Harriet Lerner, relationship expert and psychotherapist, didn’t start off as a best selling author. In fact, quite the opposite. In her Topeka Kansa home, she sat in long years of frustration, sorrow, and wanting to give up, hunched over her gray typewriter (computers weren’t around yet) with scissors and scotch tape as her cutting-and-pasting editing tools.

Continue Reading Post

Maybe you’ve experienced this before: you set out with good intentions – being kind to your mom, having patience with your child, being kind and accepting of people in your life, committed to meditation every day, enjoying the mundane like washing the dishes or mowing the lawn, but something happens.  Instead, you find yourself saying something reactive and

Continue Reading Post

I was wandering from my campsite on the Big Sur coast, crossing Highway 1 to take in the sunset before settling in for the night, when I saw someone walking the highway with a backpack. I couldn’t help myself. I asked, “Are you backpacking Hwy 1?” He replied, “Well, ya! I was hiking the Pacific

Continue Reading Post

I finished some gentle yoga on the floor of the cabin, being careful to not irritate my already painful hips. When I sat up, the words came through loud and clear, like a church bell on Sunday morning, “You need to leave the retreat.” I began to sob. “NO, NO, NO!” I yelled back at

Continue Reading Post

I didn’t know I would end up spending a month in silence until a year ago. If you’d asked me before that, I would have said, “no way, too long for me.” But after 13 years of several week long to 10 day silent meditation retreats, I knew it was time. Talking to a teacher last

Continue Reading Post

Six months ago, while spending a few days at a cabin in Big Sur, California, I had complete clarity that this was the cabin I’d spend a month meditating and in silence in the spring of 2016. I’d been knowing it was time for this length of retreat for awhile, but I wasn’t sure where

Continue Reading Post

Winter Solstice is a fantastic time to stop and reflect on your life – what you want to let go of and what you want to create. The Winter Solstice, in ancient traditions, marks the shortest day of the year. Beacuse we turn from dark to light, the day can be a powerful day of

Continue Reading Post

I’ve learned over the years transitions have a certain path to them, an emotional path. You could be in a transition of career, relationship, health, empty nest, money, or several others. Life is full of them. To wish life didn’t have transitions would be like wishing the wind didn’t blow. You can still wish, but it

Continue Reading Post

I used to love rock climbing. I would spend weeks on the road hitting places like Joshua Tree, CA, Red Rocks, NV and Smith Rocks, OR. What I loved most was face climbing, where you hold onto little nubbins and pockets in the face of the rock. Crack climbing scared me. To hone my skills,

Continue Reading Post

I was catching up with a past client recently, and we were talking about relationships. She said excitedly, “One of the most important things that happened in working with you is that I learned to love myself. I want to bring that to my next relationship. No more relying on someone else to find my

Continue Reading Post