Welcome back to our newsletter series addressing the question we’ve been hearing from our community of clients: Is my response to the abnormality, normal? Last time, we focused on your own thoughts and feelings. In this 3rd installment, we are focusing on what our community is noticing in their relationships with others. Relating in Isolation As depicted in the graphic above, our …

Recent developments in the COVID-19 pandemic have motivated me to transition to an entirely virtual practice. I believe firmly that social distancing is the safest and most ethical way to ensure the well-being for everyone and protect my clients. I use a HIPAA-compliant platform that can be accessed by phone, iPad, or computer. No set-up needed; you simply click a …

Digital media, including social media, became a centerpiece of day to day life at a seemingly exponential rate. Before I graduated high school in 2006, I remember many evenings spent on ICQ (used to chat with friends), making simple websites with shout outs to my friends which included obnoxious lists of inside jokes, and playing The Sims Online. I whiled …

Being a Marriage and Family Therapist in the Bay Area specializing in Couples Therapy Palo Alto, means I have the privilege to meet clients from very diverse backgrounds. One of them is the Silicon Valley background which is a culture in and of itself. Clients and couples with this background share some distinct characteristics: high achieving, hard working, intelligent, ambitious, …

Family Stress Test Stress is a natural and normal “by-product” of every family’s life. In fact, family stress can bring out the best of us: as we stretch to meet the challenges we face, we become better parents, our children blossom and our families grow. But too much stress can spiral our families in the other direction. Take this Thriving …

Mary Ainsworth’s work on attachment identified three attachment categories (secure, insecure avoidant, and insecure ambivalent/resistant). The development of the disorganized/disoriented classification evolved as a part of Mary Main’s doctoral research in which she noticed that approximately 10% of infants in Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Procedure were difficult to classify.1 Disorganized attachment is an additional attachment category that was identified in 1986 …

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most widely used evidence-based treatment for depression and anxiety. In CBT, the focus is on thoughts, and how they directly affect emotions, and behaviors. If you are having a lot of negative thoughts, you are likely to have a lot of negative feelings. During cognitive behavioral treatment, you and your therapist will work together …