you can stumble through life never noticing the voice of your own muse, your body’s intuition, your connection to all things great and small you can ignore how they call to you never confronting how you avoid vulnerability through attachment to old wounds or you can...
My surname, Kerr, is thought to originate with the Gaelic caerr, which means “left.” Many of my ancestors, the Clan Kerr of Scotland, were left-handed (and I am too), which led to the Scottish expression Kerr-fisted to describe a left-handed...
Traumatic experiences like sexual abuse leave us with more than flashbacks and symptoms like depression and anxiety. They impact our self-concept and how we make sense of our place in the world. Many of us wonder: What kind of person am I for this to have happened to...
One of the more consequential mistakes on my quest to recover from sexual trauma was my lack of discernment about the type of care I needed. Instead of guided by clear objectives, I was driven by a panicky urgency to escape anxiety and despair. I accepted the first...
The heart was the last to go but left a clue where to find her: a smooth river rock heavy in my chest. I knew long before — an image had relayed the nature of her plea — a vision of us together feeling the wind breathe the trees. For so long I resisted the urge...
Long before their falling-out, Carl Jung shared a tragic memory in a letter to Sigmund Freud: “... as a boy I was the victim of a sexual assault by a man I once worshipped” (cited in John Kerr's A Most Dangerous Method). Jung also shared his infatuation with Freud:...
We know freedom through the emotions and actions it ignites in us: joy, exhilaration, confidence, self-expression, playfulness. Yet, we cannot truly know freedom without some sense of belonging, which also ignites these same emotions and actions. Discourses that pit...
Sun was in a mood. Solar flares whipped Earth’s poles causing flecks of green and gold to dance across the night sky. “They used to worship me,” he said to no one but knew Moon was listening. “The Anthropocene?!” He shouted. “As if they could wield so much power on...
Prior to entering college, some women choose not to pursue majors in male-dominated fields like STEM, economics, and philosophy if they anticipate gender discrimination. For those who persevere, having professors sensitive to gender issues can protect...
A defining attribute of humankind is our imaginations. They make possible thriving in almost every climate and grant us the ability to create ecospheres where none existed. If we notably differ from other species, then our uniqueness is found in the time and energy we...
The idea that complete abstinence from mind-altering substances is necessary for recovery from addiction – the hallmark of treatments like Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous – is under threat. For younger Americans dealing with addiction to opioids...
According to a 2014 World Health Organization Report, and data from one hundred thirty-three countries representing eighty-eight percent of the world’s population, nearly one in five women were sexually abused in early life. Yet only a third are thought to have...
Although carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere began rising due to the use of fossil fuels during the Industrial Revolution (mainly coal), nearly half of all fossil fuels were utilized after 1989 when the Cold War ended. It’s staggering to think that in a...
My first bird feeder was an afterthought. The backyard was barren after years of California drought. I was eager to plant bushes and trees and build raised beds to grow vegetables. I thought a feeder might look nice between the Japanese Maple and a rosemary bush. I...
When I attended university thirty years ago with an interest in science, the curriculum’s focus was both the subject matter and how to view the world objectively. It was an education for worlds unknown to me — the social lives of insects, the intricacies of human...
Challenging times bring forth the best and worst in humanity. In our darkest moments, many of us benefit from an image of our better selves or someone we admire who can inspire us to continue the good fight with hope, if not also heroism. But what makes someone, or...
The Trickster has been depicted as both mythical figure and archetype — what Carl Jung identified as instinctual schemas guiding behavior that serve both individual and social development. As archetype, Trickster is a masterful, yet unpredictable,...
In My Green Manifesto, nature writer David Gessner shared of paddling down the Charles River with environmentalist Dan Driscoll as Driscoll spoke of the need for hypocrites in the green movement: “We nature lovers are hypocrites of course,” Dan says. “We are all...
Few people pass from birth to death without intimate knowledge of trauma’s capacity to alter the landscape of their lives. So many experiences are traumatizing: war, rape, death of a loved one, car accidents, hurricanes, bullying, scapegoating, family violence,...
Designer Charles Eames warned of an emerging cultural obsession with the creative process: Recent years have shown a growing preoccupation with the circumstances surrounding the creative act and a search for the ingredients that promote creativity. This...
Buddhist psychology claims there are three primary emotions or sensations — pleasant, painful, and neutral. Arising from these primary emotions are our reactions to them, the so-called secondary emotions. For example, we might feel desire or joy in...
My husband and I have been together almost 39 years, 35 of them married. We know couples past the 50-year point. Some like to trump our landmark. “Pshaw. Newlyweds.” But in a nation where half of marriages end in divorce, and about half the people wanting a...
In the movie Take This Waltz, a young Canadian woman, Margot, is happily married although not excited about her life. Her work doesn’t fulfill her. She designs brochures but would rather be a “real” writer. She describes herself as afraid of being...
For the past 50 years, psychotherapy took a back seat to biomedical psychiatry, largely due to reliance on medications for the treatment of mental disorders. Yet clinical evidence increasingly points to chronic, unresolved traumatic stress as a primary contributor to...
While hiking among the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park, I learned the Paiutes Indians called these majestic rock pillars the Legend People who coyote trickster turned to stone because of their evil ways. Looking out on Bryce Canyon, thinking about the fierce...
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