Posts by Lily Sloane
Voices
This piece is an exploration of the psychological concept of “parts.” According to the Internal Family Systems model, the mind is made up of myriad subpersonalities. In addition, Carl Jung’s idea of the Collective Unconscious suggests that beyond our individual unconscious, we possess ancestral memory and experience including archetypes such as “mother,” “teacher,” “hero,” and…
How do you know you need help? Living Through the Gray Zone of Disordered Eating
Take a moment to think about how you think about how you eat. How do you decide what you want? How do you decide what you need? What do you say to yourself when you eat a cookie? What do you say to yourself when you eat a salad, pizza, french fries, processed foods, organic…
Harm Reduction: Making Way for Curiosity About Your Drug/Alcohol Use
I haven’t been writing as many articles recently. I guess it’s because I’ve been spending my free time in bars. Ok, I realize that was a misleading statement. I have a new podcast, A Therapist Walks Into a Bar, for which I interview random people in bars about all kinds of human issues and then…
Why Whole Foods Wellness Program Hurts Employees: An Open Letter
Dear Whole Foods (and CEO John Mackey), I write as a former employee, a psychotherapist, and a woman who has been in recovery for disordered eating and distorted body image. I write because I’m no longer shopping in your stores and I want you to know why. I have had many reasons to stop in…
Weightless Holidays: Fighting the War on Your Body
Winter is cold and rough. So, for centuries people have come up with ingenious ways to ride it out. We’ve built fires to gather around. We’ve learned how to preserve food that can’t grow in such a hostile environment. We’ve built narratives and rituals to comfort our souls and bring us together so we don’t…
Look at Me! Look at Me! (Spotlights and Shadows)
Most of us are dying to be seen – to be noticed, loved, and understood – whether or not we’re totally conscious of this. I always made a performance of it. As a little girl I’d joyfully entertain family guests with a song, as a teenager I dreamed of winning an Oscar, and as an…
The World Needs You to Follow Your Passion: Interview with Jessica Semaan, Founder of The Passion Company
To hear this article as a podcast, you can listen and download from the SoundCloud link above. Today’s story brings us to the busy intersection of fear, emptiness, creativity, self-love and passion. To get us there, I interview Jessica Semaan, founder of The Passion Company. Jessica has made it her full time job to help…
Why Do My Farts Stink? (And other frustrations of having a body)
The other day I asked a few friends if they had any article ideas and one jokingly asked me to write about why his farts stink so much. Really bad. No matter what he eats. His girlfriend confirmed this story. We all laughed, knowing of course I wouldn’t be writing an article for a psychology…
From Drones to Phones: Security vs Freedom in Romantic Relationships
I was recently listening to a collaboration broadcast of two of my favorite public radio programs, Radiolab and Note to Self (formerly New Tech City). The episode was called “Eye in the Sky,” and it asks the question: Should police use drone surveillance to solve and prevent crimes? The hosts, experts, and listeners had a…
Screen Time for Adults: Setting Limits for Yourself (and your inner child).
I was sick with a cold this weekend and feeling pretty crappy, which was fine because the third season of Orange is the New Black just got released. I can safely say when I wasn’t sleeping, I was likely looking at a screen. I’d brainstorm article ideas for a minute, watch an episode or two,…
Un-standardizing Beauty
How to de standardize beauty…so you can live YOUR beauty!
Living and Loving in the Nation’s Most Expensive City
The San Francisco economy along with the challenges in modern relationships make the case for investing in therapy.