I began writing a weekly newspaper column twenty years ago. Sometimes that seems like a long time. At other times, especially as I assembled material for this book, it seems only yesterday that I began to take what I had learned as a professional pastoral counselor and marriage and family therapist and tried to translate it into concepts and language that the general public could understand. Mental health professionals have sometimes gotten a bit carried away in creating obscure languages and complex theories to describe and explain human behavior. Not that human behavior is simple to describe or easy to explain. It's just that we don't help matters any when we take what is already complex and make it even more so through our "professional" discourse. The term "psychobabble" was coined a number of years ago to describe this tendency. Considering the professional literature I read each week, I'm afraid psychobabble is still alive and well in the mental health field. When readers have encouraged me to bring my columns together in book form, they usually mention their appreciation for my "down to earth" or "simple" way of writing about people and their relationships. I think that's why many of my pieces have wound up posted on bulletin boards or taped to refrigerators. I hope that you'll find some of them equally worth sharing. That's why I've included a "TO/FROM" box at the beginning of each column. I encourage you to pass around anything you find particularly meaningful. If I've learned anything in my now twenty six years in the mental health field, it's that we are each so unique, and our relationships so unique, that there are few hard and fast rules for "living, loving, and finding happiness." So, though I sometimes express my ideas with a good deal of conviction, I also encourage you to consider them critically. Ultimately, you must make your own decisions about how to live a life worth living. If my thoughts can help you in your search then I'll be more than satisfied.
Potts, for more than twenty years, has written a weekly newspaper column featured in publications throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. He has earned a Master of Divinity degree with a specialization in Pastoral Counseling, a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology, and a Doctor of Ministry Degree with a specialization in Marriage and Family Therapy. He is a Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and a Clinical Member of the Professional Counselor, Marriage and Family Therapist, and Social Worker.
This item is eligible for simple returns within 30 days of delivery. Return shipping is the responsibility of the customer. See our returns policy for further details.
