EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING IS POSSIBLE FOR YOU!

Life is always challenging, but it does not have to be a perpetual struggle, accompanied by painful emotions, thoughts and relationships.

Having made those statements, perhaps you would ask, “If that is true, how can I find emotional well-being?” While there is no universal answer, I can offer some basic information that may help you.

There are two prominent impediments to emotional well-being, at times with an interrelation:

1. The greatest is our persistent attempts to control the thoughts and actions of others with whom we have close relationships. What compounds the issue is that humans are usually not aware that they are attempting to control others.
2. The other is persistence of disturbing emotions and thoughts resulting from severe trauma, especially when it occurred in early life.

What is important to understand is that these are problems in living, not mental illness, and that regardless of what the past has been, you can create a better future. For many years, my primary interest has been the facilitation emotional well-being. Most people would describe that facilitation process as “psychotherapy,” but that is a description that defies definition. Literally, the word means treatment of the mind.

Historically, “mind” has been thought of as a thing, something that exists and can be analyzed. This idea has been popular since Freud identified his work as psychoanalysis, more than a century ago. Most people do not know that Freud was educated as a neurologist and that he believed that there was a physical basis for the emotional events.

Fortunately, with the constant improvement of technology for research focused on the brain and nervous system, much of what Freud thought probable is now more clear. I must make it clear that I am not referring to the popular misconception that emotional problems are caused by “chemical imbalance” in the brain. That is another falsehood, regardless of how often it is used to explain human troubles.

The most recent understanding of source of emotional turmoil and its accompanying disturbing thoughts and behavior requires knowledge about three inseparable aspects:

1. The perpetually changing structure and function of the brain, in response to external events.
2. The importance of relationships as external events that we can change, but not completely control.
3. That mind is the processes that mediate between brain and external events.

Description of these interrelated aspects is far too detailed to include here, but I will soon offer material that I expect will make it all more understandable.The understanding of these interrelated aspects obviously involves memory, the brain’s ability to store historical information. Commonly, when one speaks of memory, it refers to events and images that can be recalled. That is only the accessible part of our total memory. Of greater importance is the inaccessible memory, which begins to form before birth.

The forgoing may seem a strange way to start a webpage, but I have devoted most of my adult life to two things: 1) understanding how to help people stop the struggling of suffering and 2) teaching other professionals to become effective facilitators of beneficial change. It has been my privilege to have been invited into the intimate inner world of those that suffer, and to have been a partner in their journey to a rewarding life.

I prefer to not describe my professional services as psychotherapy. Instead, I believe that what I offer is a trusting relationship that facilitates restoration of healthy brain function through change of the processes called mind. The result is a gratifying change in relationships and elimination of previously recurrent painful emotions and thoughts.

I have created this website to offer what I can for those that are seeking their personal better life. While the internet is widely used, it is still difficult to know how useful it is as a tool for self-improvement. I hope that it is and on that basis I will continue to give information to those with interest.

For those that wonder why I live in Brazil, I am married to a Brazilian clinical psychologist. After 40 years, I decided to close my private practice in California. We decided to live in São Paulo. Since moving to Brazil I have devoted myself to alternative options for facilitating release from recurring emotional, and sometimes physical, discomforts. In addition, I have provided coaching for personal effectiveness. I offer a consultation without obligation. That consultation can be in person, or through various electronic internet options.