Elisabeth LaMotte
Most of us experience some form of social anxiety. We may feel nervous before a social gathering or slightly agitated during group activities. In the extreme, social anxiety compromises the ability to connect to another person in an intimate relationship. Jean-Pierre Ameris’ 2010 French film “Les Emotifs Anonymous” is a comedic but meaningful study of what happens…
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Meg Wolitzer’s page-turning novel traces the experiences and relationships of six friends who meet as teenagers at Spirit-in-the-Woods arts camp in the summer of 1974. Wolitzer captures these glorious fifteen and sixteen year old souls with their musings, quirks, and complexities. Readers will relish their adolescent ability to be intensely vulnerable and real with each…
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Michael Berry’s timely new film, Frontera, is sure to stir controversy and conversation. The film’s backdrop is the border between Mexico and Arizona where Ed Harris plays a retired Sheriff living on an expansive ranch with his wife (Amy Madigan). The couple have a deliberately independent and horse-centered life and one of their ongoing conversations…
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Michael Cunningham, 2014, 272 pages Intimate relationships are a primary focus in psychotherapy. Through therapy, people examine their closest relationships in order to determine what aspects of their approach to others work well for them, and what aspects of their approach they might want to change in order to form healthier attachments. In order to…
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If you have tween or teen daughters, it is highly likely that you have already heard an earful about John Green’s bestselling novel and subsequently recently released film, The Fault in our Stars. Even if you do not have teens or tweens, you would have to be living under a rock to have missed the…
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Helping clients navigate difficult breakups is a primary focus of our psychotherapy practice. Sometimes, a painful breakup triggers a full blown depressive episode that is at once consuming, paralyzing and terrifying. Such a breakup is depicted in the award-winning 2006 film, Little Miss Sunshine. Directed by husband and wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris,…
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A painful breakup is one of the most common reasons people seek therapy. Breakups are almost never easy, and almost never mutual. Most people going through a breakup say they wish they could reverse their situation back into a relationship. However, as much as losing a relationship can hurt, breakups also carry the opportunity for…
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As a therapist working with adults in their twenties, thirties and forties, many of whom are single, I frequently discuss the way that technology affects dating and relationships with my clients. I often wonder what the future will look like, and how much farther the internet revolution will infiltrate and impact the human experience of…
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Ben Stiller, 2013, 114 minutes The intersection of dating and technology is an inevitable topic for single adults in therapy. Whether discussing questions about the choice to pursue on-line dating, or how Facebook, Instagram and texting shape the modern relationship landscape, technology has a profound influence over the process of seeking romance and connection. Directed…
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“When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.” R. J. Palacio 2012, 320 pages, Alfred A. Knopf It’s not every day that I read a book written for middle schoolers; however, both of my daughters tore through Wonder with such intensity that I grew curious. So, when their school principal…
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