Blog Articles
Additional resources written by our PCS therapists.
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Addressing the “Tilt” in an Addictive Relationship
Series Two: Blog Thirty-Six Addictive behavior has a systemic impact in the life of a family. The behavior is fraught with trauma. There is the trauma of broken trust. There is the unpredictable environment that is created by the addict’s unstable behavior. There is the harm and devastation that an… -
The Dreaded What-If List
Series Two; Blog Thirty-Five Addiction impacts every level of relational life. Like the mobile of butterflies over an infant’s bed, when you swat one butterfly, the other butterflies jounce as well. Addictive behavior creates the same results in a family system. Every relationship in a family reacts differently to addictive… -
Stalking Shame and Sitting with Discomfort
Series Two; Blog Thirty-Four “Have you ever had the experience of finally telling someone something that you had never shared with anyone before, and they accepted you and what you said and it felt like you never wanted to stop talking? That’s what a safe 12-step community can offer an… -
Hate Management
Series Two; Blog Thirty-Three “There are only two ways: either we love–and love in action is service–or we put hatred into action and destroy.” -Mother Teresa When I was a junior in high school, a classmate, Chuck Fuller, shot and killed five members of the Cox family who lived in… -
Building Boundaries Without Blowing Others Away
Series Two; Blog Thirty-Two One of the most difficult experiences in life to repair is relationship betrayal. Most breeches of trust in relationships are never addressed. Someone takes advantage of you in a business relationship and you learn to never do business with that person again and you move on…. -
The Strength of the Tiger Within
Series Two: Blog Thirty-One “When you declare yourself an unwilling victim of a known risk, you have postured yourself as a poor loser in a game you chose to play.” ― Rosamund Stone Zander, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life. People learn through stories. The Sufi religion… -
Spirituality: The Embrace of Feeling in the Here and Now
Series Two: Blog Thirty Most addicts struggle with spirituality. There’s conflict with understanding what it means and how to be spiritual. For many, it is about creating a relationship with God who they cannot see or understand. It is about religion for many. Many feel like a fraud trying to… -
Relapse Prevention: Where the Rubber Meets the Road in Recovery
Series Two: Blog Twenty-Nine The Sailor: by Geof Hewitt In my movie the boat goes under And he alone survives the night in the cold ocean, Swimming he hopes in a shoreward direction. Daylight and he’s still afloat, pawing the water And doesn’t yet know he’s only fifty feet from… -
Burials and Planting
Series Two: Blog Twenty-Eight We had two lakes when I was a kid, the old and new lake. Paradise Lake was the proper name for the old lake. The lake really didn’t do the word paradise justice. I would describe it as a less than average lake. You could not… -
Resilience: The Essential Quality Born Within Us All
Series Two: Blog Twenty-Seven “Fear is a five-lane highway in the brain, while. Resilience a foot path through the woods. We can make that dirt path wider by walking it, over and over again.” – Andrew Huberman Today I would like to talk further about resilience. I just spent time… -
Less Crummy – A Tale of Progress
Elijah Bedrosian discusses progress and feeling stuck in therapy. -
Intensive EMDR
In this piece I describe a processing for addressing trauma, which I am beginning to offer clients as an adjunct to their existing therapeutic work. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a powerful tool that applies bilateral movements (a brain-healing mechanism similar to the natural movements of REM sleep)… -
Finding Your Ecosystem
I live my life in metaphor. I do not know how I got there or when it started. I just know it has always been. I feel it deep with my soul. It makes it difficult to communicate sometimes. I see connectedness everywhere yet do not always have the ability… -
Going Down and Coming Back Up
Series Two: Blog Twenty-Six May 4, 2021 Author and Buddhist monk Pema Chodron shares a wonderful story about walking along the beach lost in her thoughts. As she mindlessly strolled, a big wave moved in, knocked her off her feet, and rolled her along the bottom of the ocean floor…. -
Another Look at Compassion and Grief in Recovery
Series Two: Blog Twenty-Five Sadness and loss is the kind of struggle that becomes a universal connection. I live in Arizona where there are many inspirational and sad stories to tell about migrants crossing the mountainous desert in the Southern portions of our state. One in particular is about a… -
The Healing Power of Story
Series Two; Blog Twenty-Four “Sometimes the only healing you can offer is a chapter from your own life story.”—Ken Wells Getting emotionally naked with reality is a scary proposition. Facing personal brokenness risks tearing away the fabric and sometimes even the foundation of meaning for your life. Ripping away the… -
Stalking the Lion King
Series Two: Blog Twenty-Three There is no life experience that disconnects us faster from our personal brilliance than shame. During the course of life, we all struggle with shame. It doesn’t matter if you are poor, wealthy, famous or infamous. Shame stalks everybody at some point in life. Shame can… -
Doing Less to Discover More
Series Two: Blog Twenty-Two Slowing down and sitting in solitude can be a scary idea for many. Most addicts I know live a pretty busy life—at least in their head if not outwardly. Slowing the inward negative chatter demands that we sit still and lean into the itch of discomfort… -
Unpacking Your Storyline
Series Two: Blog Twenty-one My brother Dave always fought my brother Jimmy’s fights for him around town. Dave was three years older and looked out after him. Jimmy kind of had a mouth and Dave backed him up. He was a big fighter. Once, Jimmy was being picked on by… -
Stuck and Stargazed
Series Two: Blog Twenty When I graduated from seminary in 1977 I committed to an intern position at a large church with 24 full-time pastors on staff. I worked 85+ hours a week without compensation for three years. I would work from 7am till 10pm each week day and then…
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