Anger and Trauma

by Marcia | Sep 22, 2015 | Anger Management, Anxiety, Communication Skills, Healthy Living, Managing Pressure at Home & at Work, Relationship Skills

Anger, judiciously expressed and directed at a proposal rather than a person, can be helpful in negotiations, according to some research. On the home front, however, how much or how little your anger achieves will have a lot to do with the listeners’ back story....

Cats, Catastrophe, and Catharsis

by Marcia | Sep 4, 2015 | Anger Management, Anxiety, Children's Mental Health, Learning, Living Well, Mental Health, Relationship Skills, Remembering

A few weeks ago, after my dear old cat died, I looked for a new one. Enter BosBos (pronounced BoesBoes), almost two years old. Half Egyptian Mau and half Arabian Mau, he suffered abuse in the streets of Egypt before being flown to an Egyptian cat rescue last year....

Why You Have an Alcohol Problem Even If You Don’t Drink

by Marcia | Jul 14, 2015 | Anger Management, Childrearing, Communication Skills, Healthy Living, Learning, Living Well, Managing Pressure at Home & at Work, Parenting, Relationship Skills, Teaching

I have been in practice as a social worker for twenty years, seeing adults, couples, children, and families. My experience has taught me that for all of us, or almost all, alcohol is an issue. The question is not whether you drink too much in your opinion or someone...

Tips to Exterminate Tantrums

by Marcia | Jul 10, 2015 | Anger Management, Anxiety, Childrearing, Children's Mental Health, Parenting, Teaching

One of my child clients, a smart, pretty redhead we’ll call Marcy, comes to see me after graduating from an extended day treatment program at a local clinic. Marcy, age nine, is healthy, strong, and stubborn. She is an unenthusiastic student at school, where she...

Payback?

by Marcia | Jun 30, 2015 | Anger Management, Communication Skills, Healthy Living, Living Well, Managing Financial Stress, Social Skills

It is tempting to go for payback when someone disses you. If you cut me dead on the street last week, or failed to respond when I as a neighbor asked for your help, the angry part of me might have wanted to hurt you. How could you do this to me? I probably wondered. A...

I Am Killing You Because You Are Killing Me

by Marcia | Jun 23, 2015 | Anger Management, Communication Skills, Grief and Loss, Living Well, Mental Health, Social Skills

In the wake of the June 17 shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel A.M.E. Church, the nation’s journalists have expressed outrage, horror, and grief in words familiar from responses to past atrocities. Dylann Storm Roof, denounced as a terrorist and a racist madman, may be...