Articles by Gordon Shippey

I also write articles about therapy and common issues I see in my practice.

They Don’t Call them “CrackBerries” for Nothing 
People feel a natural resistance to labeling technology as addictive in the same sense that cocaine is addictive or methamphetamine is addictive. Yet considering the behavior of addicts, it’s hard to see much daylight between chemically-fueled addiction and technology or Internet addiction.

3 Ways to Respond to Negative Emotions
Clients come to therapy for many reasons, but one of the most common goals clients express is the desire to be free from disturbing emotions. In my experience, coping strategies can be divided into three major categories, and here’s why detached awareness wins.

Your Creativity — Let No One Tell You “No”
What can creative people do when opportunities to work are so scarce? Follow these steps, and take your project from inspiration to presentation. Make technology work for you as you enable yourself to succeed.

Feeling Good in Tough Times
Riding out the global recession means marshaling your emotional resources as much as managing your finances. You can use today’s economic setback as a catalyst for personal growth right now — even before the recovery takes hold.

But Is It Addiction?
Is there really such a thing as “sex addiction,” “food addiction,” “shopping addiction,” or “Internet addiction”? Addiction has less to do with what someone is addicted to and more about how their brain and behavior change over time. Recognizing the signature behaviors of addiction can save lives.

Parenting: Rules and Relationships
Behavior-based parenting techniques have enjoyed a strong following for the last several years. Less well known are the long-term disadvantages of the behavioral approaches, as well as the the relationship-based alternative that predated behavioral parenting’s popularity.

Four Things You Can Learn from Your Computer
You may think you have problems, but your computer has problems too: viruses, hackers, and a hard drive that’s never big enough. How modern computers cope with their problems can teach us a lot about how we handle our own struggles.