You might be surprised to learn that the final post in the series about feminine brain strengths is actually about worry! As a psychologist, I rarely talk about worry as a strength.

I should qualify here that I am talking about a little worry, not to be confused with the excessive worry that constitutes anxiety. (In fact, I don’t like using the word worry, but there is great value in being able to see certain tendencies as part of a spectrum and not necessarily entirely different...

Before diving in to the next "superpower" of the female brain, let's go through a few statistical facts about women:

• A little over 10 years ago, only 7% of the entire prison population in the US was female;
• There is a significantly higher rate of Antisocial Personality Disorder among men as compared to women; 
• Research shows that women are generally better at keeping strong negative emotions in check, and when a woman does act on her negative emotions, she will more often attack...

One day while riding on the train on the way to my office, there was a female conductor. I’ve travelled with a female conductor once before, and both times ended the same way.

On the intercom as we reached our destination, the conductor concluded her comments with, “Have a great day everyone, and thank you crew for your work.” The only two times the conductor thanked the crew in the past two months were the two times the conductor was female – and they...

In the first article in this series on differences in the female brain that give it an edge over the male brain in certain functions, I talked about intuition and the neural networking of white matter that allows for a greater reach across different areas of the brain and more sources of information.

In this post, I'd like to turn our attention to the next "superpower" of the female brain: empathy!

Empathy is the ability to recognize and share in other peoples’ experiences -...

With this post, I'm opening up a short series focusing on the female brain and a few of the ways that it differs from the male brain.

Fortunately there is a ton of research out there to rely on instead of just offering musings from my own experience. (I don’t know how much experience is required for a man to feel competent on his own to comment on the female brain, but I assure you I have not reached it!)

Instead I will be relying on the work of Dr. Daniel Amen, among others, who has...

What do you think of when you consider who "you" are? Do you feel like you are a spiritual being, living in a body but separate from it? 

While it's true that there is a difference between the material and immaterial part of who we are, that difference is not total. 

Existing as a union of body and spirit, material and immaterial, humans stand alone in all of creation as the only beings created this way! 

Our bodies are not something we have, but something we ...

Contains excerpts from The Mindful Catholic.

Our difficulties begin the moment we learn to doubt.

Think about it. The Garden of Eden was paradise until the slimy serpent planted seeds of doubt in Adam’s and Eve’s minds. Since then, the human experience has been fraught with a multitude of problems that stem from doubt. Our own lives begin without much complication until the moment we start to worry if everything is really going to be OK.

For instance, have you ever had a...

- The following is an excerpt edited from a live presentation and Q&A with Dr. Greg Bottaro. 

Q. We hear about mental illness all the time. But how do we arrive at mental health? Can you give a working concept of what that looks like?

A. It could be helpful to start with health in general. What could we point to as an indicator of health that overlaps any dimension of our human experience, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional/mental? 

The presence of adaptability or...

Let nothing disturb you. 
Let nothing frighten you. 
All things are passing away. 
God never changes. 
Patience obtains all things. 
Whoever has God lacks nothing. 
God alone suffices.

This short prayer/poem by St. Teresa of Avila hits the nail on the head as she reveals the reality of God's providence and pervasive presence in our lives. In it, she encourages us to recognize that no matter what, all truly will be well and that all we truly need is God - the only One...

On the CatholicPsych Facebook page, I once shared a post that ended up getting more shares, comments, and reactions than any thing I've ever posted. (Even now, years later, I still periodically receive notification of a new comment on that particular post!)

I shared this particular post because I’m a huge proponent of integration: the belief that our psychological and emotional lives are deeply united with, and deeply affecting, our spiritual lives, and vice versa. 

So...