Ideas on Mental Health & Meaning
Redefining Healthy Masculinity: Lessons from the Huberman Lab Podcast with Terry Real
"Masculinity"... I don't even know what to write about it, what I am allowed to write, or what I shouldn't write that might be controversial. It's a hard enough concept to define in the past few decades, but now it seems culturally and politically charged to talk...
When Resentment Turns into Contempt: How Marriages Break—and Heal
Contempt. It's a hard word to accept - it has such a strong negative connotation. It's even harder to accept or understand when it is found in your most important and most intimate relationship. Sadly, I see it all too often in my office. I've even seen it in my...
Meaningful Goals for the New Year
I've been writing about new year goals for quite a while now. I used to write about SMART goals pretty regularly at the beginning of the year - but those quickly became to Cognitive Behavioral for me. Too rigid. Lately, in the past few years, I've been writing about...
A Meaningful Way to Celebrate New Year’s Eve
Beyond Resolutions, Noise, and the Countdown New Year’s Eve often arrives wrapped in noise—countdowns, parties, resolutions shouted into the void. And yet, for many people, this night feels quieter than expected. Beneath the celebration is something more vulnerable:...
Why the Holidays Can Be Hard on Mental Health—and What Helps
Why the Holidays Can Be Hard on Mental Health—and What Helps For many people, the holidays are supposed to be joyful: warm gatherings, shared meals, traditions passed down through generations. Yet every year, a quieter truth emerges in therapy offices, inboxes, and...
Working Through Seasonal Affective Disorder: A Meaning-Centered Approach to Winter
At the time I am writing this, we still have not reached the Winter Solstice - the shortest day of the year. This day marks the slow, the very slow, return of more sunlight in our days. Warmth, light, brightness.... still months away. And, I don't about you, but I...
The Meaning of Holiday Nostalgia
Why We Become So Nostalgic During the Holidays Every year, right on schedule, it happens. It usually starts in my office just a few days before Halloween - if I am conscious enough to start asking the right questions. But, for most of us, it starts less...
Your Annual Logotherapeutic Holiday Gift-Giving Guide
I've been writing this blog every week for somewhere around 15 years. Every year, on the Monday after Thanksgiving, I share something about holiday gift giving. I love writing this post every year. A few times, I think I actually listed gifts I thought would be...
The Psychology of Values: Why What You Believe Matters for Well-Being
Last week, I wrote about Meaning - shocker, I know. But from that, came some great discussion in my office. I write about meaning often. I talk about meaning just about every day. I study the idea of meaning all the time. Sometimes I forget, not everybody does. ...
The Power of Meaning: Using Logotherapy Principles to Improve Your Mental Health
Logotherapy—developed by Dr. Viktor Frankl—centers on one core idea: human beings can endure almost any “how” if they have a “why.” Its principles help people build meaning, resilience, and psychological flexibility. Here are practical ways to apply Logotherapy in...
You’re Not as Depressed or as Anxious as You Think You Are – Part II; Anxiety
Don't get me wrong - depression and anxiety are VERY REAL issues in our world today. Whether physiological in nature, a symptom of modern life in a constantly quicker world, or some combination thereof, these issues are real. And sometimes, medication is part of the...
You’re Not as Depressed or as Anxious as You Think You Are – Part I
I've been saying this for a long time. Maybe you are not as depressed or anxious as you think you are. Surely, in my clinical opinion, for what it's worth, you're not that depressed or that anxious that you require medication. You see, when I studied depression and...