<![CDATA[Peggy Handler Psychotherapy - Psychotherapy Blog]]>Fri, 01 May 2026 19:29:26 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Entering 2021]]>Fri, 01 Jan 2021 02:02:10 GMThttps://www.peggyhandler.com/psychotherapy-blog/entering-2021What shape waits in the seed of you to grow   
and spread its branches against a future sky?    
~ David Whyte
2020 has been a difficult and unprecedented year. 2021 offers the promise of some relief through both the vaccine and the changing political landscape. 
As 2020 ends, it's worth taking some time to reflect on how you dealt with this year's challenges. Were you able to stay afloat? What internal and external life preservers did you discover when you needed them?  What did you learn about yourself,  your resillience, your strengths and  vulnerabilities?  
Pema Chodron's quote comes to mind: 
Only to the extent that we expose ourselves,
Again and again to annihilation,
can that which is indestructible be found. 
What lessons, joy, sorrow, losses, insight, appreciation, sadness, gratitude will you take forward with you into 2021?  What seeds have been planted this year that will grow and spread their branches against the 2021 sky? 
Ontact me if you you like to explore the seeds within you that want to grow
]]><![CDATA[Video Psychotherapy]]>Sun, 30 Aug 2020 21:23:08 GMThttps://www.peggyhandler.com/psychotherapy-blog/video-zoom-psychotherapyLife changed drastically in March when shelter in place began in the Bay Area. Our lives continue to be impacted in multiple and ongoing ways since then. 
One of those ways is that  psychotherapy is now conducted  via video ( or by phone).  In many ways therapy is the same, and in other ways it is different. We are still two people having a confidential and evocative conversation about your life. And yet  meeting on video has literally altered the way we  see each other and the ways we are able to interact.  
There is a certain intimacy about  meeting in our homes,  seeing bits and pieces of our lives outside the office. There may be interruptions: children, pets, doorbells, partners, roommates.  Privacy and good WiFi may be issues at times. Video platforms are not perfect and there can be interruptions, poor quality video or audio, or wavy Zoom wallpaper. 
Rituals have changed. Beginnings and endings of sessions are no longer punctuated by being met in the waiting room, walking to and from the office door, sitting down, getting up, the information that comes from being physically in the presence of another.  Instead we both log into Zoom and you wait to be admitted  to the call.   There is often a hand wave at the end of the call, a poignant new ritual to end a session instead of walking out the door. 
There is no longer time spent getting to and from the office, or in the waiting room before sessions;  this was often a time to muse,  think,  feel,  to be with yourself before and after your session. Now you have to purposefully make transition time, which I highly recommend. 
We are now literally talking heads to each other. I had a newer client comment recently that she has never seen more than a portrait view of me! Our faces  are life size on the screen, much closer than we would be with each other in the office. There is often more  eye contact than there might be in the office, where you might look away more frequently for various  reasons . 
Recently I have begun going into the office a couple of days a week to work virtually. Clients who previously met  me in my office have commented happily "You are in your office!" It is a familiar place, formerly as much a part of the therapy as the two of us were, a place that holds their secrets, sorrows, joys, hopes and fears. 
And thankfully we are adaptable beings! Video psychotherapy is a different experience in many ways, yet also still the same two people connecting in whatever way we have available during this strange and unsettling time. I am grateful that psychotherapy is still possible,   even more important and essential during these times. 



Contact me if you would like to try video psychotherapy
]]><![CDATA[And People Stayed at Home]]>Mon, 13 Jul 2020 01:26:12 GMThttps://www.peggyhandler.com/psychotherapy-blog/and-people-stayed-at-home​ And people stayed at home
And read books
And listened
And they rested
And did exercises
And made art and played
And learned new ways of being
And stopped and listened more deeply.

Someone meditated, someone prayed
Someone met their shadow
And people began to think differently
And people healed.

And in the absence of people who
Lived in ignorant ways
Dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
The earth also began to heal.

And when the danger ended and
People found themselves
They grieved for the dead
And made new choices
And dreamed of new visions
And created new ways of living
And completely healed the earth
Just as they were healed.
- Kitty O'Meara

call me if you would like to explore growing and healing in these uncertain times
]]><![CDATA[Compassion in the Time of Corona]]>Mon, 01 Jun 2020 01:17:05 GMThttps://www.peggyhandler.com/psychotherapy-blog/may-31st-2020With these slender threads
Of love
We touch each other
With infinite acts
Of Kindness
The threads are spun
The threads embrace
Weaving an exquisite tapestry
Of caring and compassion
Protecting us
With its warmth
And Succor
Like silk
The threads are strong
They endure
- Connie Latch
Call me if you would like to explore compassion during these unprecedented times
]]><![CDATA[Lockdown ( poem)]]>Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:18:55 GMThttps://www.peggyhandler.com/psychotherapy-blog/lockdown-poem​Yes there is fear. Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying. Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
 
But, they say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
 
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them….

Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic.
The birds are singing again. The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming, And we are always encompassed by Love.
 
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.
 
–Fr. Richard Hendrick, OFM (a friar in Ireland), March 13, 2020
Call me If you would like support during these unprecedented times 
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