Among the long list of behavioral quirks ascribed to therapists is the tendency to answer a client’s question with a question or to duck the query by other means. Understanding the reasons why therapists avoid answering questions can make this tendency less galling and shed some light on the therapeutic process.

Buying into a particular life script — a sequence of life stages that define what we do and when we do it — is easy to do without full consideration. Are we living old, inadequate scripts or are we adapting to new times and circumstances?

Clients teach their therapists at least as much as therapists teach their clients. Only recently have my clients taught me practical ways to apply a theory developed in 1943 that is a mainstay of most introductory psychology courses.

If your mental well-being is a finite resource, like money, then what can good money management teach us about how to keep our balance when life threatens to disturb our peace?

In almost every social circle, there’s at least one busybody who habitually sticks his or her nose where it doesn’t belong and someone else who is oblivious to what’s right in front of them. If only we all could learn to say “that’s not my problem” at just the right time.

The latest crop of reality TV tells stories of people suffering because their homes are filled with useless junk and filth. But how many of us treat our time as badly as these people treat their spaces? You may be a “time hoarder” and not even know it.

In the process of starting a business, building a career, or some other large, audacious goal, you could do worse than to tap into the voices of experience around you. And yet even if you listen to the collected wisdom of your elders, their sage advice may fail to produce results. Here’s how “the experts” can steer you wrong.