Years ago, during a weeklong yoga & meditation retreat for weary city dwellers, my teacher, Rodney Yee, told us the following story in an effort to help us focus and clear our minds. Two Buddhist monks complete their initial training and are ready to travel through the country to practice what they have learned. […]
Author: Velleda C. Ceccoli Ph.D.
ON DEPRESSION – and the myth of the high functioning depressive.
“So you still don’t think I am a high functioning depressive?” my patient asks me this half smiling, she knows my answer, and more importantly, she knows first hand that there is no such thing as “high functioning” when one suffers from depression. Depression is an illness. A life threatening illness. It is not […]
COURAGE -A Fairy Tale.
As a young boy, Courage stumbled on a sharp rock as he was attempting to dive off a high cliff into the ocean below for his daily swim. The rock cut into his foot sharply, making him bleed and leaving a deep gash. “I will swim anyway,” he thought, “as the sea water will cleanse […]
IT DON’T MEAN A THING IF IT AIN’T GOT THAT SWING
– The Home Chemistry Set. Love at first glance, that irresistible urge to get to know someone, to find the “one”. That feeling that starts in our gut, makes us giddy, goes to our heads, and makes us do the darndest things. That thing we call magical: that chemistry that everyone talks about and agrees […]
ON SURRENDERING AND LETTING GO
What does it take to let go in our lives? To allow for loss – of a loved one, a cherished object, a known and familiar feeling or experience. How do we go about surrendering and letting go? My experience is that most of us will cling to that someone or something, refusing to […]
PSYCHE AND SOMA – A Developmental Tale.
When Psyche was very young, it was all about Soma. Psyche would find herself empty and uncomfortable, and Soma would writhe and cry until that emptiness was filled. Psyche would loose herself in the colors and shapes around her, and Soma would flip on his side, or play with his toes, or suck on them. […]
IT’S A GIRL THING
– why we need women in our lives. Our girlfriends. What would we do without them? We call them when we are upset, we shop together and ask their advice on everything from how we look to what to do about a job, a partner, a major life decision…we depend on them to always be […]
JUST LIKE MOM…
Revisiting the mother-daughter conundrum. You wake up one morning and while washing your face you see…your mothers face. How can that be? You answer your daughter and find yourself repeating a familiar phrase. When and how did this happen? Many of us have spent a lifetime trying to not be like our mothers. Trying to be […]
WHAT’S THE USE OF TALKING ABOUT IT? The Talking Cure- and why it works.
Ever wonder why you have a running conversation with yourself? Why you talk to yourself on a more or less constant basis? Sometimes over trivial matters like what to fix for dinner , or what to wear, and sometimes over more serious subjects, like what to do about your job, or your partner, or […]