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Read about my latest book: Tilt: Seeking Balance in Troubled Times. Available on Kindle NOW!
AUTHOR | PSYCHOTHERAPIST | MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER | ARTIST
My Blog
Short 2-4 minute reads often on current topics, providing tools for addressing communication issues that we all face. These skills come from my forty year career as a psychotherapist. I design original chalk art for each post.
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Shade
Hiking back on a rigorous trail at Palomar Mountain in the hot sun, I am craving shade. Red-faced and tired I look around the next bend...
Dr. Vin
Sep 2, 20203 min read
High
I awake after a fitful first night’s sleep on Big Bear Lake, due to the high elevation in the mountains. While making breakfast and lunch...
Dr. Vin
Aug 26, 20204 min read
Slur
Teen son: Mom, why are you being mean to the appliance salesman? Mom: Because I need him to get me what I asked for and he isn’t doing...
Dr. Vin
Aug 10, 20204 min read
August First
We call a few folks we haven’t seen since the beginning of the pandemic. Two of them have Coronavirus. One got it from her asymptomatic...
Dr. Vin
Aug 1, 20201 min read
Treasure
I just had a wave of fatigue and immediately worried this cold I have is really Coronavirus. Then I turned on a Zoom Mass and the first...
Dr. Vin
Jul 27, 20202 min read
Mask
People: I love them, and I miss them. My heart longs not to be so fearful; my heart longs to extend my hands and watch my 4-year-old...
Dr. Vin
Jul 15, 20206 min read
4 July 2020
A conservative, a centrist and a liberal American walk into a bar. The bartender says, “We don’t serve your kind here.” The angry...
Dr. Vin
Jul 5, 20203 min read
Knots
Over eggs and toast at the dining room table, my husband and I compare where we are in the autobiographies we are separately reading....
Dr. Vin
Jun 27, 20203 min read
Father's Day
On this Father’s Day, my sister Maria posts a photo of her and our Dad having a milkshake. She says it is their last photo together. Dad...
Dr. Vin
Jun 22, 20203 min read
Summer Dust
“Your neighbors have grown sick of your f------ riots and Bullshit Matters signs. Remove them or we TORCH your home and cars real quiet...
Dr. Vin
Jun 11, 20203 min read
Goats
Racial tensions have exploded in violence this week in America. This amidst a background of people feeling confined and a mass loss of...
Dr. Vin
Jun 1, 20204 min read
Flutter By
During last night’s guided meditation, Sharon Salzberg invited us to “think of yourself at a different age, younger or older than you are...
Dr. Vin
May 25, 20202 min read
Conflict Quicksand
I try to avoid conflict but sometimes it comes knocking on my door. Someone posted an article on FaceBook about the increase in suicides...
Dr. Vin
May 25, 20203 min read
May Grey
I look outside my window And see more cars moving. Economies start their motors. Why does this scare me? Because, though I ache to see...
Dr. Vin
May 21, 20201 min read
Quilt
Our mothers have sewn themselves into the quilt we have become. Some patches are scorched from burns that ache when we think of her, some...
Dr. Vin
May 12, 20203 min read
Herd Wisdom
“Horses live in the moment and tune in at three levels, the self, the herd, and the environment.” This is a line from a recent essay...
Dr. Vin
May 6, 20203 min read
April Rain
I take the tack out of the calendar I have pinned up next to my computer, to flip the page to the new month of May. I pause and skim at...
Dr. Vin
Apr 30, 20203 min read
Eyes
We are in a deep struggle, as we all face the biggest health crisis of our lifetimes. There is an eagerness to get out beyond the bounds...
Dr. Vin
Apr 28, 20203 min read
Protest
The USA, having been in quarantine over a month is beginning to chomp at the bit. Stay at home orders have caused various stresses in...
Dr. Vin
Apr 20, 20203 min read
Inside
BACKGROUND: We are well into our second month of quarantine in California and much of the USA. Our food delivery routine is now working...
Dr. Vin
Apr 11, 20202 min read
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