By Laurie Meyers January 25, 2017
When Barack Obama was elected the first African American president of the United States in 2008, some optimistic observers thought that American society had finally reached a post-racial age. As the past two-plus years have highlighted vividly, however, the significance of race and the influence of racism on the American story are far from over.…continue reading
By Laurie Meyers December 21, 2016
In 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn, author and professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, founded the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic, which uses a combination of mindfulness meditation and yoga to promote healing. In the ensuing decades, interest in mindfulness — not just for physical healing but also for emotional healing — has…continue reading
By Laurie Meyers November 21, 2016
“W hat are you?” That is a question commonly asked of individuals who are multiracial. As a society, we have gotten used to checking off a metaphorical — and often literal — “box” when it comes to questions of race. We seem to expect everyone to “just pick one.” But the population of the United States…continue reading
By Laurie Meyers October 27, 2016
For many years, mental health practitioners labored under the assumption that grief was a relatively short-lived process that people navigated in an orderly and predictable fashion until they reached “closure” — the point at which the bereaved would move on and put the person they had been grieving in the past. Despite the continued prominence…continue reading
By Laurie Meyers September 22, 2016
Among the most common difficulties that bring couples to counseling are infidelity, financial problems, sex and intimacy issues, parenting challenges and ongoing tensions with the in-laws. Each of these problems has its own unique characteristics, but according to couples counselors, they tend to share a similar root cause — namely, lack of communication. The challenge for…continue reading