What The Wild Things Are

Understandings of Self, Awareness, and Mental Health in an Ever-Changing World

Samantha Smithstein Psy.D.

That Powerlessness You Feel Is Called "Moral Distress"

What happens when life forces us to choose between two “wrongs,” or bad situations, either one compromising our core values, obligations, and commitments?

Finding Our Way Through Collective Grief

How do we wind our way through the collective loss and grief we are experiencing?

My Battle With Anger as a Parent

To this day, I still think about what happened that evening with the pacifier, no matter how small it may seem.

Feeling Anxiety in the Face of Change

When we were growing up, we absorbed a lot of information from our environment about how we needed to be in order to feel loved.

When My Adult Son Changed His Life, He Also Changed Mine

When my only child moved to California, I was not thrilled.

Dry January Is Hard

“As my heart raced and cortisol shot through my veins, the only thing I could think of was, 'Damn, I need a drink,'” she wrote.

Will We Survive or Perish? (Part 2 of 2)

If the goal is a loving community, sustainability, and respect for all people and nature, then we must choose a path that includes all of us.

Will We Survive or Perish?

The only way forward is with each other.

Why Do We Have Rampant Pandemic Denial?

We insist that disability and death is something that happens to others, not us.

Unseen Victims of the Pandemic

In the United States, our incarceration rate is the highest in the world. What is happening to all those people during the pandemic?

Life Under COVID-19

How do we cope when the rhythm of yesterday has become a bunch of questions of today? We return to our values and passions.

All in Good Time

Time is a precious resource: Spend it well. It’s up to you to decide what that looks like.

Life's Great Contradiction

We long to feel safe, but following one’s heart is often filled with risk, contradiction, and loss.

Sobriety's Rewards

We all have ways we try to avoid the discomfort of this human experience. What happens if we show up instead?

Self Atonement: Showing Up for Our Own Life

In the Torah, when Jonah was called to head east and be a prophet, instead of listening he fled in the opposite direction.

Lessons from Splitsville

There isn't any reason long-term co-parenting relationships can't be as wonderful as post-divorce unions. Here are some lessons from those who are trying a second time.

The Deepest Intimacy

What if we didn't enter a relationship from a place of need, but instead from a desire for discovery?

Why I Kidnapped My Daughter

Guest writer Simone Silver hired someone to kidnap her daughter. It was one of the best (and most difficult) decisions she has made as a parent.

The Grief of Love

We create partnership and companionship. We fall in love. And we do so in the face of inevitable loss, aloneness, grief, and emptiness.

Let's Talk (About Change)

True dialogue between us, whether between individuals, groups, cultures, or countries, is one of the only things that actually leads to that desired change.

Toxic Masculinity: What Is It and How Do We Change It?

To really recover from toxic masculinity, one must admit that they are sick. I had to admit that I was very sick, then I had to do the work to get well.

Power Play

Could kink give us understanding and a way to play with choice, surrender, power, and empowerment and even create avenues for healing from trauma?

What's Truly Hot: Desire and Consent

Six years ago a woman accused me of rape.

Love Without a Future

What if we spent our effort getting to know, deeply, who this other person is and what their life is about, and love was about supporting that, even if it takes them away from us?

Are Others a Threat or a Benefit?

It is so important at times like these to step back and think about how people come to the point of acting out in hate against one another.

I Still Don't Feel Loved/Connected/Cared About!

One of the biggest issues to plague the couples I see in my practice is the tension between what is happening and what is wanted.

The Ordinary Courage of Being Our Selves

If we want to live full, rich lives, we must take the risk to override the shame and to be fully in relationship with others and the word.

The Unexpected Gifts of Desire

What can we learn if we don't automatically act to fulfill an urge or longing?

Diagnoses: Harmful or Helpful?

Mental illness can tell us what's wrong with a person, with parenting, with a culture, and with society. It's bio/psycho/social. Let's learn fully about ourselves from it.

The Gender Revolution Is Here

The take-down of black-and-white thinking about what it means to be a human being and liberates us all.

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