How to Recognize and Face Emotional Triggers
PostDecember 10, 2018December 10, 2018

How to Recognize and Face Emotional Triggers

Emotional triggers are moments when you suddenly feel anxious, overwhelmed, confused, and terrified. You often don’t recognize these experiences as being triggers. You aren’t sure what they are about or where they originate.

Triggers are created out of trauma. The following are examples of trauma: Being physically and or sexually assaulted, being emotionally abused, a parent dying, a break up with a partner, loss of a job/loss of income, poverty, being in a war and surviving a natural disaster, racisim, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism or being hated because you are the “other.”

Judged and Sentenced to Shame: Guilty of Bad Handwriting
PostNovember 25, 2018November 25, 2018

Judged and Sentenced to Shame: Guilty of Bad Handwriting

I’m continuing to uncover painful events in my life. I know that this process will be exhausting, wounding and an eventual powerful springboard. These truths will warm my body mind and soul. I will be a stronger and better man. I have always had poor penmanship as they called it in the late 1950’s and...

Going Deep with The Demons
PostNovember 23, 2018November 23, 2018

Going Deep with The Demons

Please read this blog before you read https://www.boblivingstone.com/how-americas-institutions-failed-my-family-and-what-i-did-about-it/ what is below. Thanks so much I realize that most people don’t look for emotional pain. I am not afraid to dig deep inside in an effort to seek understanding, clarity, peace and joy. I believe facing and working through the pain opens the door to healing,...

How America’s Institutions Failed my Family and What I did about it
PostNovember 8, 2018November 8, 2018

How America’s Institutions Failed my Family and What I did about it

My father died suddenly on Nov. 9, 1966 when I was fifteen years old. He had a stroke, went to the ICU and died two days later. When I think about this awful/pivotal time, I have a vast array of angry and sad feelings. How institutions failed my family: The hospital would not allow my...

Personal Boundaries: What are they and Why are they Important?
PostOctober 20, 2018October 20, 2018

Personal Boundaries: What are they and Why are they Important?

A boundary is a line between you and others. When that line is well defined, healthy relationships are possible. When that line has broken parts to it or is blurry, relationships are not functional. They are filled with drama, stress, unrealistic expectations and emotional and financial over-giving. Example of well-defined boundaries: In a primary relationship,...

Rediscovering my Father’s Spirit
PostSeptember 22, 2018September 22, 2018

Rediscovering my Father’s Spirit

My name is Bob Livingstone and I am a licensed clinical social worker based in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1987. I work with children, teens and adults. One of my specialties is grief counseling. I became interested in this subject because my father died suddenly when I was fifteen years old. I have...

What I Lost and Found: Fifty-Two Years after My Father’s Death
PostSeptember 4, 2018September 4, 2018

What I Lost and Found: Fifty-Two Years after My Father’s Death

Hi. My name is Bob Livingstone and I am sixty-seven years old. I am a psychotherapist working with children, teenagers and adults. I have been in private practice for over thirty years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some of the areas I like to focus on are grief and loss, trauma/abuse, and divorce. My...

When your Caring Turns into an Addiction/Co-Dependency
PostAugust 15, 2018August 15, 2018

When your Caring Turns into an Addiction/Co-Dependency

How can you tell if your caring for a friend, lover, or family member has turned into an addiction also known as co-dependency? Being co-dependent is a means of survival in the world. This doesn’t brand you as a bad person. You’re struggling to find a new path. I hope that the following will help...

What does Loving Yourself Mean and Why is it Important?
PostAugust 5, 2018August 5, 2018

What does Loving Yourself Mean and Why is it Important?

The words come through the self-help airwaves and from the world of social media: You must learn to love yourself to feel good about who you are. You hear these words and immediately feel like a failure. You don’t believe that you love yourself. You imagine that those who truly love themselves smile all the...

Traumatic Memories that Remain: How to Move On
PostJuly 16, 2018July 16, 2018

Traumatic Memories that Remain: How to Move On

I was watching the Marvel TV show Luke Cage scenes where Luke’s dad put his arms around him and apologized for not being there when he was a child. I started tearing up when I realized I never had this moment with my dad. The pain was felt deep inside with the understanding that I...