Category: Healing

• A Great Mystery

  I’ve been contemplating the mystery of life, and how very lucky we are to experience it. This is a good thing to do as winter wanes and spring has yet to bloom across the landscape. We do not know how frequently life develops; we know only that planets like our own seem to be quite…

  Michael Watson PhD

  March 6, 2016

  Healing, native american, Shamanism, Stories

  healing, mystery, Shamanism, spring, universe

• Dreaming an Alternative to Blame

  It is a lovely, chilly day, one of those almost perfect late winter days filled with sun and cloud, a day when one can see a long way. I’ve been having conversations with folks recently about responsibility and blame. Mostly these discussions happen around the painful moments in people’s lives. In our culture, the prevailing…

  Michael Watson PhD

  February 18, 2016

  First Nations, Healing, Psychotherapy, Shamanism, Stories

  blame, healing, Native American, Shamanism, stories

• My Life Is A Gift

  

  This morning I met with a student who is working on a piece of historical fiction about distant family members who were settlers in the Dakotas. As we spoke about her writing, she mentioned fire that had burned the upper floor of this family’s mansion. The student had found a report in the town newspaper…

  Michael Watson PhD

  February 12, 2016

  Disability, Healing, Stories, Teaching

  Polio, stories, survival, teaching

• Remembering the Healing Stories

  Lauret Savoy ends Traces with this: “Remembering is an alternative to extinction.” Remembering is a well-formed story. One of my early clinical teachers used to insist that neurosis was that which prevented the development of healing story, and that psychotherapy was the search for stories that worked. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is…

  Michael Watson PhD

  January 17, 2016

  Healing, native american, Psychotherapy, Shamanism, Stories

  healing, Jr., Martin Luther kIng, Native American, psychotherapy, Shamanism, stories