by James Robbins, M.A., LPC When we don’t get what we want from our romantic partner, we tend to punish him or her. It’s our way of “training” our partner to better meet our wants and needs. We withhold sex and affection. We become emotionally unavailable, spend more time at the office. We criticize, complain, […]
Relieving Emotional Knots
by James Robbins, M.A., LPC What do you do when you have a tight muscle? You stretch it. Funny thing is, stretching hurts–at least at first. But you stretch the muscle to teach it to lengthen, to reverse its tendency to protect itself from injury by pulling into a tight knot. Where are you […]
The Five Core Emotions – But Where Is Guilt?
by James Robbins, M.A., LPC Your brain “officially” recognizes five emotions: anger sadness joy fear disgust What about guilt? Guilt is suspiciously missing from this list because guilt is really anger in disguise. I often ask my clients: Who are you guilty at? Suppose you forget your spouse’s birthday. You already feel terrible, and then your spouse […]