I recently published Avoid “Shots in the Dark” to Maintain Pristine Professional Boundaries in Psychiatric Times in an effort to demonstrate how drinking alcohol in public may lead well-meaning licensed health professionals onto the slippery slope of boundary...

Earlier today I overheard my dentist, a wonderful fellow named Herbie, say to the patient in the room next door: “I could retire whenever I want to but I love what I do.  So why in the world would I retire?” I’m almost embarrassed to write that I feel exactly the same...

In 2016, I published A Tale of Two Epidemics in the Harvard Health Blog. Sadly, our current pandemic has joined with health professional burnout and the opioid epidemic to gobsmack us with virus-infused spittle. Although doctors and nurses have stepped up heroically...

Every now and then, a physician in a group practice or clinic setting disappears abruptly.  Sometimes this is due to illness or a family problem; occasionally the doctor has encountered a professional difficulty of one sort or another that precludes them from...

The majority of my coaching clients are physicians.  It isn’t easy for them, these days.  For the most part, doctors are rational types who believe in science, data, and facts.  They have trouble understanding why so many of their patients seem to have signed on as...

A common communication problem: Although important questions often have complicated answers, sometimes we ask things in a way that shuts people down.  When someone poses a question that calls for “YES” or “NO” as the expected answer, the person doing the asking often...

My editorial about a study of Shadow Coaching was published in the November 2021 issue of Medical Care, the official journal of the medical care section of the American Public Health Association (scroll down after clicking on the hyperlink to read the beginning of the...

In these days of societal upheaval and pandemic-related stress, misuse of alcohol, cannabis, and psychoactive medications is rampant.  This applies to the general public, as well as to many doctors, nurses, and other professionals.  By maintaining a heightened awareness of substance misuse, we have the potential to help many, many people.

During these solemn high holy days of repentance and reckoning, millions of Jews around the world beseech God to stop Covid-19 from spreading and ending lives.  Although it can be soothing and reassuring to believe that the universe is governed by a supreme being who...

The human condition:  We’re born, and it takes us a few decades, more or less, to learn how to fly.  Fortunate circumstances and luck may be our lot.  Perhaps the flight isn’t too turbulent and the food is plentiful; maybe we even have some fun, get to help some...