by Jeff Levy | Dec 22, 2017 | Uncategorized
“I don’t have anything to report,” Joel said to me as we began our session. This had become our beginning ritual, despite having worked together for almost a year. Joel is not the only client who starts a session like this. In other instances, I’ll be talking with...
by Jeff Levy | Dec 21, 2017 | Uncategorized
I recently received an email from a client thanking me for the work we have done together and telling me how much he had grown. In that same email, he shared he had decided to end therapy, at least for now. This isn’t the first time I’ve received such an email,...
by Jeff Levy | Dec 20, 2017 | Uncategorized
“Hey Jeff, I just realized that by the end of this month I’ll have known you for 14 years. I didn’t realize we’d been seeing each other that long. Did you?” I thought for a few seconds about Adam’s statement and question before responding. “What makes you think of...
by Jeff Levy | Dec 19, 2017 | Uncategorized
“I feel worse leaving this session than I did when I came in,” Paul said through tears in his eyes. “Therapy is supposed to make me feel better!” I don’t think this is helping me!” “You’re supposed to know how to make this pain stop! You’re the professional. I pay...
by Jeff Levy | Dec 18, 2017 | Uncategorized
I’ve never been great with silence. In my own life, I am known to be listening to music while working at my laptop, or having the television on while cleaning a room. When I used to jog regularly, I would be sure to be wearing headphones. It has been hard to sit...
by Jeff Levy | Dec 17, 2017 | Uncategorized
Last week in the graduate social work class I am teaching, we had a conversation arise about whether it was acceptable to offer a client a box of Kleenex when they are crying. One supervisor had told a student not to offer Kleenex because in an implicit way, it...
by Jeff Levy | Dec 16, 2017 | Uncategorized
I was in a session with my physical therapist recently, and she was talking about chronic pain. She explained how when we have an injury or some type of condition that causes chronic pain, we begin to move in ways that protect us from triggering this pain. For...
by Jeff Levy | Dec 15, 2017 | Uncategorized
When a potential client calls Live Oak and speaks to our intake staff, we ask a host of questions to connect the client with one of our therapists who, based on the client’s concerns, is the most appropriate and best fit we can find. We’ll ask about reasons for...
by Jeff Levy | Dec 14, 2017 | Uncategorized
It’s almost always the case that one of the tasks of therapy is to foster or restore a sense of hope. We often seek therapy because we have exhausted other avenues for healing, or the ways we have soothed ourselves in the past don’t work the way they used to. Hope...
by Jeff Levy | Dec 13, 2017 | Uncategorized
In reviewing these past several months of blog posts, I realized that I have mentioned both my mother and father a number of times, often referring to their old age or their deaths, which occurred nine and seven years ago respectively. I began to think more about how...
Recent Comments