ON THE BLOG

Imagination is not separate from how we experience ourselves. It participates in creating that experience. When visualization is carefully and purposefully constructed, it is more than picturing something we hope will happen. It can engage emotion, sensation, memory, symbolism, expectation, and the unconscious mind.

Maybe you explained yourself repeatedly, but the other person seemed to hear only criticism. Maybe you felt blamed for everything that had happened, or you became so focused on what the other person had done that you temporarily lost sight of how you were affecting them. A disagreement now became a struggle over who caused the problem, whose experience mattered, and who would have to give in.

Psychoanalytic concepts are lenses. They give us ways to wonder about experiences that may otherwise feel confusing or disconnected. No single term can explain an entire person, and no definition can capture every psychoanalytic perspective. This glossary offers a place to begin.

Guide to understanding ambivalence and the role it plays in our life

We may long for change, healing, connection, rest, purpose, creativity, or a different way of moving through our lives. We may have a specific goal in mind, or we may simply know that the way we have been living no longer feels entirely right. Setting an intention allows us to pause and listen.

Rituals are one of the oldest ways human beings have made meaning, marked change, honored emotion, and connected with one another. We use rituals all the time, even when we do not call them rituals. We gather for graduations, weddings, funerals, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and community celebrations. Rituals help us pause and say: This moment matters. Something is changing. Something is being honored. Something is ready to be released. Something new is ready to be wel

Embracing Your Mission Through Self-Awareness, Responsibility, Contribution, and Action How do we remain open to other people’s suffering without becoming overwhelmed by it? How do we listen when we strongly disagree? How do we care without absorbing responsibility for everything another person feels? And how do we protect ourselves without becoming emotionally closed? These questions become especially difficult during periods of conflict, uncertainty, injustice, and social d

Recurring dreams can leave us wondering why the mind continues returning to the same story. A recurring dream does not have one universal explanation. It may reflect an unresolved conflict, a persistent fear, a developmental challenge, a familiar relationship pattern, a traumatic experience, or a question that continues evolving.

How Psychoanalytic Therapy Builds the Inner Capacities for Lasting Change and Continued Growth Have you ever felt different in therapy, clearer, stronger, more hopeful, only to wonder whether that change would survive outside the room? What happens when the next conflict arises? When an old relationship pattern reappears? When grief, illness, transition, or uncertainty unsettles the life you have worked to build? These are important questions because feeling better during the

Resistance refers to the ways we protect ourselves from experiences, awareness, or changes that feel threatening. Some resistance is conscious. We may know that we do not want to have a difficult conversation or tolerate temporary discomfort.

A ritual is more than a habit or routine. In ritual studies, it is often understood as a structured, symbolic, repeated, or intentional sequence of action that “sets apart” ordinary time and gives meaning to transition, emotion, memory, identity, and belonging. Classic ritual theory describes rites of passage as having three movements: separation, liminality/threshold, and reincorporation. A helpful frame for therapy, retreat work, grief, endings, identity shifts, and new beg

There is a particular kind of tiredness that does not come from one bad night of sleep. It comes from months, sometimes years, of carrying too much without enough repair. It comes from living in a state of low-grade vigilance, moving from one responsibility to the next, and telling yourself you will rest once everything is finished. But life rarely finishes itself neatly. There is always another message, another task, another person who needs something, another thought that f

What if your next chapter is not about doing more, but becoming more honest with yourself? Windows to Wisdom is a space for women who are seeking a deeper relationship with themselves. It is for women who have already begun asking meaningful questions. Women who may have done therapy, read the books, attended the workshops, journaled through the feelings, or gathered insights over many years, but who are still asking: How do I live what I know? That question is at the heart o

How Protected Time, Sensory Rituals, and Guided Reflection Can Help You Step Outside Your Routine Without Traveling Sometimes you know that you need to step away before you know exactly what you need to step toward. You may feel depleted, restless, disconnected, or simply unable to hear yourself beneath the ongoing demands of daily life. An in-person retreat can provide the distance and support needed to interrupt that momentum, but traveling away is not always possible. Time

Healing often begins quietly. A breath that comes a little easier. A moment when the body softens. A sentence spoken out loud for the first time. A feeling of being heard without being rushed, fixed, or judged. These moments may seem small, but they are not. They are often the beginning of the nervous system learning something new. Connection can be safe. Why Being Seen Matters From a psychoanalytic perspective, connection is also part of how the self comes into being. We dis