Blog

Training the Puppy

We will be collaborating for a relatively brief period of time to achieve the ambitious goal of changing the course [...]

Incentives and Excessive Appetites

The PIG (the Problem of Immediate Gratification) is a defining feature of incentive use disorders.  Individuals suffering the negative consequences [...]

The Karma of Behaving Badly

The descent to Hell is easy; the gates stand open night and day; but to reclaim the slope, and escape to the upper air, this is labor. – Virgil

Attachment to Outcomes

Do not become attached to the things you like;
do not maintain aversion to the things you dislike.
Sorrow, fear, and bondage come from one’s likes and dislikes.
–Buddha

Recursive Traps

It is often possible to discern a structure to people’s difficulties
in which internal states and external events
continually create the conditions for the reoccurrence of each other.
–Paul Wachtel

Perverse Motivation

God’s error was forbidding the apple.
If He would have forbidden the serpent,
then Adam would have eaten the serpent.
–George Bernard Shaw

Online Course – Suggestions Please

[twg_gpo_button] My academic training in cognitive and neural sciences along with the more expensive education earned over 3 decades of [...]

Conventional Addiction Treatment Can Increase Dependence

Despite heroic treatment efforts, most people who have become dependent upon a substance [e.g., alcohol, food] or an activity [e.g., gambling, pornography] relapse again and again. In fact, for certain individuals, the conventional therapeutic strategy—with its emphasis on admitting powerlessness over a “disease”—makes their problem worse. In fact, many high-functioning individuals who have fallen into an addictive trap can learn to exercise their will, so that they can follow their path of greatest advantage rather than continue to yield in the direction of least resistance. The Path of Greatest Advantage, written by psychologist William Dubin, Ph.D., provides the tools and methods that enhance willpower and promote good long-term outcome for individuals who have developed an excessive appetite.

Self-Efficacy

[twg_gpo_button] I am a psychologist who works with those who can afford my fee. My clients tend to be impressive [...]

Getting Oneself To Do Hard Stuff

You know how you’ve been meaning to do this thing for a while. It’s not even that big a deal. Anyone else would have done it easily. Actually it may be something you really need to do, know you should, want to – in a way. But don’t. Just can’t, it seems.

Below is a list of strategies I have accumulated over the years. Please feel free to add to the list, make comments and to give feedback on what works.