How many times have we repeated the thought “I HATE YOU!” in our minds about our co-workers, parents or even our spouse while in a fit of frustration? Many of us have said those words to people we deeply love and care about and obviously don’t truly hate.  I must confess, right now I am thinking those awful words “I hate you!” about my own child! She is 7 but I swear she is either hormonal or actually a teenager in a little girl costume! Either...

I begin this article being very clear that I am not a lawyer and I do not look at cases or tragic situations within families from the perspective of evidentiary evidence. As a Clinical Psychologist I observe behavior, actions and narrative to get underneath the story that is unfolding before me whether in my practice or as a media psychologist. I have been working with victims of trauma and sexual abuse for over 2 decades. My experience and...

It all began when Asher, Michael and I went to see the sleep away camp that Asher was going to be attending for the first time this year. He is 10 ½, very skinny and very fair skinned with freckles along his cheeks and nose. I call Asher and Tova my Café con Leche. She is the café. He is the leche. What will he eat? He will never put sunscreen on I thought but didn’t say it out loud. What if he drops 10 pounds and becomes weak and unable to...

In the play Baby With the Bathwater by Christopher Durang written in 1983…Helen and John are very unprepared for parenthood. They can’t seem to name the baby. John thinks it’s a boy, but Helen says the doctors said they could decide later. When the baby cries, they can’t quite decide what to do. They raise him as a girl but he thinks and feels like a boy.  At the end of the play we meet Daisy – dressed as a girl, but otherwise a polite,...

It seems the ridiculous is courting the sublime these days in terms of headlines to write about, talk about, and wonder about… I mean, really! A congressperson spending his days online sending crotch shots to girls who “liked” his facebook page? Sexting? So with our daily dose of humor at the water cooler, it seems worth wondering just what in the hell is going on here. What would make a man, who has arguably reached a level of success that...

When I was seven and fantasizing about my future family, I knew I was going to have six kids- three boys and three girls- Ashley, Amber, Hannah, Billy, Brock and Ben. My husband, Troy, was tall, blond and athletic and we were going to raise our kids to be just like us! The girls would wear pretty white eyelet dresses, bobby sox and white shoes and the boys would wear khaki pants, button down shirts with short blonde hair. They would all act...