family

Family can be our support system. Or they can be part of the problem. All about the complicated, loving, and difficult relationship with us and the ones who love us.

Reflection on My Group Counseling Course for My Clinical and Mental Health Master's Degree Program
The idea of submitting my story to the scrutiny of others is both exciting and terrifying. The easy part of my story to share with others is about my childhood experiences. My parents and siblings were all kind and respectful. I never went hungry, and for the most part I feel as if most of my emotional needs were met appropriately. From an early age, I was always helping in the local church. I learned the value for serving God and others from day one in my family unit. I enjoy sharing my testimony of salvation, which occurred when I was six years of age. What I remember more distinctively, is my water baptism experience. My dad baptized me and the symbolism of it truly resonated deeply in my young soul. I was eight years old when I got water baptized. I remember getting a new Bible at this time. Another thing that is easy for me to talk about is my experience being a father to my daughter. Everything I do in life is centered around the welfare and benefit of my daughter, who is growing up far too fast!
By Rowan Finley 6 months ago in Psyche
Ruled by Shame
I am not sure if you noticed when former AG Pam Bondi was being questioned by the House Judiciary Committee in February, and during other interviews, she would reply with huge negative emotional reactions and point her finger at the camera in defensive disgust at those questioning her cover up of the Epstein files. Forget the words that came out of her mouth for the moment and look at her nonverbal language (intense finger pointing and sneering). Most likely, she was mirroring how her parents, caretakers, and teachers scolded her when she was wrong in their eyes. In addition, characters like Stephen Miller and Todd Blanche also do quite a bit of finger pointing during interviews. Have you wondered why so many leaders in the Trump administration scold the camera and sneer at the interviewers with shame?
By Tony Martello6 months ago in Psyche
He Made a Monster. AI-Generated.
In the quiet town of Brindlewood, where nothing unusual ever happened, there lived a young inventor named Elias Venn. He wasn’t famous, nor was he wealthy, but he had one thing no one else did—an imagination that refused to stay silent.
By Waleed khan6 months ago in Psyche
Tool For Intelligence Or The Ultimate Indoctrination Machine?
Written by a human, for humans, always. --- There is a lot that we hear about Artificial Intelligence these days. It is marketed as the tool of the future...
By H.E. Dr. Cody Dakota Wooten, COIE, DFM, DHM6 months ago in Psyche
The Helper's Dilemma In Today's Professional World
Written by a human, for humans, always. --- So many people in today's world need help… And there are many different types of organizations that have come into existence to provide that help.
By H.E. Dr. Cody Dakota Wooten, COIE, DFM, DHM6 months ago in Psyche
Mental Health Toolkit: Evidence-Based Techniques That Work
Mental Health Toolkit: Evidence-Based Techniques That Work Simple, Science-Backed Strategies to Reduce Stress, Improve Focus, and Build Emotional Resilience
By Robert Redford7 months ago in Psyche
The Witness Staff
The Witness Staff A real soul passed through this The Fantasy That Protects Your Back “If I had the strength today, I’d be rummaging through my closet and drawers, hunting for scraps of ribbon, old beads, forgotten feathers anything to dress my walking stick the way the old stories describe. But my back has already carried too much, and the film still waits unprocessed. So instead, I imagine the decorated staffs of the ancestors: ember wood, wind caller, moon thread sticks glowing in the dark. Mine will come later. For now, the fantasy is enough.” I will decorate my regular walking sticks soon.
By Vicki Lawana Trusselli 7 months ago in Psyche
The House of Two Worlds
The Cinematic Doorway Intro I finished shaping this piece in a quiet room today, letting the story settle into its own rhythm. This is the next chapter in the House of Two Worlds a moment caught between shadow and clarity, where the rooms speak in their own language. I included the long story and the summary of the words placed with music and spoken word. This is a debut to houses divided. There are many different lifestyles. An artist needs a creative environment. However, with rents so damn high everyone cannot live alone to create. Living in a paint bucket of music, art, and film is a struggle with a more conformist individual. Life is short. Life can be real.
