The Novel Perspective

Life as a work in progress

Kim Schneiderman L.C.S.W., M.S.W

How Are You Growing?

There are no trophies for personal growth. But we can value internal victories by changing our catch-up conversations.

To Stay or Not to Stay in Managed Care

If you can't find a therapist who takes your insurance, here's why...

From Mindless Din to Deep Mindfulness

How spiritually oriented therapy heals mind, body, and spirit.

Stop Making Resolutions that Leave You Disappointed

Tired of beating yourself up for falling short of your goals? In 2108, make a resolution to be firm but loving parent to yourself.

Triumph or Tragedy: How You Tell Your Story Matters

While making mistakes is not an especially pleasurable experience, when people become depressed, it is usually because they mistake difficult chapters for the entire plotline. They also under-value the important lessons that come from harder chapters which, if we read them correctly, can help us move on to happier ones.

Your Anger Knows Your Worth

Your anger knows your worth: 10 steps to turn your temper into a teacher.

The Self, Lost and Found

How creativity holds up a mirror to your inner world.

It's Not Whether You Win or Lose But How You Tell Your Story

Although we can't always control the plotline of our lives, happy endings are often a matter of choice.

And the Oscar Goes To...

Pixar's "Inside Out" deserves an award for being the best teaching tool about human emotions ever.

Conflict, the Ultimate Character Development Workout

The antagonists of our life stories are like the personal trainers who push us beyond our perceived limitations to develop our flabby, underutilized emotional muscles and strengthen our character.

Fooling Your Ego

A growing body of research that shows that viewing your life from a psychologically distant vantage point can help you see yourself through kinder, more compassionate eyes.

Tapping Into Your Omniscient Narrator

Writing about yourself in the third person narrative is a remedy for tunnel vision, offering an elevated, compassionate perspective on your life.

Compare and Despair

Comparing yourself to others is always a waste of energy because everyone's history and life path is different. It's far better to compare yourself to yourself and see how you've grown.

The Trouble with Texting

As technology becomes second nature to a generation reared on iphones, an increasing number of people are using text messages to resolve disputes in their friendships and significant relationships. But if 93 percent of communication is visual and audio, habit and expediency may actually create more problems than it solves.

Creativity Is Our Birthright

Broadly defined, creativity is bringing something new into existence. As human beings, it’s practically our birthright. Every day, we wake up to a blank canvas with a wide range of colors, textures, and shapes at our disposal. From choosing what clothes to wear to preparing breakfast, each tiny decision sculpts our experience of the world.

Magical Thinking, Delusions, or Synchronicity?

Human beings are natural storytellers and meaning makers. We have lucky numbers and charmed rabbit’s feet. Our problems may not lie so much in our beliefs that don’t stand up to scientific reasoning, but in our attachments to narratives that don’t serve us or cause us harm.

Love and Redemption in the Face of Loss

For years, I had been helping people reclaim the authorship rights of their life stories. But after a series of family deaths, my ideas were put to the test. Could I turn a family tragedy into a story of love and redemption?

The Truth About Transitions

As we age, we are often measured by our gains, not our losses, our stability, not our vulnerability. That's why so many people are devastated when the temple of their familiar world is shaken. Yet change doesn't have to be scary. Understanding the three stages of transition can help us navigate life's twists and turns.

The You Behind Your Resume

While there's nothing wrong with taking pride in one's hard-earned status and credentials, glomming on to titles that complete sentences like "I am a ________________" (stockbroker, lawyer, etc.) can trigger an identity crisis when confronted with precarious life circumstances like, say, a recession.

Emotional Yoga: Why Flexibility Is Good for Relationships

Like an asana, a healthy relationship requires flexibility, commitment, and alignment with our internal sources of vitality and well-being—loving ourselves unconditionally, for example—even while enduring periods of discomfort. Making yourself a little uncomfortable for someone you love can stretch the relationship into new levels of health and vitality.

The Difference Between a Monologue and a Dialogue

Conversations between two parties who are not really listening to each other are essentially monologues masquerading as dialogues. One of the hardest things we can ever do is to put aside our own agendas and really listen to another person.

Spells and Charms: Harry Potter and the Power of Positive Thinking

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling was not only a genius of fantasy fiction, but also a sorceress of pop psychology.

Cyberspying and Defriending: How Facebook is Finding its Way to the Therapy Couch

By pronouncing precisely who likes who and who is doing what, Facebook tells us in black and white letters and full-color photos what we might otherwise read between the lines and wish we could ignore.