Try Swiping Right
I saw an old friend last weekend (name and info changed.) Mary is a social worker, a few years older than I, smart and witty, quietly...
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AUTHOR | SPEAKER
Dr. Lise Deguire
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Searching for "The Roses Man"
I met “The Roses Man” when I was 5 or 6 years old, attending Franklin Elementary School in East Orange, New Jersey. I was freshly...
How the Witch Became a Model
When I was five, my heaven was a tiny dusty theater at Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey. My father taught music history there....
Winning the Worst Award
Picture me at 22 years old, bright eyed with big hair and a big smile to match. I strode the campus of my college, Tufts University, with...
How I met TED
“You should do a TED talk,” a literary agent suggested, as I blinked at her. “A TED talk? What would I even talk about? And how do you...
Darkness Descends; An Ode to Joy
It crept in like a low fog, so lightly that I didn’t notice it beginning to swirl around me. A vague unease, a weighty sigh. The sun...
My Worst Fear: Public Speaking (to Nobody)
What do you do when your worst fear actually happens?
How This Grinch Forgave Her Mother (Mostly)
“Have you forgiven your mother?” Oddly, this gut-wrenching, intensely personal question follows me wherever I go. I am a psychologist and...
The Problem with "Women Talking"
Sarah Polley’s Women Talking is a beautiful ensemble piece, in which women gather to discuss how to handle a violent crisis. The...
Disfigurement: A Call for Awareness
(republished, with permission, from the Pennsylvania Psychologist) When I was four years old, I survived a fire which burned away my...
Your Accidental Activist
Somehow, I have become an activist. This was never my intent. All I ever planned was to write my memoir. I did not intend to be a public...
"Burn Baby Burn"
[Author note: In recognition of this back-to-school time, here is a reprint of my blog about bullying. Many children are bravely...
Happy To Be “Too Sensitive”
My mother used to tell me, “You're too sensitive.” It was a repeated refrain, deployed when I cried too long or hurt too much. She said...
Hey Hollywood – Scars Don’t Make You Evil
At the end of a weary work week, I sprawled on the couch ready to watch a movie. I wanted to be entertained by someone else’s problems...
A Tough Fall
(Part 5 in the series Choosing More Surgery) I spoke to a psychic two weeks before my recent operations. The psychic is a friend, an...
Somewhere Over My Rainbow(s)
(Part 4 in the series Choosing More Surgery) I have always loved “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” I identify with Dorothy in The Wizard of...
Why Me? Why Not Me?
(This is Part 3 in the series "Choosing More Surgery." See here for Part 1 and here for Part 2) “How are you doing today?” asked my...
I Hate Walter: Choosing more surgery (Part II)
(For Part I of this series, click here) “You need to make friends with it,” advised my surgeon. She smiled at me, her long straight...
5 Things to Say to a Scarred Person (and 1 Thing Not to Say)
A year ago, I sat eating lunch with my new friend, Betsy. We met when our kids performed in high school theater together. We both...
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