Fire | Lise1

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 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...

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...

"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...

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...