Monday's Miraculous Therapy Moments: Can Hide & Seek Rebuild Positive Relationships Between Parents & Children in Therapy?

Thought for the Day: Exactly a year ago, I wrote a Motivational Monday post called: Motivational Mondays: How To Parent When A Child Makes You Feel Incompetent.  In it I relayed the story of how I helped a mother overcome her feelings of helplessness and incompetence with her daughter, Daniella. I had shared the story with clients of mine to help them with similar frustrations with their child. About a week later, I shared an update about that story's impact on my current client's family. At the end of that week's session, the father asked to meet with me individually. He told me that he had been losing his temper with his daughter & with his wife. He knew it was inappropriate & making things worse at home. He wanted to learn how to control his behavior. Much has transpired since last year and I'd like to share how family therapy and a therapeutic version of "Hide and Seek" is helping not only to rebuild a more positive relationship between a child and her parents, but also to enhance the child's self esteem.

Sunday's Comic Strips: Parenting Demands Creative Solutions

Photo from HistoricalLOLs.com

Thought for the Day: Today's Comic Strips focus on the importance of creative parenting solutions. Don't try either of these solutions at home, unless you are a photoshop or videography whizz, however, as a psychologist, I believe keeping a sense of humor while parenting should be a prerequisite for Parenting 101.
     Above is a photo that reminds me of an experience I had many years ago while living in Israel. American friend's were visiting and asked that we watch their two young daughters. As a new immigrant, I was fortunate to have a been able to purchase a washing machine without 300% taxation on the appliance (at the time not many people owned machines) in my 5th floor walk up apartment, but did not have the luxury of owning a clothes dryer. I was on the back porch when:

Sarit: "What are you doing?" 

Me: "Hanging clothes." 

Sarit: "Why are you doing that?

Saturday's Songs for the Soul: 13 Year Old LeAnn Rimes and 9-years-old "EmiSunshine" Sing the Blues

*Photo Credit: 'I Giovani e la Musica'

Thought for the Day:  Many years ago on my first trip to Nashville I heard a young child in an afternoon show at a club. I believe the child I heard was a young LeAnn Rimes before she became a star. 


I heard the second clip of 9 year old, Emi Sunshine, on Facebook. I always find it inspiring to discover talented young children. Enjoy the music!

#FF Friday's Fabulous Finds: Education, Employment, Parenting, Autism & a Miraculous Rescue from Washington Mudslide

Found on teacherspayteachers.com

Thought for the Day: Here are my fabulous finds for the week. For teachers and therapists there is a game that helps children learn how to express their feelings. For the unemployed, there's some advice from James Caan on how to explain gaps on your resume. From a travel editor celebrating her first child's first birthday a wish list of things she hopes for her child to become and have in his life. Whenever new research offers a glimmer of hope to help explain the complex disorder of autism or other psychological disorders, I try to share them, the forth find is one such study. Finally, I saved the best for last with some incredible footage of the rescue of a 4 year old child from the devastating mudslide in Washington state this week. How the rescuers saw the boy is miraculous. Sadly, his father and two siblings have not been found. He was however reunited with his mother who was at work when the mudslide occurred. In the midst of tragedy, sometimes miracles happen. Have a great weekend. 

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom: Rebound Relationships and Brokenhearted Blindness

Thought for the Day: Yesterday while driving in my car, I overheard 4 words from a song that stuck in my mind: "Broken Hearts Are Blind." Since I write songs when I hear a phrase like that I wish I had thought of it! I don't know who was singing an did not hear the rest of the lyric, but this morning I came up with a quote that I think may help people understand why it is important to take time between relationships. Here's my words of wisdom:

"Caution: Rebound relationships tend to fail because they are founded by people suffering from brokenhearted blindness." Dr. Barbara Lavi

Over the years as a clinical psychologist, I have seen hundreds of couples in marital therapy who report that they began their relationship just months after a failed long term relationship. This bit of history is like a red flag for me.

Tuesday's Psychology Tips: Do You Take Your Anxiety Out On Your Stomach, Head or Neck?

Thought for the Day: Today, I chose a question that I answered on HealthTap from someone wondering whether their depression and anxiety could be "residing" in their stomach. I could have inserted multiple other questions about almost every body part you could think of from head, back, heart to chest. The answer would be the same simply inserting different body parts. Although the psychosomatic or influence of our emotional health on our physical health has been proven in multiple studies, it is always necessary to have a physician check to be sure that there is nothing medically wrong with the body part before assuming that it is purely a psychological issue. However, psychotherapy can help. Even if there is a medical problem for which you are being treated, like migraine headaches, reducing the emotional issues may help by reducing the stress you put on that part of your body. Here's my answer with a bit more elaboration than allowed on HealthTap:

Dr. Barbara Lavi answered:

Severe depression/anxiety, not on medication, & would like to know why I get this awful feeling in my gut as if my depression is residing in my stomach?

Different people

take out their anxiety on different parts of their bodies. Common figures of speech reflect this tendency, I.e., "it's a pains in the neck," "I need this like a hole in the head," "It gives me heartache." In your case, "It makes my stomach turn."

Motivational Monday: Malaysian Flight 370: Anticipatory Grief and Why Finding Evidence is Important

Photo from +Mathemania on Google+

Update: This afternoon the fate of the plane's path was confirmed as in a remote part of the Souther Indian Ocean. They therefore are certain that it was impossible for the flight to have landed safely. There have been additional sightings of possible debris, but none have been retrieved. This will be the beginning of the grieving process for the families. Hearts and prayers go out from around the world.

Thought for the Day: While I was thinking about today's post I was invited to join a new group on google+ called +Critical Shadows and saw the amazing photo that I posted above. It also explained that each dot is circling around the circle. Somehow it seemed fitting for today's Motivational Monday's post. 

The entire world seems to be going around in circles trying to find the remnants of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Last week, I was not thinking about this tragedy when I wrote Wednesday's Words Of Wisdom: Beyond Acceptance: The Secret Of Resilience.  However, my thoughts about the stages of mourning are applicable here as well. The families of the passengers of the flight are stuck in the excruciating limbo of not knowing what happened to their loved ones. The world is searching along with them for any trace to help explain what happened.  

Why are we all circling and mesmerized by the news which seems to be moving so slowly.