This therapy blog is turning into a mini-memoir. And warning: there is a spoiler forthcoming! If you’re new here, perhaps you should rewind my blog and head back to my first therapy post: Broke, Miserable, and Alone (The Road to Here). For the rest of you (or perhaps just for Arthur, my therapist, the only […]
The idea for this blog came to me suddenly; I wanted to create a self-improvement website for screwed up people (like me). At Lovesong.blog, I planned to write about various topics, including mental health, travel, and love/relationships. Since I’m a storyteller at heart and a musician, the blog would also feature stories and songs. My […]
“I had a dream the other night that I went on a date with a guy,” I told my psychiatrist. “What do you think you that means?” Dr. Gillis laughed. “I don’t know,” she replied. “What do you think it means?” “I think the dream was a manifestation of a fear. I’m worried that maybe […]
“Like Bukowski, but kind.” That was Arthur’s initial review of my writing style. Of course Arthur was referencing the brilliant but prickly drunken writer (and tremendous asshole who will probably be cancelled any day now) Charles Bukowski, famous for the books Ham on Rye, Post Office, and others. “That an extreme compliment,” I said to […]
Okay, you may find this offensive. But I’m trying to be honest in these therapy blogs and express my innermost thoughts and fears, no matter how incriminating those thoughts and fears may be. So here’s my confession… I will admit to you, my dear reader and friend, that I’m a little prejudiced. You read that […]
We actually never officially said goodbye to each other. And that may have been a mistake on my part. But from the very beginning, I didn’t feel as though Shannon and I were compatible from a patient-therapist perspective. She was cheerful and optimistic, which didn’t jibe with my more brooding and sarcastic personality, making it […]
The day after my evening of exposure therapy with Claire, the extroverted girl from the Hamptons, I found out my aunt was dying. Or at least, that she was probably going to die. Back in 2019, my aunt Rebecca, a non-smoker, was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer. The cancer had spread (again)—this time to her […]
“Your grammar is kind of turning me on, I won’t lie,” I said to Claire, a girl I’d met on the dating app Bumble. “And sorry about the comma splice.” “I do take pride in my grammar!” Claire responded. We’d been going back and forth for a few days on the app. After conservations about […]
Over the next month, after firing Dr. Samuelson and replacing her with Dr. Gillis, I had two productive (and two not-so-productive) sessions with Shannon, my primary therapist. There was still a lot of dead space during our meetings. And that dead space made me uncomfortable. I would typically talk for the first 10 to 15 […]
“When is the relaunch?” my therapist asked. I’d just told her that I was about to enter the dating scene again after an extended hiatus. “Soon,” I told her. “I’m having some lady in Bangladesh fix up my profile pictures as we speak.” “Oh yeah?” Shannon, my therapist, asked with a laugh. “Yeah, just some […]