Not Allowed to Die

A former client asked me some questions about her a-sexuality.  Some musings on my responses and some Seinfeld references.  

Some reflections on how a lack of sex positivity leads to sexual assault and women being afraid to assert themselves.  The main theme is how we need to stop teaching young men to look for consent and instead to look for enthusiasm.

In this episode I explore some concepts related to Emotional Support Animals and talk about Paws for Patrick and how we connect people to ESAs.   

In this episode I dive into some of the challenges my trans students were venting about this week.  

In this episode I go through many of the things I say over and over and over to my clients.  We explore the function of negativity and how to avoid it.  

Some thoughts on how we need to apply what we know about grief to relationships and a run through of the 6 stages of grieving and how they relate.  

In this episode I explore a dilemma a client was having with whether or not to continue in a relationship.  I compare and contrast a healthy vs unhealthy way a partner should react when confronted with a request for change.  

Every therapist has a number of theoretical perspectives that they draw from in their work.  One that speaks to me most strongly is Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy.  In this podcast I give a very brief explanation of some of the concepts of the approach and how I use it in my work.  

In this episode I explore the 4 main communication styles:  Aggressive, Passive, Assertive and Passive Aggressive and the pros and cons of each of them.  We also explore the difference between winning an argument and winning a conversation.  

I made this episode immediately after listening to the Unread podcast by Chris Stedman. You can find it on apple podcasts, I heart radio, or on Spotify.  This is a 4 episode podcast where the creator shares his story of getting an email from a good friend after his friend has died by suicide.  Included in an audio file are some of his friend's conversations with a woman called Alice, who may or may not be Britney Spears.  This podcast is powerful and intense and it made me physically uncomfortable and gave me all the feelings.  I felt it was incredibly well done and I encourage you to listen to it but be warned that it will take you on an emotional journey.   

 https://chrisstedmanwriter.com/unread/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=2590eba7d7c081c9e304bf1c5137b55ec72d4cdb-1625869120-0-AcTPS8UDIm0rOu9Tgji0Q5X-hUxpCv79jTbU8CsOTGDdK9RKSjV1JPimivZqJ-vl3jo27u4bVdfnGmvPSO2wSpUYVXYpdjSmbIrAwQAQWAbE_UEjAkKJqN8l7iSi5NcV0IBBnxjlZydSY2O5lHf1MhLJCkUyI-bQIoaV7Q8JSf6zWL55Uv1v07AOhsYDN61Esrb3U1sAMnjJ6YaQxVVmoGVJAU9_4e-rbNhy9400ZRqJ_oIwlBSzfbLMCmCk45_1qhv1iohxG0OyGJP5t8FpTGkz0phH34D4NpUEOG2vyVMlp4Sq8cRzXTa-DQMldtH8aHK1jzq11H_sHiI3YoZuDz2OfYdr7mniDc4B-MpWBP3KOAl4hUOiCfvuoJZg2cj65kBa5x2ODjO2O0x2_g9D5Nc