Stories We Tell Ourselves
"He said he had been listening to a symphony, and it was absolutely glorious music, and at the very end... there was a dreadful screeching sound... He added, really quite emotionally, 'It ruined the whole experience.' But it hadn't. What it had ruined was the memory of the experience... He had had twenty minutes of glorious music. They counted for nothing..." -- Daniel Kahneman, TED2010
Read MoreRespecting My Kids: Feelings
"Parents… fear that by giving a name to the feeling, they’ll make it worse. Just the opposite is true. The child who hears the words for what he [or she] is experiencing is deeply comforted. Someone has acknowledged his [or her] inner experience.” Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk
Read MoreSelf-Harm: It Makes Sense
"For a burn or a cut might be shown, might be nursed, might scar or heal... would anyway be there, on the surface of her body, rather than corroding it from within." Sarah Waters, The Night Watch
“My head was full of wild ambitious urges to hurt myself... I wanted my interior pain out in my body... I wanted this vague pain to be specific. That’s how I explain it.” Charles Baxter, The Feast of Love
To Risk or Not to Risk
"What did I know of life? I who had lived so carefully? Who had neither won nor lost, but just let life happen to him? …Who avoided being hurt and called it a capacity for survival?" Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
I’m sitting at the computer, wondering how to get into this topic. The room is quiet. I glance at my phone, half hoping for a distracting text...
Respecting My Kids: Privacy
"She didn't have to go and tell that, thought Ramona, feeling that her mother had betrayed her by telling, as if it were funny... She still thought Chevrolet was a beautiful name, even though she was old enough to know that dolls were not usually named after cars." Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother
About Lynn
I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor with a Master of Science in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University in Maryland. I have been in private practice for over twenty years and have experience working with adults and adolescents, addressing a variety of issues: anxiety, depression, relationship problems, past or current trauma, eating disorders, self-mutilation, bereavement, parenting concerns, boundaries, and self-care.