” “I would make sure I feel so busy doing 1,000 things but none of them actually mean anything.” I’ve even heard, “I’d make sure I don’t lose this belly because I know it makes me self-conscious and want to avoid having to interact with people. Then when I get home, I’d make sure that I’d eat that large pizza with a few beers because it will make me feel less in control of my life.”

Will these stalled young people have a million reasons for not doing the very things that will bring them the success they need? You can count on it. Perhaps this is why Sun Tzu’s The Art of War might be the most important book they could read right now. Not to make actual military soldiers out of them, but to prepare them for the economic war they need to fight right now, a fight for jobs, salary, and future happiness.

_____________________________________________________

I invite any/all comments to this post….just don’t curse at me too much!

Posted in Blog, The World, Therapy |

Service Available: Ensemble Therapist

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

It has been my good fortune to work with no small number of actors and directors from the Chicagoland area theater community. They come into analytic treatment for pretty much the same reasons that everyone else does, really. But one thing that does stand out is that frequently, either a director or an actor will come into the treatment room, script in hand, complaining, “I don’t get this! What does the author really mean?” Or more often, “My director tells me I’m blocked, but I don’t see how.”

To my great surprise and delight, I have found that psychoanalysis lends itself perfectly to the process of artists trying to dig into themselves, find out what is there, both good and bad, and mine deeper into what they find there for their craft.

One time I was engaged with such an actor, and this person’s off hand remark at first didn’t mean that much, “Wouldn’t it be great for you to be available to the whole theater company for when we get stuck like this.” At first, I thought that this person was simply saying a kind remark out of generosity. But then it hit me: What if an analytically trained person was available to an acting company while they are finding their way to a script’s meaning? This is not to say that the analyst would or could ever take the place of the director…God forbid! But even if the analyst was there part of the time, available on call, available for actors and company members to explore themselves and their work, the actual product that the company produces might improve just a little, might improve immeasurably. Either way, might it be worth a try?

So as a first go around, Spark of Creation Therapy is willing to accept the challenge to be the “ensemble therapist” as an “in kind” donation to whatever theater company might think it might be a good idea. (Given logistics, travel times, and all the other real life issues that occur.) But it might be fun. Most importantly, could it be possible that it could help create even better theater than the high level of theater that people in Chicagoland are somewhat spoiled with? There’s no way to know but to try. So be in touch actors all around. SPARK thinks more highly of you than Max Bialystock.

Posted in About Spark, Blog, The World, Therapy |

On Giving Advice

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

“Teachers who offer you the ultimate answers do not possess the ultimate answers, for if they did, they would know that the ultimate answers cannot be given, they can only be received.”
-Tom Robbins

A common misconception about psychotherapy is that the role of the therapist is to give direct advice to his patient. I would like to examine why this situation often arises, and explain why a good therapist should rarely give a patient direct advice.

What might be happening when a patient begs his therapist to, “Just tell me what to do”? Well, it is possible that this is an expression of frustration or exasperation. The attuned psychotherapist will cue in to this feeling and should encourage the patient to further explore this emotional state. Can they express how they are feeling? When have they felt this way in the past? Are they frustrated with the therapist? What are their expectations of the therapist? Who else might trigger these feelings in the patient? This is the real work of psychotherapy, and these sorts of exploratory questions will help a patient to gain new insights into their previously automatic emotional responses. Simply indulging the patient’s frustration and giving them direct advice robs the patient of the opportunity to explore these more salient underlying issues.

Whatever the current dilemma that the patient may be wrestling with, for example should they take a new job or end a current romantic relationship, is certainly important, but it is also usually superficial. In the long run, the underlying personality characteristics of the patient will not be impacted by the decisions they make about their day-to-day life circumstances, and good psychodynamic psychotherapy usually concerns itself with the long run. Patients have friends, family members, co-workers, and romantic partners that they can bounce ideas off of and solicit advice from. The psychotherapeutic relationship is most effective when it is unique, and a therapist who reduces the distinctiveness of this relationship by relating to their patient as they would a friend is doing a grave disservice to their patient.

Furthermore, while a therapist might have opinions about what a patient should do, these are more likely to be reflections of what the therapist would do in a similar situation, and it is unfair for a therapist to impose his values and beliefs onto the patient. Therapists are not models for how to live a virtuous life, and those who believe they possess “The Answer” need to re-examine their motivations for engaging in this type of work. They also need to get back in their own course of therapy and explore their hang-ups with issues of power and control. At the same time, a patient who is so willing to give up his sense of agency also likely has issues with power and control. It is likely that he feels weak, ineffectual, or helpless to alter the unsatisfactory conditions in which he finds himself. A therapist who attempts to rescue this patient by solving his problems for him only serves to reinforce these feelings of helplessness.

