Is Psychology Making Us Sick?

Introducing a love-based psychology

David Bedrick J.D., Dipl. PW

Setting Healthy Boundaries: A Key to Healing Shame

Early shaming undermines one's natural self-protective impulses. Learning to set boundaries is key to healing shame.

The Shaming of Our Needs

Why do we question, judge and shame our needs? How does this effect our relationships? Can we communicate our needs in ways that foster true intimacy?

Embracing Diversity in Relationships

How do we shift from a phase of unity and harmony in our relationships to embracing diversity? How do we be our true selves with another person who is different from us?

When Relationships Fall Apart

When relationships falter, there are many roads a couple can take. Which path will you choose?

Domestic Violence: Power and Rank Dynamics

Being unaware of power dynamics, leads many to blame and shame the victims of domestic violence. Understanding these dynamics empowers us to bear loving witness.

Shaming Methods in Popular Psychology

Shaming methods can injure and are rarely sustainable.

What Depression May Be Telling You

Hidden in depression's feelings, moods, and thoughts is a deep intelligence. How can we explore its depths? What does it have to teach us?

Talking About Sexism: Responding to Trump

Trump’s words and behavior compel a deeper and more challenging conversation about sexual violence. We must combat the triple threat of denial, dismissal and victim blaming.

Three Keys to Healing Shame

To heal our shame, we need to be: truly seen, witnessed with compassion, and have our feelings and deepest truths believed.

Understanding Shame: Symptoms and Prevention

Shame is insidious, corrupting our self-knowledge, inhibiting our self-love. What are shame's consequences? What can we do to prevent it's toxic bite?

Mother Teresa: In The Shadow of a Saint

Mother Teresa is officially a saint. But her story is not only one of light, but also of shadow—the agony of the absence of her beloved, Jesus. How shall we understand her story?

The Roots of Shame

Do you sometimes think something is wrong with you? Do you know your own story and have compassion for your suffering? If not, shame may be limiting your healing.

Healing Our Wounds: Finding the Gold Within

When we find the gold hidden in our wounds, the healing process becomes more than resolving our pain. It becomes a path to discovering our greatest gifts.

Do You Know How to Defend Yourself?

Have you ever been attacked, assaulted or hurt by another? Here's five time tested strategies for responding. Which have you used? Which would be good to learn?

Working With the Shadow

What if our yearning for the light is keeping us from what we most long for? What if the healing and treasure we seek is hiding in the shadows?

Why Being Normal Isn't Always Healthy

You may not be "normal" and that could be a good thing! Your beauty, intelligence, and gifts may make you extra-ordinary.

What 3 Common Bad Dreams Could Be Telling You

Creatures with sharp eyes and red pens watch our thoughts, feelings, and actions and invariably conclude we have erred or that we are simply unworthy.

Stress: The Whole Truth

Take it easy, breathe, relax, meditate—conventional advice that assumes that stress is something to relieve. But this is not the whole story. Some stress contains messages that need to be heard; some stress embodies energy that we need to live; and some tensions simply won't be relieved by conventional notions and strategies. Want to find out more?

Paging Dr. Ben Carson: Homophobia Calling

The simple truth—that being gay is an expression of nature’s beauty, truth, and love—is not available to a mind closed by orthodoxy. Instead, our gay sisters and brothers are projected upon and viewed as sick and dangerous. Here's some light to illuminate the shadow of Carson's thinking.

What's the Matter With 'All Lives Matter'?

Some white folks have responded to the phrase "Black Lives Matter" with the phrase “all lives matter.” While this is a seemingly more empowering and diversity affirming response, it is neither. Here's why.

Why We Use Drugs: The Power of Addictive Tendencies

Addictions are a hotel; they are not home but can remind people of home so powerfully that they won’t easily abandon them without knowing where their real home is and how to get there.

Beyond Individual Psychology: How Psychology Shames

Do you see your problems as only your own? Do you see how they are part of a larger family or cultural system? If not, you may be burdened with undeserved shame.

Winning the Battle with Inner Criticism

Does inner criticism shake your confidence, make you feel that you are not beautiful, intelligent, powerful, or even worthy? Here's how to make a real difference in your struggle to love yourself.

Racism: Our Collective Complicity, Denial and Naiveté

To honestly confront the psychological illness of racism, America needs a true mirror, one that reflects our light and our shadow; one that provokes a real moral and spiritual awakening.

Je Suis Brian Williams

We Are Brian Williams

Imagine Brian Williams saying "I tried to feel good about myself but never felt good enough. I constantly criticized myself. I inflated who I was hoping that somehow the reflection back from my audience would overcome my inner diminishment. Now I see that it never did and it never can."

Dr. King’s Dream Through the Lens of White Privilege

Have we fulfilled Dr. King's Dream? Or could those who argue that we now live in a truly post-racial society be wearing the blinders of white privilege?

4 Half Truths About Weight Loss

Why is your weight loss program not working? Here's what you need to know.

4 Barriers to Dialoguing About Race and How to Overcome Them

Talking about race is no easy task. What makes understanding each other so hard? What can you do to make racial dialogue more healing and less painful? Here's what I've learned from working with diverse groups dialoguing about race.

Getting Real: 7 Problems to Becoming Our Authentic Selves

Get real. Be authentic. Just be yourself. Great advice, but what makes it so difficult? What are the forces against arriving on the scene just as you truly are?

David Bedrick Psychology Today

6 Reasons Not to Forgive, Not Yet

Forgiving can be sweet. But are there times this counsel can cause pain instead of healing? You better believe it!

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