For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by human behavior, others and my own. I can recall making a vow to myself before my first day of 3rd grade that I would behave that year. I promised myself that this year, I would be different. My target behavior was that I decided I would NOT get in trouble for talking in class, not even once. I am sure you will be shocked to hear this, but I failed spectacularly. My desire to behave differently seemed to have little effect of my actual behavior.

We live in a culture that seems to hold tightly to the idea that we can change if we decide to and that much of our poor behavior is due to poor cognitive decisions, a lack of knowledge, or even low intelligence. In my practice and when I hear people's stories, I find that this is often not the case. While I am a proponent of personal responsibility and empowerment, I have also observed that human behavior is often counterintuitive and its causes are much more complex. The field of psychology has discovered some fascinating things about human behavior. I hope to add information and encourage exploration of this with this blog. For example, we can try to chalk up the continued use of an individual's alcohol and drugs to bad decision making, when the complexity of the underlying causes of addiction can fill volumes. Or many in our culture are surprised when a beautiful person with money turns out to be troubled........we are confused, "They have so much going for them." In actuality, there is very little evidence to support the idea that money or beauty will insulate you from the pain of life or protect you from depression.

The field of psychology has discovered some fascinating things about human behavior. I hope to add information and encourage exploration of these things...........stay tuned!