Another reason that a therapist should not tell a patient what to do is because of the issue of accountability. There are a number of therapeutic conditions that are intended to reinforce the idea that the patient is accountable for his own treatment. Some of these include the patient’s responsibility to pay the fee, his responsibility to be on time, and his responsibility to pay for missed sessions that he does not cancel in advance. A therapist who tells a patient what to do makes himself accountable for the outcome of these decisions. What if the situation doesn’t work out? Then it is the therapist’s fault. Worse yet, what if they situation does work out in the patient’s favor? Then the therapist gets the credit for being wise. Either way, the patient loses out on an opportunity to learn and to grow.

Of course, there are certain situations where a therapist in fact has a responsibility to be directive with a patient, and these include situations where risk of harm is involved. If a patient says, “I’m feeling like hurting myself, and I don’t feel safe being alone, what should I do,” the appropriate response is usually, “Call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.” I want to emphasize that what I’m discussing here relates more to the daily dilemmas that we all face.

To conclude, it is my belief that a therapist should always assume that the patient knows more about himself than the therapist does. Think for a moment how utterly disrespectful and infantilizing it would be for someone who is essentially a complete stranger to claim that they know what is best for you. Now, over the course of time it is likely that the therapist will become aware of recurring interpersonal dynamics and patterns of behavior observed in the patient that remain unconscious to the patient, but that is a different situation. There are people, such as life coaches and executive coaches, who specialize in taking a more active and direct role in shaping an individual’s daily life circumstances, and that type of intervention might be appropriate for some people. However, life coaching is not the same as psychotherapy, and they should not be considered interchangeable.

Psychotherapy provides the opportunity for an individual to develop new insights into their previously automatic emotional and interpersonal responses, and it provides the opportunity for an individual to develop real and lasting change. Psychotherapy also provides the opportunity for an individual to discover his or her own Truth, and I firmly believe that is something that can only come from within.

Posted in Therapy |

New Spark Space

Sunday, August 21st, 2011

As most Spark patients have learned, our offices have moved from 214 to LL 12. This move was prompted by the desire to expand the space so that it could afford our patients a greater array of services. Also, our landlord, John Consalvi has been a SAINT, ever attempting to keep up with Spark’s goal of perfection. He is a good patient guy and everyone should give him a round of applause!

1. We now have a permanent waiting room which will never be used for treatment. It is decorated with great pieces of sub-Saharan African fine art. It also sports a “window” which allows patients to look upon restful nature scenes while they are waiting for their therapists. (Some people show up an hour early just to relax in the calm waiting room environment.

2. The offices now exactly that: plural. We have two new offices to accommodate the two new clinicians that have been brought onto the team. Both Neil and David are fine therapists and bring different gifts to the practice. We welcome them both.

3. Spark now has a group room which will allow Spark clinicians to run both educational and therapeutic groups. These will start in the fall. Look to the blog for more news about these opportunities.

4. Being on the Lower Level allows everyone to feel safe and secure in our little nook that has been created just for us. In this way, from beginning to end, therapy at Spark should be an experience that advances everyone’s efforts toward healing and optimal living.

These changes would not have been possible without a team of people that have been more than patient and hardworking: Brian McGee, Chief Technological Officer of Spark, Mike Johnson, mechanical engineer and contractor, Franz–the go to guy on all repairs. These are just a few. I look forward to working in the new space. For those of you that have seen the space, feel free to give us comments and feedback. We are always open to suggestions that would enhance our space!

In the virtual world, Keith Glantz will be making updates to our website. We are very excited about making the blogs interactive. This will roll out later this month. So although it might sound like a lot of change, we look forward to serving everyone who is part of Spark of Creation Therapy. Hopefully, we will serve everyone in this space with Heaven’s blessing for many years. (I signed a lease for four years…so we’re there for years to come!)

Posted in About Spark, Blog, Therapy |

Football and Life

Monday, August 15th, 2011

As I sit and watch the first pre-season game, I am reminded of some of the important lessons football, like all sports can teach us. Having said that, I know some people will not agree with any, much less all of what I say. They will protest football’s violence and tolerance of behaviors we might describe as less than gentlemanly. That said, acknowledging that I do not have the power to change the game, I think participating in this sport or honestly any team sport, either as a fan or a player on whatever level, can teach us some very necessary lessons about life:

1. You have to prepare for the game.
The lockout did not demand that all the players train as much as they should before the season. It will become very obvious who is ready and who is not. Injuries and sub-par performance will point an accusing finger at those players who did not train as hard as they should. The same is true in life. If you don’t study, you probably won’t do that well on the exam. If you don’t work on yourself, you don’t bring your best self to your work or your relationships. We have to train as if the Superbowl is on the line.

