By Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

Click here to contact Jeanine and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

We’ve been there, we are there or we could go there, and fall in love with his/her potential. Please heed my warning, “Look out girlfriend!!”

The tricky bit about this challenge is that we all have great potential. Some people realize a only a small bit of their potential, some people realize a good deal of it and some people are actualizing most or all of their potential. We are all capable of greatness~this truth lies latent in all of us. (more…)

By Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

Click here to contact Jeanine and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

“A little more matriarchy is what the world needs, and I know it. Period. Paragraph.”
~Dorothy Thompson

Before last year’s New Year, many people asked me what my New Year’s resolutions might be. I’ve always liked the idea of starting anew and consciously developing aspects of one’s life in order to live more fully. However, much of the well intended query made me uncomfortable. As soon as I told my friends what I wanted to create, they immediately started in with, “How are you going to make it happen” and “What steps are you going to commit to in doing this”. As I coach, I know as well as anyone that if you want to create something that has eluded you, you do want some kind of action plan. But, the intent of their questions, which felt more like a police interrogation, had a somewhat desperate, intense and frankly unappealing energy about it. (more…)

By Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

Click here to contact Jeanine and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

“One common mistake is to think that one reality is The Reality. You must always be prepared to leave one reality for a greater one.” ~ Mother Meera

Whenever I am grappling with any issue and I am stuck in guilt, anger, fear or any other unpleasant emotion, I try to remember that there must be another perspective. Many clients come to life coaching because they know intuitively that there is another perspective that will offer them solace, hope and an opportunity to recreate the life they desire. A supportive coach might ask “Can I offer another perspective?” and assist their client in viewing their challenges from a healing and more helpful vantage point. Sometimes, my clients and I will go back and forth and brainstorm different reality perspectives, even outrageous perspectives, in order to break free from the shackles of limited thought. (more…)

By Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

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Many years ago I remember sitting outside with my friend on Huntington Harbor and having a big cry. I had just broken-up with a boyfriend and I felt devastated. As Liz pushed my long hair from the tears it was stuck to on my face she said, “Jeanine, you are one romantic fool!” Suddenly, we started laughing!” It was true; I was one big romantic fool! (more…)

By: Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

Click here to contact Jeanine and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

If the metaphysical premise that anything that is not love is a call for love is true, we might reflect on our lives and find that unloving behavior towards us or by us was really just an attempt to love and be loved. If we look closely into any situation we can see that almost all unloving thinking or behavior was a misguided attempt at love. (more…)

By  Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

Click here to contact Jeanine and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

Recently, I did a several favors for a woman in my community. Because she is in a similar line of work as I am, I also offered to help her when she expressed frustration about her success. Seemingly abruptly she mentioned a recent accomplishment I had and said curtly, “You attributed ____ to the wrong person. There was a person that said it before.” Shocked, I changed the subject. (more…)

By Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

Click here to contact Jeanine and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

In the Bible we read “And first there was the word”. After reading that often I think, “Then everything got really tricky!”

There are different ways of communicating which most of us are familiar with. There are probably others on the continuum, but the four basics modes of communication are: passive, assertive, passive-aggressive and aggressive. We are all working towards becoming assertive. I hear from a majority of my female clients that they struggle with being too passive. They are in fear of being assertive because they feel their assertions may come off as aggressive or as an attack on the other person. They don’t want to ruffle feathers, be unlikable or goodness forbid, plain old mean! However, if we don’t express our truth we become resentful and often passive-aggressive or even outright aggressive. (more…)

By Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

Click here to contact Jeanine and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile

Most of us are very familiar with the dance between peace and chaos. Everything is going smoothly or at least nothing stands out as being a major challenge. We feel like life has allowed us to take a deep breath. We feel we have finally reached balance. Then along comes something to deal with, something that demands our focus, and something that re-orders our priorities. We wonder when we are going to finally reach a peaceful equilibrium and blissful homeostasis. (more…)

By Jeffrey Chernin, Ph.D., MFT

Click here to contact Jeffrey and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile

When it comes to unhealthy, ingrained patterns, we often use the term “vicious cycle.” Something causes something else, which leads to a downward slide. It starts when certain actions and perceptions that got you through childhood or early adulthood (coping strategies) remain unchecked and lock you into unhealthy behavior as an adult. The Adaptive Spiral, an idea which developed organically through my psychotherapy practice, is one way to change long-standing patterns that you developed early on as a way to cope with certain situations but became maladaptive. (more…)