Cultivating a Gorgeous Lawn The Grass is Always Greener, To the Brown Patches of Dirt in my Lawn, On Love and Life The grass is always greener, the crab grass, the blue grass, the sea grass, I see it out there as one whose mind is prone to perpetual comparisons, squinting eyes contemplating between the haves and have not’s. My front lawn has large cavernous patches of dirt, etched amidst...

Little Girls in Dresses Like To Play In The Mud We raise them to be good girls, to nod politely during fine conversation strung on during respectable hours with respectable people. We raise them to be pillars of hope, encouraging others in their struggles, we hug them and cradle them from the womb to teach them that they too should hug others, pearls of sweat always wiped away before becoming...

A New Year and A Blank Canvas The infamous ball is approaching its apex, soon the confetti shall spill to the ground, the party music will envelops the night air, albeit briefly as the quiet is coming. Soon, our little nor’easter earth will become silent and still as the snow falls steadfastly ensuring the depths of our winter’s hibernation. Beneath all of this obligatory stillness our mind...

Christmas Spirit Holidays offer a time to renew hope as we become enamored with the sparkle of the glimmeringly bedecked pines and spruces in all of their exalted luster. The fa,la,la,la of Christmas carols blaring on the radio while baking cookies, pies, and perhaps even a bit of gingerbread to share with loved ones and guests. It’s the time of year when I want to hug a little longer in...

Oh its the holiday season and if you’re like me then you may have already started to take note of perfect present options for the people on Santa’s list. Some of us are extremely adept at choosing excellent and meaningful gifts for everyone on our list without even breaking the budget, understanding the person enough to project what they could enjoy or want is a skill. By the time...

Perception and Encountering The True Self Perception is the realization of the effect that a vantage point has upon the quality and content of thought. There are sects of psychology which map out human consciousness, a design to thought and feeling. An ever complex diagram which points to the id, the ego, or in other realms the observing ego, and still others...

Holiday Togetherness and stress busting! The holidays symbolize time to be close to those who we hold near and dear, the sentimental stuff of greeting cards, television series, and memories to be made. In later years we may recall the time that the snow fell 8 inches on Thanksgiving Day and Aunt Margaret perfected her best version yet of caramel apple pie, while baby Charlie was just learning...

Amidst Chaos and Wonder, We Connect For my quiet inspiration Often I have written with advice on how to encounter some of relationships and marriages challenges in such a way to bring back the harmony into love. Yet today I realize that not often enough do we reflect upon the playful ecstasy of those moments when love becomes palpable and we achieve treasured moments of connection. Perhaps...

Skeletons, Witches, and Ghosts, Costumes are more than just for fun. It is that time of year, high autumn, with the emblazoned oranges cascading upon the tree lines, carved pumpkins checkering the streets and yards of American homes. All of the store isles, featuring costumes of frightening ghosts and skeletons. We venture out to enjoy the pumpkin patches, haunted houses, costume parties and...

#Reviveyourlove Of all of the things that we share on social media and otherwise, our successes, “I am so relieved! I finally graduated!” Our location “Strike, checking in at Hollywood lanes bowling alley come on down!” How inspiring to be virtually plugged, the possibility for connection in ways which can be meaningful and significant. The opportunity to influence, to brighten,...

Tight Hugs I Like; A Psychotherapists Musings Tight hugs we like It could be risky to admit this but here it goes anyway, I judge people, in social settings I categorize  to such a grand degree, some may say I can hardly help myself. You see, I rank people based on how they hug. When it comes to hugs, they are certainly not all the same. For example, my grandmother, she was a woman who knew...

Anger Management As written by us and featured in Elephant Journal http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/09/serenaded-by-fire-dancing-with-anger-a-psychotherapists-musings-stephanie-mccracken/ Experiencing and acting upon anger, despite its steeping potentials, is often shrouded in uncertainty and even guilt or shame, causing many people to attempt its subterranean burial. Due to cultural and...

Hope is the thing that floats Written by us and as featured in Elephant Journal http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/09/how-to-work-through-guilt-a-psychotherapists-musings-stephanie-mccracken/ Guilt. Certainly we all know that haunting sensation. Even the most conscientious and heroic among us will experience guilt from time to time. Those living a socially mindful life often can’t...

in·ti·ma·cy /ˈɪntəməsi/ Show Spelled noun, plural in·ti·ma·cies. 1. The state of being intimate. 2. A close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving relationship with another person or group. 3. A close association with or detailed knowledge or deep understanding of a place, subject. 4. An act or expression serving as a token of familiarity, affection, or the like: to allow the intimacy...

“Birds and The Bees Redux; Sex therapy, Psycho-therapuetic perspective ” Sexual Connection Seduction, Eroticism, Arousal, Desire, Consent, Sex, Orgasm, Connection. How do you perceive those words? Are they lurid? Dirty? Enchanting? How intimately do you introspect upon your very own sensual conduct or is this a thought so frighteningly formidable that consideration is cast towards the shadows,...

  Stepping outside of yourself Consciousness what? Scratching your head in preponderance of this striking terminology or perhaps you are yourself a woman considering the appropriateness of such a label for your very self? Has the world sometimes labeled you a tough cookie, or suggested that your exultant expectations are otherworldly? If you are a man who has known her you certainly will...

The Sweet Song of the “Good Woman” Thoughts From a Marriage Counselor aka Couples Therapist For those of us who are a part of a long term relationship, partnership, or marriage, there are endless competing demands, changing circumstances, ever evolving human structures, that constant flux of exchanging our time, attention, affection for the expectation that our partner will to attenuate...

The solar energy and entrance of summers dance beckons forth beads of perspiration and the cherry blossom glow if sun-kissed cheeks. It is time to celebrate the summer solstice and this year the earth has proffered abundantly with her flourishing landscape smiling faces pleased to be enjoying more of life outdoors. Moods seem to be heightened and Peaceburgh united in celebration of earth’s...