2. For the things that matter, you really get one chance.
Once the ball is snapped, the quarterback has to make a decision. There is no reset button. This is how sports can be superior to video games. Like in life, you don’t get a second chance. My patients that have driven under the influence of chemicals often learn at an agonizing price, that there are no “do-overs.”

3. You have to play as a team.
Yes, each athlete on the field is responsible for his performance. But those teams where the players work well together, always outperform the ones with one star and everyone else giving it only 50%. Families are the same way. A family cannot function with a taking care of number one attitude. The same is true of marriages. Life becomes richer and more rewarding when we look out for each other. Being social creatures, we NEED each other. Relationships are not optional. We need each other to survive.

4. Football has refs for a reason.
More importantly, the players have to submit to their authority. The same is true of life. We all need some kind of authority to which we submit our own wills. This discipline by itself brings great rewards. It is the basis of physical fitness, academic achievement and happiness in our marriages. I’m not saying that we should be “people pleasers”. But perhaps it is necessary that we acknowledge that we don’t know everything. Indeed, we can be wrong.

5. We don’t always get what we want.
Internalizing this small fact can make us wise. The myth that we can always get the latest or perceived best of anything brings chaos to an individual’s life or that of a nation. Sometimes we lose. This truth must be accepted if we are to become people worth knowing and not just large, obnoxious babies. Even if we manage to get much of what we want in life, none of us live on this earth forever. This does not mean that death makes life meaningless. Rather, death gives life its urgency to be lived well, fully, and intentionally.

These are just a few of the necessary lessons about life than one can learn from football. I could write many more. But perhaps the most important thing is to become more conscious of Truth that is trying to present itself to us where ever we are, whatever we are doing. Seeing the light begins with opening our eyes.

Posted in Blog, The World |

Hopelessness: What to do about it?

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Hopelessness is perhaps one of the most significant but ignored issues that people will present in psychoanalysis. Sometimes, it is seen as part of depression, and indeed it is. Sometimes, however, it is seen as a proof as a person’s lack of patience with the analytic process. And perhaps sometimes it is. But in my experience as a clinician it appears to signify much more.

First, it IS a sign of depression–perhaps along with finding no pleasure in anything one of the most important symptoms of a depression that can become life threatening. Secondly, and perhaps as importantly, it is a sign of how an individual feels about his/her life in general, taken as a whole. All too often in our society we look at the various dimensions of our lives: professional, financial, family, friends, etc. and assume that if there is no great problem in any of those areas then we must be happy and that any feelings of discontent must be imaginary, like Jacob Marley’s ghost.

But perhaps these feelings of emptiness are trying to tell us something. Perhaps they are trying to suggest to us that we ARE lacking something in our lives. Perhaps one of the above mentioned areas of our lives is not going as well as we would want to believe. Perhaps our work is boring us to tears, Perhaps our romantic partner no longer seems as invested in the relationship as he/she once was.

But there is a possibility that these feelings of emptiness are trying to get our attention to something deeper, something of what one theologian has called, something of ultimate concern. In the old song, that most of you would be too young to remember, Peggy Lee asks, “Is that all there is?” It is possible that even with all of our material and emotional desires more or less met, that we seem to long for something more, something greater than ourselves, something truly transcendent. Perhaps it is in this quest for the transcendent that we discover our deepest and truest humanity. It in response to these deeper longings, that we turn our attention to the “great” questions: questions of the True, the Just, and the Beautiful. I would suggest that unless we at some point in our lives quest after some “taste” of these transcendent mysteries, we miss the deepest and most important experiences of being human.

If you find yourself wrestling with these questions or being plagued by these doubts, perhaps the solution is not just to “have another drink.” Perhaps it might be the universe’s way of trying to get your attention. In ancient texts, when a person was about to be let in on something big, some celestial being would get this person’s attention and say, BEHOLD! Could it be possible that the universe is trying to get your attention? If this is true, then perhaps your feelings are not to be ignored. If anything, it might be time to try to behold what is trying to come to be within your life and maybe even inside yourself. If this is the case, you have to be careful. You might get swept off your feet!

Posted in Blog, Spirituality, Therapy |

Problems with Boundaries

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

This blog post is going out to all fellow therapists! The advice I gave earlier it appears I need to listen to as well. Especially when one’s ability to provide life changing care is involved. Unfortunately, when a therapist works with young people (these young people can be as old as 40!), they must work and communicate with the family as well.

The family MUST be involved in some kind of treatment themselves or else the dynamics that created the dysfunction in the young person in the beginning will most likely continue in some form. The most frustrating aspect of this kind of work is when the parents will refuse to cooperate with the treatment, or even communicate with the clinician. In these cases, one can conceive of the work in two ways:

1. The work will always be sabotaged by the family, and therefore it’s best for the therapist get out of the case entirely.

