Contributed by Marian Sandmaier

36 Results

A Therapy Session With Friends

An Untapped Resource for Emotional Health

There are no formalized rituals, rules, or obligations to ground or support a friendship. Should therapists change that? Read more

Open Book November 3, 2023

The Heart of Gladness

Why Joy and Sorrow Need Each Other

Acclaimed poet and essayist Ross Gay considers the “wild and unboundaried solidarity” that joy can bring into our lives. Read more

The Trouble with Teen Girls

A Conversation with Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Watch this Networker Live event with "Girls on the Brink" author Donna Jackson Nakazawa. Read more

Open Book January 4, 2023

Why Are Today’s Girls So Troubled?

A Neurobiological Guide for Parents

"Girls on the Brink" presents new knowledge on girls' higher risk for mental health problems—and suggests what parents can do about it. Read more

Living in the Light

Interview with Author Mary Pipher on her new memoir

We sat down with prolific author Mary Pipher for a candid discussion of the interplay of darkness and light in every life. Read more

Open Book July 13, 2022

Leaning toward the Light

Mary Pipher Turns Her Gaze Inward

In her new memoir, Mary Pipher refuses to dumb down what it takes to create a rewarding life. Read more

Family Matters September 15, 2021

Hanging Out with Dick Van Dyke

A Lesson in Stepping Up

An encounter with a superstar teaches a young woman about courage. Read more

Celebrating the Creative Journey

A Writer's Remembrance

Even for seasoned writers, being edited by Rich wasn't an easy process, but it led them to the murky, half-buried thing waiting below the surface—the thing... Read more

The Therapy Beat August 26, 2020

Teach Your Children Well

Can Therapists Help Parents Raise Antiracist Kids?

If ever there was a moment to talk with children about racism and antiracism, it’s now. But how, exactly? Read more

Facing the Challenge

Psychotherapy Responds to the Pandemic

If ever a conference devoted to “The Art of Healing in an Anxious Time” was needed, this is that time. Read more

The Therapy Beat March 5, 2020

Spearheaded by high school students and supported by some influential adults, a movement is underway to mandate a limited number of mental health days as part... Read more

The Therapy Beat September 4, 2019

Whatever one’s position on abortion, it’s hard to dispute that the debate has ramped up radically over the last year. Read more

Symposium Highlight May 6, 2019

When Therapy Changes the Therapist

Five Tales of Self-Discovery

Although it’s not usually acknowledged, change in the consulting room goes both ways. Even as they help clients wrestle with their issues, it’s the rare... Read more

Always on Call

When Disaster Strikes, Jim Gordon Gets to Work

Wherever people have been uprooted and stripped raw by the devastating force of war, sudden violence, or natural disaster, you’re likely to find Jim Gordon... Read more

In the Shadow of Depression

How Can We Manage to Stay Well?

Most clinicians know that if a person has suffered one bout of serious depression, he or she is much more vulnerable to another one. But most therapists still... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 9, 2018

Moments of Truth

Stories Told at the End of the Day

In our own small way, the Networker has tried to revive the ancient, tribal practice of storytelling. At our third annual Symposium storytelling event, five... Read more

Occupational Wisdom

What Therapists Can Teach Us about Growing Old Gracefully

Does being a therapist give us an edge in coping with the inescapable phenomenon of aging? Three prominent psychotherapists—Irvin Yalom, Joan Klagsbrun, and... Read more

Facing a Parent's Decline

Helping Grown Children and Aging Parents Learn to Nurture Each Other

Nearly all therapists will soon be working with substantial numbers of aging families, whether or not they ever consciously choose to. The question at hand... Read more

The Tony Robbins Experience

What’s the Takeaway for Therapists?

