One of the most common themes I see in my office doing counseling, psychotherapy, and coaching with gay male individuals and gay couples is that of low self-esteem and low self-confidence. It’s not surprising; as little gay boys, we get exposed to anti-gay messages outright, or at least to the “invisibility” that comes with the … Read more
Conquering Self-Doubt as “The Gay Male Creative Solo Entrepreneur” Someone asked me recently what I did for a living. Fair question, common question, but I gave an uncommon answer: “I’m a licensed psychotherapist and life/business coach who focuses on helping the gay male creative solo entrepreneur close the gap between how life is, and how … Read more
By now, many people have seen the Xtranormal.com video, “Selecting a Gym in West Hollywood”. In fact, as of today, 8,699 people have seen it on YouTube, and on the original Xtranormal.com site, 13,753. What many people don’t know is, I wrote it — along with my husband, Michael Ryan. We were just kind of … Read more
What is professional self-esteem? In recent years in my psychotherapy practice, I have noticed a dramatic increase in the demand for more “coaching”-style services, and I have been happy to develop this for my clients. There are personal coaching issues, to be sure, but what I find much more frequently is that clients need professional … Read more
For the previous article to this, click here for Express Yourself, Part I
Last month, I related a story of a recent study from Dr. Kevin J. Petrie at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) of how 37 people living with HIV were studied in two groups: one group who expressively wrote about their feelings for 30 minutes a day on 4 consecutive days, and a comparison group who wrote objectively about how they occupied their time.
A friend of mine recently was telling me about an article he read about a study where people living with HIV who were shy – socially, emotionally reserved – had significantly worse overall health than people who were not shy. This story seemed to underscore the old adage about how “it’s not good for you … Read more
In the earliest years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, many people were distressed by the appearance of nickel-sized purple lesions on their bodies and faces that were a visible sign of living with Kaposi’s Sarcoma, an AIDS-related opportunistic infection. The lesions involuntarily “outed” them as having the highly stigmatized disease of AIDS. Society’s reaction to patients with these visible symptoms often caused additional psychological distress to people who were already fighting a host of medical challenges in the days with almost no treatment options.