2. If this is the family the young person has, then perhaps one has to ally with the young person all the more.

In this way, one has to tolerate and accommodate for the “slings and arrows” that the family can muster as they will be determined to diminish and devalue the work both of you are doing! Nonetheless, IF one can withstand situations like this, then one might be genuinely be engaged in a truly important work.

One is providing the young person with an alternative to the script that the family of origin might want the young person to internalize. In this case, the therapist might have a moral imperative to stick with an individual, no matter how difficult it might be to tolerate the devaluation that occurs at the hands of those that made the young person sick. It is times like these that one needs to listen to Stephen Sondheim’s “No one is Alone” on continuous loop!

I am confident that I’m not the only clinician to find himself (or herself) in such dilemmas. But such is the price we pay for the privilege of beholding the miracle of healing that brave people bestow upon us like a gift of which we are unworthy. Thus, if one is in this situation, perhaps it has a deeper meaning even for the clinician. And thus, it becomes all the more important for us to listen to our own spirits to maintain the wisdom and energy necessary for this work.

Posted in Blog, Therapy |

What keeps people stuck

Monday, May 9th, 2011

A problem that many individuals in therapy and therapists often have to confront is the issue of why do people stay stuck in their symptoms. These symptoms can range from the mildly annoying to the truly life threatening and despite this, some patients stay wedded to their symptoms as if they were wedded by the Pope! What gives? Why do people stay attached to their symptoms? It is my belief that people (for the most part) do not want pain and suffering in their lives. Yet somehow their symptoms can plague them for months, sometimes for years. So what’s the underlying reason for all this?

It has been my experience as an analytic therapist that what keeps people attached to their symptoms is some kind of payoff – a gain that they get for having them. But what they are unaware of is a “secondary gain”; it’s hidden in the unconscious mind. People are often taken entirely by surprise when in therapy they realize why they have had to live with symptoms for as long as they had.

This is really important for the following reason: NO ONE is to be blamed for the secondary gain that other people can sometimes pick up on in the behavior of their loved ones. Even if this secondary gain is obvious to other people, it can remain a mystery to the person with the problem. And yes, it is a problem. Even if people seem to be enjoying some aspects of their symptoms, in reality their symptoms are keeping them from enjoying life and becoming their true selves. Thus, symptoms and even the secondary gain that sometimes attend to them are in reality not an expression of anyone’s genuine identity.

From this understanding, we can identify two important lessons:

It does no one any good to nag someone about their symptoms – even if they seem to be enjoying life. Nagging, no matter how long or intensely practiced, has never gotten anyone to give up their symptoms. Not once.
If you know someone afflicted by any kind of psychological or emotional symptoms, what they most truly need is the insight into why they have their symptoms and secondary gain. Thus, if they are in therapy, they need to persevere no matter how painful it might be.

For those who are trying to support those in therapy, try to hang on to the fact that their loved ones are making progress. Even if the process takes some time, remember that letting go of things that even had the appearance of working takes work and courage. In this way, therapy is truly a community action, and never occurs just with or by a single individual.

Posted in Blog, Therapy |

When in Limbo…

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

Many of my patients at SPARK are twenty-somethings who, for whatever reason, need therapy. Sometimes the most difficult aspect of treating someone of this age and generation is getting the pitch-perfect level of support and structure from their parents. The mistakes often get made in trying to provide too much of either.

A generational gap may lead to a state of limbo

Parents sometimes don’t understand that what they could do when they were 18 or 25 is NOT what their son or daughter can do. As a result, parents sometimes end up doing too much for their children, not letting them have the “stretching” experiences of having to work at something.

Sometimes, parents may throw up their hands in understandable frustration and say, “He’s on his own!” But their young adult child might not have the skills to be able to figure out the world on their own. This leaves parents in as much a state of limbo as their children, everyone floundering around trying to figure out what his/her appropriate role should be.

Being supportive means being there

The most difficult and most appropriate thing for the parents to do is to be in the limbo with them. What for one child could be very necessary help, might for another be enabling and infantilizing. So unfortunately there are no hard and fast rules for this limbo in which so many of this generation are living.

The smart parenting question is: “Can my child do this (whatever this is) by themselves?” This might be a difficult question to answer. But a realistic assessment of what young people can and cannot do is essential to giving them the structure and support they need in order to get to the next step. Oftentimes, young people will act out, avoid, or complain about tasks that they simply do not understand or are beyond their skill sets. They engage in these behaviors because they find this internal experience of humiliation (which is what it is) intolerable and have to vent this uncomfortable affect somehow. One hopes that these acting out behaviors are not inherently self destructive.

If parents think that their children (of any age) are engaging in behaviors that are inherently self destructive, getting a professional consultation is advised. And might save a life. Remember, problems – if left alone long enough – don’t get better or go away. They only get worse. The problem is not finding oneself in limbo with one’s child; it’s not knowing how to navigate out of there!

Posted in Blog, Therapy |