Why Summer Is the Best Time for Psychoeducational Testing
Every September, a familiar scene unfolds in households everywhere: This year will be different. There is a new backpack, a new planner, and a renewed commitment to staying on top of homework. For a few weeks, everyone feels hopeful. Then, by mid-October, the old…
High-Functioning Depression: When Everything Looks Fine and Nothing Feels Right
There is a version of depression that everyone recognizes: the person who cannot get out of bed, stops showing up, or is visibly overwhelmed by suffering. Then there is the version I encounter more often in practice: the person who continues to show up everywhere. She…
BPD Is Treatable: How MBT and TFP Create Change That Lasts
May is Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month, and there is one thing I wish more people understood about BPD: its reputation is decades out of date. Borderline personality disorder is still sometimes discussed, even within the mental health professions, as…
Dissociation: The Mind’s Way of Leaving Without Leaving
You have almost certainly dissociated at some point this week. Perhaps you drove a familiar route and arrived with little memory of the drive. Perhaps you read a page of a book and realized that none of it registered, or became so absorbed in a film that the theater…
“I Think I Might Have ADHD”: Why a Careful Evaluation Matters
“I think I might have ADHD.” I hear this more often every year, and the question deserves to be taken seriously. Many adults look back on a lifetime of missed deadlines, unfinished projects, forgotten obligations, and constant mental noise and wonder whether there has…
Why We Repeat the Same Relationship Patterns
February surrounds us with images of love as something we find: the right person, the right chemistry, the right timing. Yet for many people, the deeper mystery of love is not finding but repeating. A new partner may initially seem entirely different from the last,…
Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail: The Psychology of Repetition and Change
Every January, we make promises to become someone else. We will exercise more. Drink less. Stop procrastinating. Leave the relationship. Save the relationship. Be more patient. Stop raising our voice with the people we love. The track record is humbling. In one of the…
What Is Mentalizing, and Why Does It Matter?
Mentalizing is the ability to understand behavior in terms of what may be happening inside a person’s mind. It involves recognizing that our actions, and the actions of others, are influenced by thoughts, feelings, fears, wishes, beliefs, memories, and intentions….