How Can You Be Vulnerable As An Adult When You Were Never Safe As A Child?
It’s no wonder why being vulnerable is so hard for so many. You learn to feel safe in the families you grow up in. If you were lucky, you had two fairly healthy parents who supported each...
Reaching Peace Within Yourself: What I Learned From My Dad About Compromise
“Margaret, life is about compromise.”
That’s what my dad used to tell me from time to time.
Considering the massive amount of wisdom I’d accrued by the age I first heard him say this, probably around 20 or 21, I remember feeling that my father’s early health problems had colored his thinking. I silently shook my head, and believed he was focusing on the negative — on what you gave up in life. I was sure that with enough effort, and maybe a little good luck thrown in, you could achieve exactly what you wanted.
251 SelfWork: Am I In The Right Career? A Conversation with Career Coach Ashley Stahl
Ashley Stahl is a counterterrorism professional turned career coach, spokesperson, and author of the bestselling book, You Turn: Get Unstuck, Discover Your Direction, Design Your Dream Career....
250 SelfWork: Where Does Willpower Come From?
This is the 250th episode of SelfWork. And frankly, I’m amazed. So, that made me wonder… where does willpower come from? Can you learn to have more willpower? What makes something worth...
Five Strategies to Deal With Empty Nest
As a therapist, I try to focus not just on concepts, but on tangibles to help people make concrete changes in their lives, no matter what issues they are facing.
This goes for facing an empty nest as well. There are very specific things you can do to help yourself get on with life after empty nest.
249 SelfWork: How To Calm Your Mind or What Would Mister Rogers Say?
Today we’re focused on how on the power of words can calm or basically how to self-soothe. I stopped to think about “soothers” with words in our culture, such as Mister Rogers, Aibileen Clark from...
Anger. Is It Respected, Avoided, or Abusive In Your Life?
Anger. There’s a lot of it out there. My office is on a narrow one-way street that isn’t well marked as such. A while back there was a big cement truck traveling the wrong way; it pulled over...
244 SelfWork: Why We Lie (Even In Therapy)
Today we’re going to focus on why we lie to each other, to ourselves and even in therapy. We’ll touch on severe manipulative lying, called pathological lying, and compulsive lying, but...
242 SelfWork: The Over-Apologizer: Are You One?
Do you or someone you know apologize all the time? This can stem from several dynamics – if you’re in an abusive relationship currently or there was trauma in your childhood where you’ve grown up...
SelfWork YGTG: Is Therapy Self-Indulgent?
For today’s YGTG, or “You Get the Gist,” I was pondering what a patient of mine said the other day. He had to struggle a bit with the idea that therapy – for him – felt a little...
Dr. Margaret’s Book Now Available!
I'm thrilled to announce my new podcast has earned almost three and a half million downloads! Join thousands of subscribers and tune into SelfWork. It's available here on the website under the tag "SelfWork" and for subscription on iTunes. We talk about similar things as here, but go even further in-depth. Hope you'll join those who listen weekly!
Click here to contact Dr. Margaret by email. I welcome your comments, personal stories, and questions. I will answer you!