A Personal Update

B'SD

28 Tevet, 5777

I've had a busy week or two since last Thursday, enough stress from demands on my time and presence to leave me feeling tired. It's as if I'm tired enough for two weeks of hard work!

But I'm happy to have something nice to show for all my efforts: Assisting with the joyous celebrations for a friends' marriage, helping children who needed my time, and life-coaching a client or two (more, actually) while managing to keep my kitchen busy and my exercise regimen.

I even met some journalistic deadlines. You can read the results here, here and here.

Certified in spiritual chaplaincy and counseling skills, I've worked with several mental health methods and practitioners. I addressed a convention of mental health therapists several years ago (talk about feeling pressured!). 

Keep looking for my input at the e-counseling site. Let me know here, or there, what you think of the ideas I present.





Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fill your heart and soul with supportive information.

You Can Save Someone's Life - Here's How!

B'SD

30 Tishrei, 5776

Yakov Horowitz ‏@yakovhorowitz  4h4 hours ago

Yakov Horowitz Retweeted Mayor Nir Barkat

That's what happens when children are raised to hate.

Yakov Horowitz added,

Mayor Nir Barkat @NirBarkat

To our shock & horror, there is no limit to the cruelty of the murderers who attack innocent young children on their way home from school.

0 retweets0 favorites

I can't adequately summarize the horror of what has been happening throughout Israel these past few weeks: Defenseless people shot to death, stabbed, beaten, bombed and so on, while going about their benign business.

We risk our own safety with a mere trip to the grocery store.

The Muqata

17 mins · Edited · 

8:06pm Channel 2: The 2 terrorists in today's Pisgat Zeev Stabbing Attack
The 2 terrorists in today's Pisgat Zeev Stabbing Attack are brothers, aged 13 and 15 from the Eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina. Yes, you read that correctly. AGES THIRTEEN AND FIFTEEN.

The two terrorists stabbed and critically wounded 2 Jews -- one aged 13, and one aged 21. The 13 year old, is in critical condition, and the 21 year old is in serious but stable condition.

Israelis, especially young children, are being traumatized by the country-wide tide of violence against Jews. Please donate generously to do what you can to restore mental health to agonized survivors.

You can save someone's life by enabling them to recover from trauma.

This has been an extremely difficult week here in Israel.  We are all reeling from the horrors that have terrified us. We are concerned that things will get worse.  Connections & Linksneeds funding to help deal with the traumas of last summer, this fall and whatever comes next. Connections & Links NEEDS YOU to spread the word In this day and age, social media is the best way to reach the largest number of people.  We are announcing the launch of our first ever crowdfunding campaign and we need you to share it as many times as you can.  Please post the link to your facebook, twitter, instagram and email accounts.  The more people we reach the more we can help children in Israel deal with the traumas they experience.  It's that simple. WE HAVE AN ANONYMOUS DONOR MATCHING FUNDS for this campaign.   ALL DONATIONS WILL BE DOUBLED! CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN

Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fill your mind with factual information, your heart with compassion.

Making the World Accessible from Hollywood to Here!

B'SD


6 Av, 5772


Whew, I've been busy under increasingly hot and humid weather. I've filmed a few episodes of the Refua Radio show, interviewing some practitioners of highly successful alternative healing techniques. But I pulled the shows that have all concerned looking exhausted and soaked with perspiration. We'll probably shoot those segments again so that we come out looking less worn out.


This week I'm preparing a feature story about improving on accessibility issues for children with physical or other limitations. Here's an item I found stuck in my research notes. Feel a grin spread across your face when you read

Hollywood Pros Teach
Adults With Disabilities
Moviemaking.

My feature story is full of solutions for children of all ages and their parents. I have more information for adults. That will possibly appear in a future article.

If you or someone you know need insights on how to travel with physical or cognitive limitations, be sure to read pages 59 and 98 of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge (Buy it from Booklocker). They address solutions to travel issues for people with disabilities. 


Tips for securing employment despite a disability are in there, too.

Buy the E-book or print edition today for a brighter look at your medical, mental health or disability challenges. Click on the words EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.

How to Protect Your Welfare: DEMAND Accountability in the Mental Health World!

B'SD

5 Shvat 5771


Readers, I've wondered if valid security measures were in place before Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' community-oriented event began. It is odd that local and federal law enforcement officials, and Homeland Security in particular, missed the glaring clues of Jared Loughner's lack of mental health, his contempt for a peaceful American society, and his repeatedly stated threats to public welfare.

Hearts are broken,
lives were lost.

Others hang in the balance.
THAT situation need not
be repeated!

YOU are in a position to demand accountability from your legislators. Arm yourselves with some appropriate reading here:

Dr. Keith: Tragedy of Mental Illness
By Dr. Keith Ablow

Published January 09, 2011
FoxNews.com

The story of Jared Loughner’s murderous rampage, which took the lives of six innocent victims and critically wounded Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, will ultimately prove to be a story about how severe mental illness—including that linked to violence—routinely goes untreated.

By all accounts...

Get the full story at http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/01/09/dr-keith-tragedy-mental-illness/

My prayers, and those of fellow Jews, go to the bereaved and suffering survivors. May all of you heal emotionally and physically.

