michaellouie

I was doing career counseling in a business office back in the 1980s and starting my practice as a psychotherapist at the same time.  The office had three salesmen and three consultants.  I was one of the consultants who did the client work from the contracts that the salesmen sold.  The support staff for the organization consisted of … Read more TIRE TRACKS

Annie Arrives On Friday, February 9, 1951 society bandleader and pianist Eddie Duchin died in New York City. My mother kept the newspaper clipping in her jewelry box for years.  I didn’t know why.  Years later I found it, turned it over and discovered the small obituary for Benjamin Silverman, my father.  The following Saturday, February 17, 1951 … Read more ANNIE TAKES CARE OF THE FAMILY

Goldie and Sam were a round couple.  Everything around them was round, round faces, round bodies, and big round arms and legs.  They lived in a house at the corner of our block, attached to their gas station.  I never saw Sam dressed up in anything but his oil-stained striped Mobilgas overalls, never without grease on his hands.  A … Read more GOLDIE, SAM, AND MY DREAM HORSE

More than thirty-five years ago I left school-teaching to enter a career as a mental health counselor.  I was sitting on my front steps brushing my Chow-Chow dog.  My home faced the back entrance of a residence for “troubled” girls. The girls lived and attended school within the building.   I knew nothing more about the place, but frequently … Read more Libby, My Star Client

The marriage was over.  The civil divorce was final.  Yet there was another knot to be untied.  Within the Jewish religious tradition there is another divorce, a Jewish divorce, a “Get.”  This document is necessary to enable both parties to be remarried within the religion at some future time.  Civil divorces are not recognized as legitimate in the more religious … Read more THE GET

Knock Knock Knock…Come in Fool Edmund Amidon, Ph.D. was a professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. He was Chairman of a psychological graduate department, one of the first group education departments in the United States. Over the years, Edmund or “Ted” as we referred to him served as teacher, father, counselor, and most of al,l … Read more KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK…COME IN FOOL