"If the therapy were optimal...it would mean that the therapist feels this client to be a person of unconditional self-worth: of value no matter what his condition, his behavior, or his feelings.  It would mean that the therapist is genuine, hiding behind no defensive facade, but meeting the client with the feelings which organically he is experiencing. "
--Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person


"Reflecting on your childhood experiences can help you make sense of your life. Since the events of your childhood can't be altered, why is such reflection helpful? A deeper self-understanding changes who you are. Making sense of your life enables you to understand others more fully and gives you the possiblity of choosing your behaviors and opening your mind to a fuller range of experiences."
-- Daniel Siegel, M.D., Parenting from the Inside Out


"Fond as we are of our loved ones, there comes at times during their absence an unexplained peace."
--Anne Shaw

"Throughout life, our surrounding interpersonal environment--peers, friends, teachers, as well as family--
has enormous influence over the kind of individual we become. Our self-image is formulated to a large degree
upon the reflected appraisals we perceive in the eyes of important figures in our life."
--Irvin D. Yalom, PhD, The Gift of Therapy



 "I like to say that parents and other caregivers offer us our first swimming lessons in that inner sea, and if we've been fortunate enough to have nurturing relationships early in life, we've developed the basics of mindsight on which we can build.  But even if such early support was lacking, there are specific activities and experiences that can nurture mindsight throughout the lifespan."
-- Daniel Siegel, MD, Mindsight


"Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life."
--Sophia Loren

Psychotherapy's purpose:
"To value the whole person, recognize individual unique subjectivities, endorse the search for meaning, and enable the emergence of the most authentic aspects of the self."
--Nancy McWilliams, Clinical Social Work Journal


"Needless to say, we are not required to choose between a reflective stance (that helps us see the patterns in our experience over time) and mindful a one (that helps us to deeply inhabit our experience of the present moment). In psychotherapy, both stances can be healing, and each may well potentiate the other."
--David J. Wallin, Attachment in Psychotherapy 


"Be yourself; everyone else is taken."
--Oscar Wilde