It is O. K. for me to feel angry and to express it in responsible ways.
We can learn something new anytime we believe we can.
I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen by them, heard by them, to be understood and touched by them.
It is now clear to me that the family is a microcosm of the world. To understand the world, we can study the family: issues such as power, intimacy, autonomy, trust, and communication skills are vital parts underlying how we live in the world. To change the world is to change the family.
We get together on the basis of our similarities; we grow on the basis of our differences.
I have talked about choosing rather than acting from compulsion. When you feel that you have to live according to someone else’s direction or live so that you never disappoint or hurt anybody, then your life is a continual assessment of whether or not you please other people.
Problems are not the problem; coping is the problem.
People prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty.
The message sent is not always the message received.
Life is not what it’s supposed to be. It’s what it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.
Your responses to the events of life are more important than the events themselves.
Many people are living in an emotional jail without realizing it.
We need to see ourselves as basic miracles.
As a therapist, I am a companion. I try to help people tune into their own wisdom.
What lingers from the parent’s individual past, unresolved or incomplete, often becomes part of her or his irrational parenting.
It’s sad that children cannot know their parents when they were younger; when they were loving, courting, and being nice to one another. By the time children are old enough to observe, the romance has all too often faded or gone underground.
The symbol in Chinese for crisis is made up of two ideographs: one means danger, the other means opportunity. This symbol is a reminder that we can choose to turn a crisis into an opportunity or into a negative experience.
The Problem is never the problem! It is only a symptom of something much deeper.
Once a human being has arrived on this earth, communication is the largest single factor determining what kinds of relationships he makes with others and what happens to him in the world about him.
I am me and I am okay.