Happiness has the same ripple effect as dropping a pebble in a pond. Its effect radiates outward in ever-greater rings, affecting everyone it touches, brightening each person’s life in turn. Surrounding yourself with happy people, just being near a happy person, even knowing someone who knows a happy person, makes you happier. Happiness is contagious, […]
Two Cookies with Love
My supervisor in residency training gave me a saying that I thought was very descriptive. When you’re a child, if you get two cookies with love, two cookies will always be enough. If you get two cookies without love, no amount of cookies will ever be enough (paraphrased). Of course, the cookies are metaphorical for […]
Can Men and Women Just be Friends?
Harry asked this question in the 1989 movie When Harry Met Sally. Harry insisted that men and women cannot be platonic friends because the man will always want a sexual relationship. Sally was appalled at this idea and insisted that Harry was being small minded. After all, she and Harry were “friends.” Then they got […]
Psychotherapy Can Achieve Positive, Lasting Change
“The changes we practice become our nature.” That sentiment is at the core of the problem-oriented approach to psychotherapy used by Atlanta psychiatrist Dr. Tracey Marks to help her patients find workable and lasting solutions to life’s challenges. Emphasizing Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Psychodynamic Therapy, Dr. Marks provides her patients with the support they need to […]
When Does Parental Involvement Become Meddling?
Parents today pride themselves on how tuned in they are to their children. They coach their soccer teams, drive them to karate and gymnastics classes, chaperone field trips, and work the pancake breakfast. They enjoy spending time with their children and their friends. But many parents have trouble finding the right balance between being involved […]
Children Can Strain Marital Bliss
There is nothing so miraculous and charming as a sleeping baby — and nothing so frustrating or exasperating as a tantruming toddler. Children have the power to evoke a wide range of emotions in their parents — often running through the entire emotional repertoire from love to resentment within the space of a few hours. […]