If you want to reach for mental health professionals you can trust, buy iPhone-friendly E-book EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Read the advice about how to spot ethical practitioners and people to avoid. Find resources for contacting mental health professionals in your part of the world in the back of the book.

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.

and PRAY HARDER!

Just in time for the Holidays! Misery Made Easy!

B'SD

27 Tishrei 5771



High Holiday Season just ended for Jewish observers and gosh, it's time for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Xmas, Kwaanza and Hanuka marketers to hit the airwaves! Bonking your braincells with messages about "Buy this/do that to be happy" and filling your heart with pain about images of people who seem happier than you are what "We want you to feel inadequate so buy This Solution" advertising sales are all about.

You smell fine and look normal.

Not everybody

is a gourmet cook.

Gifts and home renovations
are hard to pay for

in today's strained

global economy.

Skip the guilt trip by

turning off the TV, radio

and other sound systems.

Close

magazines

and newspapers

paid for

by fear-promoting

and

anger-inducing

ad revenue.

I hope your eyes will fill with tears of laughter by watching this lesson about Misery Made Easy (it'll teach you how to avoid it 1-2-3!)



Learn more can-do, no-cost techniques for feeling better about yourself and life in general, AND that medical problem you face in E-book EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. http://www.booklocker.com/books/4244.html





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.

Talk Therapy Is POTENT Medicine!

B'SD

22 Tamuz 5770


I'm relieved to know that people have been helped with my books and Self-Help Coaching. Readers comment to me and to their acquaintances that "It seems as if EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge is speaking directly to me, the reader!"

There's a reason I phrased the book's prose as I did. I use the same techniques in live sessions with coaching clients, bearing in mind that "... a major psychotherapy goal for all patients is to turn on coping routines on their own." It's a quote from the article cited below.

Igniting your coping mechanisms

is what my work is all about.

Find out why EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge and I succeed at helping people in medical distress. Read this New York Times Wellness blogpost, Talk Therapy Can be POTENT Medicine!

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.

10 Secrets Your Therapist Might Not Tell You!

B'SD


17 Tishrei 5770



Full disclosure is a legal term. It's also a moral imperative.

Here's why EMPOWER Yourself cautions you to choose respectful, caring mental health professionals: 10 Secrets Your Therapist Won't Tell You.

There's a gem of a Global Resource included in

It's a tool for finding the right mental health professional in your part of the map.

You can further protect your interests by verifying the integrity of a therapist with professional mental health organizations and local mental health regulators.

EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical or Mental Health Challenge.

Yojeved Golani
Coping with a Medical Crisis?
Make the Changes You Need in Your Life

GOOD NEWS about Postpartum Depression

B'SD

4 Av 5768

If you're a woman who has suffered with depression after giving birth, you probably felt much worse after acquaintances asked "But how can you be sad with the new blessing in your life? Such a cute, helpless baby..."

If you've ever made such a remark to a woman depressed after bringing new life into the world, please don't say it again. Ever.

Postpartum Depression strikes no matter how the baby looks and it doesn't care what you think, either. The main concern here is getting Mama to be happy again. And she has a BIG struggle ahead of her.

Let's turn this sad phenomenon into a better situation. Do Momma and baby (and maybe the rest of the family) a favor: help out in practical ways.

• Babysit so that Mom can get some quality sleep.
• Sit down and share a nutricious meal with her (she might not be eating well due to the depression).
• Put in a load of laundry, then fold it and put things away as Mom directs your helpful efforts.
• Make sure there are enough diapers in the house, that other children are bathed, fed, and tended to with games and stories.

Your help can be very soothing. Keep up a friendly face and do not scold a new mother for experiencing extreme sadness when you think it is time for her to be happy. She's not quite in control of her emotions. And nobody ever takes orders to change their moods. Emotions just don't work that way.

PD is physically exhausting. The affected woman has a hard time with motivation as well as with a lack of energy to fulfill her responsibilities.

If the situation seems bleak, getting worse over time, see if you can coax Mom (and Dad) into getting some counseling. The GOOD NEWS is that a competent therapist can help to improve the situation. As a matter of fact, therapy can help to PREVENT things from getting worse. Suggest it in a friendly way. No threats, no dire warning, just warm, reassuring concern for the woman's welfare is what's called for.

Here's more good news about PD: Part of the Postpartum Depression problem is chemical and might soon be curable. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health believe they've identified the culprit, BUT they haven't figured out why Postpartum Depression affects some women and not others. Researchers are seeking cures for the problem. They're even seeking preventatives! CLICK HERE for details.

The other part of the problem could be that the woman is overwhelmed with new responsibilites and nobody is helping her as necessary. Practical assistance and a nonjudgmental attitude from you can go a l-o-o-o-ng way to curing Mom from her depression. She'll feel hopeful, grateful, relieved, and, well, you get the idea.

Mom, you go right ahead and delegate responsibilities to friends and family who probably want to help you. Let them.

If your family members (especially Dad) don't help you, consider getting a therapist who can suggest solutions to the problem. Not all men understand the strain of caring for a helpless infant who keeps irregular hours and can't do anything on his/her own except soil diapers, eat and cry.

Read my book for ideas about how to beat the Baby Blues. The mental health strategies in It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To can help to improve almost any stressful situation.

To your good health, and that of the new baby,

Yojeved Golani
Coping with a Medical Crisis?
Make the Changes You Need in Your Life.