Dee Clark, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy

04/23/2023

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12/14/2022

12/11/2021

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04/07/2020

Make space, hold space, within yourself and for others during this time to grieve. It is not weak to feel pain and to have feelings of fear and rising anxiety. It is human. We are experiencing a world wide crisis. This is a time for compassion, empathy, support and love not - self condemnation or judgement. Bearing witness to your pain, that invisible, dark, looming cloud overhead is much healthier than attempting to run from it. To bear witness to it we stop and turn and look it in the face. We name it, we befriend it, we explore and express it. Either by way of spoken word, written word, prayer, art, music or movement. All of which takes that which is inside of us and creates an external form that allows us to view it outside of ourselves. It also helps us realize that it does not define us. It is important to also share it with others. It is in the offering our most vulnerable selves, that we are most fully known and fully blessed. Offering our vulnerability to others invites them to step forward into a space of shared humanity and freedom as well. May we all take the time we need to stop and grieve during this time. May we be agents of compassion for one another as we do our best to navigate our way through a crisis unlike anything we have ever known before.

04/01/2020

“Yet though the music of the heart may grow faint, there is in each each of us an unprotected place that beauty can always reach out and touch. Blaise Pascal said: In difficult times you should always carry something beautiful in your mind. The beauty of nature is often the wisest balm for it gently relieves and releases the caged mind.” John O’Donohue.

02/13/2020

FOR THE BROKENHEARTED

For the past few years around this time, I have shared this blessing. I wrote it for the first Valentine's Day after Gary died, when I desperately needed its words for myself. As I share it again this year, I am thinking especially of those whose hearts have broken since the last time I shared this. If that’s you, this blessing is for you. And this blessing is also for those who have been living with a broken heart for a long time. And this is for those whose broken hearts keep beating in hope and in love. For all who love and ache and love still, this is for you. Every day.

BLESSING FOR THE BROKENHEARTED

"There is no remedy for love but to love more."
—Henry David Thoreau

Let us agree
for now
that we will not say
the breaking
makes us stronger
or that it is better
to have this pain
than to have done
without this love.

Let us promise
we will not
tell ourselves
time will heal
the wound,
when every day
our waking
opens it anew.

Perhaps for now
it can be enough
to simply marvel
at the mystery
of how a heart
so broken
can go on beating,
as if it were made
for precisely this—

as if it knows
the only cure for love
is more of it,

as if it sees
the heart’s sole remedy
for breaking
is to love still,

as if it trusts
that its own
persistent pulse
is the rhythm
of a blessing
we cannot
begin to fathom
but will save us
nonetheless.

—Jan Richardson
From The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief

Image: "Valentine" © Jan Richardson

"Blessing for the Brokenhearted" first appeared in this reflection at https://paintedprayerbook.com/2014/02/10/a-blessing-for-the-brokenhearted/.

01/10/2020

Wonderful article on the growing research and awareness of the benefits of nature on health and well being. At a time when climate crisis is advancing and our world is literally on fire, it is important to recognize how dependent we are on nature and the beautiful, life giving benefits she offers us. Our role is to be good stewards of nature. To honor, respect and care for her and all of the wildlife that inhabit the world with us. Our health and our lives depends on it.

A growing body of research points to the beneficial effects that exposure to the natural world has on health, reducing stress and promoting healing. Now, policymakers, employers, and healthcare providers are increasingly considering the human need for nature in how they plan and operate.

10/07/2019

Great article and in my experience, often the truth. Trauma seems to be related to so many mental health issues. Let’s start looking at and treating the root of the issue and not just the symptoms.

This article considers the link between childhood trauma and ADHD. In the USA, about one in every nine children are diagnosed with ADHD; this equates to a total of 6.4 million American youths. But …

08/16/2019

Newly appointed Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, First California Surgeon General on the topic of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) and its impact on childhood development, behavior and long term health for us all. Listen, learn, respond and fight for the truth and treatment behind this critical research and what it has to teach us about trauma and the body. Please set 15 minutes aside to take in the whole Ted talk. Trust me, it will benefit you and/or someone you love.

Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and p...

07/21/2019

A long but excellent article. “A healing centered approach to addressing trauma requires a different question that moves beyond “what happened to you” to “what’s right with you” and views those exposed to trauma as agents in the creation of their own well-being rather than victims of traumatic events.”

Shawn Ginwright Ph.D.