

Ellen J.W. Gigliotti, LMFT
Prepared!
You can't always prepare for difficult times. Here are some ideas to help you through when they inevitably come.


Ellen J.W. Gigliotti, LMFT
Ashes, steps, and life
Today is Valentine’s Day. I’m a little bah humbug about it – we should be showing our loved ones how special they are throughout the year, not just on one day. But it’s also Ash Wednesday for many Christians. It marks the beginning of Lent, a season of 40 days between today and Easter (there’s 46, but Sundays are “little Easters” and don’t count) during which we remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Sounds depressing, I know. But it’s actually one of my favor


Ellen J.W. Gigliotti, LMFT
Fault lines. Or, whose fault is it?
Every day it seems I sit in front of couples absolutely convinced that the distress and discord in their relationships is the other person’s fault. It’s one of the most common problems we see in marriage therapy, and it works against every couple that employs it because it takes the couple dynamics out of relational counseling. If you are convinced you have nothing to change, and your partner has everything to change, then you will, by definition, not do your part to make you


Ellen J.W. Gigliotti, LMFT
Not your average Valentine
I think abolishing Valentine’s Day would be a great idea. I know. I know. It feels almost sacriligious. Would you feel better if I said I felt the same about Mother’s Day? And Father’s Day? And any other “day”? For about 2000 years, since obscure Roman events I won’t go into here, many have celebrated St. Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated to (mostly) lovers and small children. What’s wrong with that? Well, for the small children, nothing really. Except, who doesn’t remember c