By Vicki Lawana Trusselli 7 months ago in Psyche
Divine Expression
For the last six years, I have been walking through this life in a solitary fashion. I have been searching for something I could never fully put into words, yet would be recognized when it was attained. A spiritual calling that has followed me throughout my life since I was a child. Once I found my significant other, or better said, once she found me, my spiritual path was inadvertently put on standby.
By Kaylon Forsyth7 months ago in Psyche
Spread Too Thin. Top Story - April 2026.
Written by a human, for humans, always. --- There is a lot that is happening in the world. And often it seems... There are not enough people who are contributing.
By H.E. Dr. Cody Dakota Wooten, COIE, DFM, DHM7 months ago in Psyche
Your Dreams Are Warning You 💤
THE DREAM THAT SAVED MY LIFE 🌙 The night before the accident I dreamed about driving on a wet highway and watching a red truck drift across the center line toward me in slow motion, and the dream was so vivid and so specific that when I woke up I could remember the exact stretch of road, the exact color of the truck, the exact moment of impact, and the sensation of spinning that followed, and I dismissed it as anxiety because I had a long drive ahead of me that day and my subconscious was probably just processing my standard driving-related nervousness into narrative form as brains do during REM sleep when they organize daily concerns into dream scenarios 😴
By The Curious Writer7 months ago in Psyche
THE SHARPEST BLADE: WHEN THE BOTTLE CUTS THE PICTURE IN HALF
No one ever plans to become a ghost in their own home. When you look at this deeply unsettling artwork, you are forced to confront a reality that society often tries to politely ignore. You don't see a medical chart or a list of health warnings. You see the cold, mechanical destruction of a human bond. The instrument of separation is a heavy pair of scissors, but the driving force—the very handle and blade committing the act—is a dark green bottle of vodka. This isn't just a clever visual metaphor; it is the exact, terrifying psychological anatomy of alcoholism. Addiction does not happen all at once. It is a slow, quiet severing. It begins with missing a family dinner. It progresses to forgetting a crucial promise made to a child. It turns into the isolating sound of glass clinking in the kitchen at two in the morning. Alcohol doesn't just numb the emotional pain of the individual drinking it; it actively and aggressively cuts through the delicate, irreplaceable fabric of the family unit. Look closely at the faces captured in that severed black-and-white photograph. On the left side of the agonizing divide, the mother and her two young, innocent children remain grouped together. Their expressions are quiet, somber, perhaps bracing for the inevitable heartbreak that has finally arrived. They are the collateral damage. They are the ones left holding the torn, jagged edge of a picture, trying to explain to themselves why their love was simply not enough to make him put the glass down. And then, look at the father on the isolated right side of the cut. He is falling away, permanently separated from his own flesh and blood. His eyes are deeply downcast, his face etched with the heavy exhaustion and hollow defeat of a man who has entirely surrendered to the bottle. He is physically present in the world, his heart is still beating in his chest, yet he has allowed the addiction to completely snip him out of his own life story. The ultimate tragedy of alcoholism is that it is a deeply selfish thief. It convinces the drinker that they are only hurting themselves. They whisper in the dark, "It’s my body, my choice, my way of coping with the pressure." But the children do not see a coping mechanism. They see a father who consistently chooses the dark, liquid comfort of a bottle over reading a bedtime story. They feel the sharp, daily cuts of absence. A family is built entirely on a foundation of emotional presence. When the bottle becomes the loudest voice in the room, the father becomes nothing more than a shadow in his own hallway. The scissors in this artwork do not just represent a legal divorce or a physical separation; they represent the brutal severing of basic trust, the cutting away of childhood safety, and the permanent amputation of a father's protective embrace. If you are holding that bottle right now, believing it is the only thing keeping your shattered mind together, look at this image. Understand the devastating, irreversible surgery you are performing on your own life. You are not just pouring a drink to take the edge off. You are sharpening the shears. You are slowly, deliberately cutting yourself out of the only picture that truly matters. Put the glass down before the cut becomes permanent. Because once the picture is sliced in two, no amount of tears or apologies can ever seamlessly glue those pieces back together.
By Wellova 7 months ago in Psyche