General Psychology - Krista Jordan

April 16, 2018

Triggers, What Exactly Are They?

You hear the word “triggered” a lot these days, often tongue in cheek if you have hung around any teenagers. So what is it? Is it a real thing? What therapists probably mean when we are talking about being “triggered” is usually related to some earlier wound or trauma. At it’s most severe form it is when a person who has Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is exposed to something that reminds them of t […]

March 17, 2018

The Benefits of Crying

In a nod to the Irish, who have been noted to have “a tear in the eye and a song in the heart”, I decided to revive a former blog on crying today. People often remark that they “need a good cry” and feel better afterwards. I’ve been curious about the underlying mechanisms involved in crying and just why it seems to help us feel better. Dr. Judith Orloff, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, has done some research on this very subject. She explains that […]

February 11, 2018

When the Past is Present

What do you see? A cute puppy with floppy ears? Or two cats with a hear hovering between them? Or both? And what might predict which image you see first? Growing up with dogs? Owning a cat? To me as a therapist one of the most useful things about optical illusions is to show us that we can’t necessarily trust our perceptions. Remember the blue versus brown dress controversy? I would have sworn on my life that dress was a golden color and had not a hint of blue in it. The actual statistics on wh […]

February 1, 2018

Expectations and Resentments

There is a saying that expectations are resentments waiting to happen. I have to say that personally every time I find myself sitting with a resentment it has boiled down to that. I had expected that a person would do something (or not do something) and they did not act as I had expected. find myself feeling perturbed or sometimes downright angry about it. It’s that kind of self-righteous indignation that can feel so powerful and intoxicating. It has real lasting pow […]