We’ve been hearing a lot lately about “The Secret,” a book and DVD about the law of attraction, or the 1950’s version, “The Power of Positive Thinking.” If you’ve read the book or have seen the movie, you may be thinking, “Oh right, all I have to do is envision what I want and it will occur. Sure, I want $100,000 and a body like Angelina Jolie. So, why isn’t it happening?” You may also be put off (like I was) by “The Secret’s” mystical, esoteric message about the law of attraction. The contributors make it seem, somehow, that you…

Happy Halloween! Speaking of scary things...what about scary thoughts? How many times have we had an outrageous thought like: "If I cry about this, I'll never stop crying" or "My throat feels dry, what if I have throat cancer?" You may laugh out loud when you read this, but we all have irrational thoughts at times. These thoughts, or distortions of reality, are known as Distorted Styles of Thinking. Cognitive Therapy looks at identifying and changing "distorted" or "unrealistic" ways of thinking, with a goal of influencing emotion and behavior. By learning how to identify and retrain these unhelpful thoughts…