Contributed by Michael Ventura

12 Results

Of Us and Them

Updating Our Picture of Who We Are

It seems clear that to understand America’s crisis of identity—the fundamental changes that have occurred in the last few generations, and the thoughts and... Read more

An Awareness of the Soul

What Does It Mean to Really Get in Touch with Yourself?

When I was 5 years old, I experienced something that made me feel viscerally, mentally, emotionally, and inescapably connected to everything and everyone... Read more

We Weren't Meant to Live in "Screenworld"

Why Therapy is the Counterculture We Need

Nowadays, you see screens at checkout counters and laundromats, in restaurants and waiting rooms, and on the dashboards of cars and in their back seats. Isn't... Read more

How Psychotherapy Helps Us Recover the Beauty in Our Lives

Questions for Helping Therapy Clients Reclaim Meaning

Many walk into the therapist's consulting room exactly at the moment that they have been stripped to the core of their being. While not at the physical... Read more

Appointments With Yourself

Don't Mistake Your Schedule for your Life

The search for the elusive experience of being "in the moment" isn't as complicated as you think. All it takes is a cup of tea, a walk, a question, a blessing... Read more

The 8-Minute Cure

Can Watching Dr. Phil Change Your Life?

Phil McGraw, or Dr. Phil, seems not to be "on television," but rather to emanate from television. Authoritative and comforting, he confronts victimhood with... Read more

Across the Great Divide

Middle Age in the Rear-View Mirror

As they've aged, the Boomers have kept redefining previous generations' ideas about the stages of the life cycle. But while the pop bromide may insist that "50... Read more

Teacher as Healer

The challenges of the classroom cast the therapist's role in a new light

A good education is preventive medicine. It strengthens one's mental, emotional and spiritual immune system. Read more

The Mission Memory

Furnishing our Present with Specters of the Past

Every response, belief, action, and emotion can be seen as a wave of memory. The present is gauged by how much it joins or fails our memories. So what is the... Read more

In our technological society, real death is hidden away while fantasized deaths are available for viewing in dizzying numbers. It's time to separate our... Read more

The Age of Interruption

On Hold in a Call-Waiting World

As today's hyperkinetic families struggle to create the semblance of a shared life out of the frantic and conflicting schedules of their members, the... Read more

Life can be sweet just play it by the numbers Read more

Michael Ventura

Michael Venturas biweekly column appears in the Austin Chronicle.