I am a clinical psychologist working in Oregon. I keep a practice providing psychotherapy for individuals and couples. The writing here is an effort to keep track of my own journey but also with the hope that the lessons I learn are not just kept to myself.

For patients and therapists therapy is hard work and it is made even more difficult by the way therapy is handled in today's culture. Media shows us incompetent therapists, pharmaceutical companies tell us our pain is solved by a pill, insurance companies muddy the water using practices that help themselves but hurt patients and providers.

We live in a world where heart's are held captive to pain, but we are so blind to it, or so lost in our attempts to attend to it, the suffering simply continues. There will always be pain, but maybe there is a way to at least understand the situation a bit more clearly. Maybe in the captivity, there is some freedom to be had.