Chihiro steps through a dark tunnel, and into an unknown and abandoned world. The bathhouse represents what becomes lost to time, in what is sacrificed to the up and down elements of life, in the parts of ourselves that have become “employed” to do our bidding, repressed or ignored, treated as creatures or monsters when
‘Spirited Away’: The Vertical Labyrinth (A Depth-Informed Perspective) Read More »
K: The Regressed Ego, and The False Self K represents the schizoid personality, a person who appears loyal, dependable, committed, and unshakeable to others, though he is actually completely flat, joyless, and disconnected from his personal life, and emotionally withdrawn within his relationships to others. K experiences damage in punches, cuts, and deep injuries, but
Blade Runner 2049: The Search for a Real Self (An Object Relations Perspective) Read More »
“Fawning” is a trauma response learned in the context of emotionally unavailable or immature parents in childhood. In this post, I will be using people-pleasing and fawning interchangeably. Something is given up in the act of people-pleasing. At the most extreme end of the spectrum, you become fused with the people-pleaser mask. You become the
The Fawn, and People-Pleasing in LA Read More »
Why Artists Identify with OCD “I’ve been so OCD about this idea I have.” The term OCD has become something of a badge among creative people. I recently heard a podcaster joke about being “OCD” about his preparation and filming setup. On its own, it was an offhand and passing comment, and yet the sentiment
Dissociation and Attachment: Causes, and How to Heal Have you ever been in the middle of something and suddenly realized you’d lost track of time, and that you feel mentally checked out? Or had a conversation with someone, only to drift off into a thought. Do you ever feel like you’ve momentarily left your body?
Dissociation and Attachment: Causes, and How to Heal Read More »
Unpacking Cultural Narratives Navigating multiple cultural identities can be both enriching and challenging. Born into a multiracial family and raised by a first-generation immigrant mother from Japan, I have firsthand experience with the complexity of holding different cultural expectations, values, and languages within a dominant culture that often fails to reflect them. This lived experience
Multicultural Therapy: Why It Matters Read More »
