Articles by Dave Thornsen, PsyD
To All the Moms
Sometimes we think that a big part of what happens in therapy involves criticizing the mother of the patient. Actually as a profession, therapists probably have a greater sense of the importance of mothers than almost any other group. D.W. Winnicott helped us...
Words to Improve Your Relationship
Marriage can bring out the best in people or the worst in people. The same marriage can do either. When marriage isn’t bringing out the best in people their communication tends to either be negative or nonexistent. When it’s bringing out the best, the couple...
It Matters How We Look at Things
I heard somebody make the observation that our vision should be perfect in the year 2020. As a Psychologist in my 18th year of practice I am wildly aware of just how important the way we choose to see things can affect our daily lives. How we look at our lives...
A Holiday Tradition for Dads
Twenty years ago, or so, when I was in graduate school, I thought it would be a great idea to take my two young sons Christmas shopping for their mom. They were probably 5 and 3. I loaded the Graco Duo stroller into the car and we headed for the mall. I had managed to...
S A D and the Dead of Winter
It started last week… Over the years I have noticed that there are three or four weeks every winter when people seem to feel extraordinarily low; and we are now in the midst of them. During the last couple of weeks of January folks always start to come into my office...
How to Help a Partner Who’s Been Sexually Assaulted
As a Clinical Psychologist I am deeply committed to the idea that talking things through can help us heal. This healing effect is not limited to therapy. Most of us have experienced the positive, connected, feeling we get from a deep, intimate conversation. It’s easy...
Talking About Sexual Assault
If the offices of GR TherapyGroup are at all representative of an average therapy practice, I have to believe therapists all over America spent the week listening to stories of sexual assault occurring in their patients’ past. It is not hard to understand why...
Should I Come Out to My Parents?
There is no perfect way for a person to come out to intolerant parents. This conversation certainly can be one of the most difficult moments in a person’s life. But it is common to feel relief afterward. Even when it doesn’t go so well at first.