Despite his four decades in the public eye, most therapists are only vaguely aware of Tony Robbins and his take on personal change. But if you attract millions... Read more

Doorways to the Embodied Self

Eugene Gendlin and the Felt Sense

Eugene Gendlin and his work on Focusing and the “felt sense” left an indelible mark on modern mind–body approaches to psychotherapy. Read more

When All Else Fails

Stories of Vulnerability and Possibility

The self-assurance of expert practitioners who publicly present their work can lead everyday therapists to believe that psychotherapy is a far more predictable... Read more

Family Matters March 13, 2017

Leaping for Joy

The Secret Lives of Children

Recalling a time when kids were supposed to be out of the house—and their parents’ hair—as much as possible. Read more

Then, Now & Tomorrow

Oral Histories of Psychotherapy 1978-2017

A group of innovators and leaders look back over different realms of therapeutic practice and offer their view of the eureka moments, the mistakes and... Read more

Left to Our Own Devices

Sorting Through The Bewildering World Of Therapeutic Apps

Mobile apps offer tools for everything from depression, social anxiety, and binge eating to phobias, OCD, postpartum problems, and substance abuse recovery. In... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 6, 2016

What's Your Most Memorable Therapeutic Moment?

Six Master Clinicians Share Their Reflections

Of all the meaningful sessions that take place in a therapists's career, what makes certain ones stand out? We asked six widely respected clinicians to tell... Read more

It Takes A Tribe

What It's Like to Raise (or Be) a Transgender Child

Until very recently, most families with transgender children had never met another family like theirs. Now parents and children from the trailblazing Ackerman... Read more

Family Matters January 11, 2016

The Last Dance

Awakening a Mother’s Joyful Spirit

Toward the end of her life, a woman turns back the clock by performing the goofy ballet of her youth. Read more

Family Matters July 1, 2013

What the Cactus Knew

The Reward of Not Getting What You Want

A much-anticipated vacation demonstrates the rewards of not getting what you want. Read more

Family Matters January 1, 2011

Coming Full Circle

Learning to Choose Where You Look

Understanding your place in the great circle of life is often a matter of where you choose to look. Read more

Who Do You Think You Are?

The Enduring Mystery of Temperament

Clinicians have long considered theories that emphasize inborn predispositions as antiquated and even reactionary. but the work of researchers like Jerome... Read more

Family Matters May 1, 2008

Time Traveler

An Empty Nest Can Portend a Freer Life

Life in the empty nest can be humbling, exhilarating, and occasionally, just plain weird. Read more

Family Matters July 1, 2004

Listening for Zebras

A mother learns to trust her animal instincts

Sometimes, raising a child is less an act of love than something much wilder. Read more

Flying Lessons

Discovering Another Way of Being

In a single, unforeseen moment, a self-lacerating young woman takes a risk and discovers, deep in her bones, why we're alive. Read more

More than Love

The Parents of Adolescents Go Through Their Own Tumultuous Passage

For parents who are chronically pressed for time and feel increasingly impotent in the face of the perils that litter their teen's lives, backing off from... Read more

The Gift of Friendship

Bringing an Invaluable Resource into the Therapy Room

We're pairing up later, splitting up faster, remarrying less often and increasingly deciding to avoid the whole quagmire by staying permanently single. In... Read more

What does account for a goodly chunk of the positive change that clients experience from therapy, the outcome research shows, is the time-honored therapeutic... Read more

Marian Sandmaier

Marian Sandmaier is the author of two nonfiction books, Original Kin: The Search for Connection Among Adult Sisters and Brothers (Dutton-Penguin) and The Invisible Alcoholics: Women and Alcohol Abuse in America (McGraw-Hill). She is Features Editor at Psychotherapy Networker and has written for the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, and other publications. Sandmaier has discussed her work on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Today Show, and NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Fresh Air.” On several occasions, she has received recognition from the American Society of Journalists and Authors for magazine articles on psychology and behavior. Most recently, she won the ASJA first-person essay award for her article “Hanging Out with Dick Van Dyke” on her inconvenient attack of shyness while interviewing. You can learn more about her work at www.mariansandmaier.net.