Please take a moment to consider what you can do to help people living in hurricane-prone areas as you visit this site. Read Sarah's story about her experiences living in Florida during the fall of 2004, and learn how hurricanes affect people with disabilities and people who live in poverty and what you can do to help.
This site is designed with two purposes in mind:
1. to provide encouragement to people who are dealing with mental illness. I have dealt with it in my life as well as observed as friends have dealt with it in theirs. I also have my BA in psychology and plan to go into pastoral counseling. While this does not give me the qualifications to offer professional counseling, it has given me some basic knowledge of how research is conducted, how to find the information I want, and what the various mental illnesses are. I hope to help other people to understand what they are going through and to know that there is hope and help.
2. I hope to help therapists by providing a patient's perspective on issues which are not often discussed and to raise questions which may provoke additional research or discussion. Part of helping others obtain the help they need is helping therapists understand the issues their clients face. There is a lot more to the average client than is in the textbooks, and I am sure that therapists know this. Of course, I wouldn't advocate getting rid of the textbooks and scientific studies. However, I do advocate listening to the perspectives of clients--yours or someone else's--because they are equally valuable in determining whether or not a given type of therapy hits the mark.
Due to the dual nature of the purpose of this site, the pages here will vary in how personal they are. Some of them will provide an extremely personal view of times in my life when I was not healthy. Exposing this part of my life is a difficult thing; however, I hope that iknowing about my recovery from these issues will encourage others. Other pages are written with just as much passion but are much less personal. These pages reflect my own interest in psychology from the academic standpoint. Regardless of what pages you choose to view, I hope you find them useful. If you have any comments, please feel free to drop me a line.
What I Learned From Vicki
This page represents part of my attempt to come to terms with the sudden death of a close friend due to suicide. Links to related resources are provided.
I Remember Vicki
It took a long time for me to be able to remember Vicki without experiencing extreme sadness. But as time passed, I was able to remember her and put the things she taught me into practice.
The Emotional Impact of Blindness
This paper looks at how vision loss affected me emotionally and what the professional and biographical literature says about the emotional impact of blindness.
Living With Pseudoseizures
For several years I have observed as my friend came to terms and learned to cope with seizures provoked by psychological issues. This article is based on what both of us have learned.
What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy?
For ten years I struggled to make progress in talk therapy. Then while doing research related to my academic studies, I found something that offered some hope.
Mindfulness Skills
Mindfulness skills are the key to developing good coping strategies. Here is an example of how they have helped me.
