Why do some therapists use a couch and some don’t? What’s the purpose of the couch? And how can I choose the best therapist and method of psychotherapy for me?

Many people think that as a psychologist I have this incredible power — that I can easily read their minds; that I can open someone’s head and see what lies inside.

Are emotions like a cold? Can you be caught by others’ emotions? I think so. Just like we have some immunity to colds, and we won’t get one every time we are exposed, we can develop some immunity to others’ emotions.

It’s the same therapeutic process, whether we are in the same room or not. As far as I am concerned, online therapy is definitely the “real thing”.

Our conceptualizations of the situations we find ourselves in can not only place us at a disadvantage, but can literally do us harm.

Knowing the kind of person you’re dealing with can give you valuable insight into the types of values they’re likely to hold, their dominant attitudes and beliefs, and their typical modus operandi when it comes to dealing with other people.

Effective manipulation tactics simultaneously put others on the defensive while also obscuring or denying the malevolent intent of the person using them. Such tactics are particularly effective on neurotic individuals — especially those who always want to think the best of people and who strive hard to understand what would make a person behave in a problematic way.