Princeton Family Counseling Center

03/22/2025

Join me for my April dream group, free for my paid Substack subscribers. Do you remember or record your dreams? There is no behavior that propels therapy more quickly.

Think about it.

welcome to my april on-line dream group and a poem

04/26/2024

The Dead Comes to Life

I'd been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believed that they're real
I'd been living so long with my pictures of you
That I almost believed that the pictures were all I can feel

Sometimes, I could imagine
some sort of animation
I could remember some movement
I could intuit the residue of
some sort of fragile feeling
But basically, I was alone in it

It was a guilty pleasure
Holding onto the past
Pretending that you were there
Wishing that you were there

It was creepy like
Po*******hy
Believing that some dead
objectified image could really
mean something to my life.

And I ridiculed myself for spending too much time remembering
Chastised myself for pretending it meant something
Shamed myself for deriving dopamine
in these dead dream pages.

frozen screens.
morbid memories.
paralyzed plans.
fetid fantasies.

It was all so shameful and embarrassing.

But now…. when
The movies find motion
The colors start exploding
The music starts streaming
And the words begin to fly.

I am terrified!
Exposed
Mystified
Delighted

I keep peering behind my shoulder
to see what Trixter is
playing with me.
I keep pulling back the curtain
to see what wizard is
manipulating me.
I keep playing games with self-doubt deciding, “Now you ARE delusional.”

But the facade is cracked
The pictures are dancing
The troubadours sing
And my heart is ringing

And it seems that something’s
actually happening
That the lines are actually
moving
And the longing has indeed
conceived a new life

So suddenly this past that felt
Fixed
Frozen
Determined
Dreadful

Has become the most animated vision
I’ve ever dreamed up

And my adrenaline pumps
My serotonin surges
My cortisol courses
Through my veins
like fear
like a trauma reaction

But more surprise
Shock to the system
This pulse that is beeping
like a dead woman walking
And the pictures make
pronouncements
like a Harry Potter scene.

And I am whipped
Wondering what happened
To this dead version of myself
And now have

Open Eyes with wonder
To see what new brightness
tomorrow brings and
New Breath in anticipation
To feel what marvel mysteries
unfold and
Dazzling Dreams in technicolor
To taste this exponential beauty and

I literally can’t. keep. up.
with all the life you’re laying down.

So my hearts swells with joy and I
Struggle to stay asleep
And my mind makes up miracles
And my body bursts with blessing.

And I just want to say thank you
Jesus.
Because you promised me in middle school
that you would not abandon me to the grave
And I guess you weren’t kidding.
So here’s one heartfelt
WOW.

Always yours.

Christy

03/24/2024

Friends- please look beyond my son to the 9 friends gathered behind him, all huddled around low tables. I watched them clap when the man on the left arrived. I watched them kiss each other. Lean into one another’s stories; spontaneously hug and clap when the right story was told. I loved my meal, but I am far more moved by this deep expression of community and connection. We need to change in the US. It isn’t about “good times.” It’s about LIFE vs. languishing. It’s life vs. death.
We need to choose life.

11/12/2022

Join me and my colleague, Laura Busse, as we explore the sh$tshow of modern life through the lens of faith, therapy, and angst-y motherhood.

‎Show The Soul Enchilada, Ep The Soul Enchilada - Here's What's Coming! - Oct 26, 2022

11/01/2022

Creating more education about religious trauma….

There exists an important difference between Adverse Religious Experiences and Religious Trauma. Learn what the distinction really is.

10/28/2022

This is inspiring.

If you cultivate a mushroom in a petri bowl on agar agar, its actual ′′ shape ′′ becomes visible. The essential part of a mushroom, the Mycel, is usually hidden from our eye. What we perceive as a ′′ mushroom ′′ is only its transient fruit body.

Credit: Aimee Cornwell
Instagram:

10/21/2022