Joan Lavendar PsyD - Comprehensive Personalized Psychotherapy Services
Is Envy ruining your life?
Has something like this ever happened to you?
Both you and your best friend have been trying to get pregnant with no success. It is a very painful situation. Then, you get a call from her telling you that she is going to have a baby. You can hear the joy in her voice. Can your friendship survive this dilemma?
You received a large well-deserved award at work. Close colleagues give you a standing ovation. Later on you find out that they are meeting at your favorite lunch hangout – without you. What do you think is going on?
Your ten-year-old son has been caught bullying a younger kid in school who brags about how successful his parents are. You tend to have a case of "keeping up the with the Joneses". Your son is getting out of hand because his (your) envy is out of control.
You married a terrific woman who is loveable and talented. But lately you find yourself picking fights with her for no reason. You give her a hard time when she says that you are envious of her. You are shocked to realize that she is right.
No one has the last word on how to handle envy! Competition is great, but at some point in life each of us is faced with a situation that fosters envy. It's a universal experience, but when is the last time you owned up to it?
What is envy? Envy, the green eyed monster, is that uniquely unpleasant combination of feelings that can happen when we see someone achieve something we want, and the wish to "spoil" their achievement. If we are aware of it, envy makes us feel ashamed of ourselves and can hold us back from using our own creativity.
I have developed a great respect for the impact of this green-eyed monster in the creation of suffering. Together we will approach your green-eyed monster so you can start to convert your envy into admiration and other life-affirming emotions.
Joan Lavender Psy.D. has over 30 years experience working with people to create successful balanced lives in New York City. Her work integrates Experiential Focusing, a psychotherapy process shown to correlate with positive life changes, enhanced self-esteem and the experience of wholeness. Joan is a lifelong New Yorker who writes about psychotherapy change process, body image, eating issues, loneliness, competition and envy and other challenges of contemporary life.
What kind of symptoms/diagnoses can you get help for?
- Adjustment Reactions
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Anxiety Disorders
- Bipolar Mood Disorder
- Body Image
- Bulimia Nervosa
- Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Depression and Mood Disorders
- Dissociative Disorders
- Personality Issues: Overly Sensitive, Intense, Moody, Avoidant, Self-Defeating, Obsessive-compulsive, Perfectionistic
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Social Phobia
- Somatization
- Women's Issues
What kind of life situations can you get help for?
- Abuse and neglect
- Adult siblings
- College transition
- Competition, jealousy and envy
- Cross-cultural situations
- Creativity, talent and accomplishment
- Family
- Friendship issues
- Grief and loss
- Intimacy
- Loneliness and Aging
- Work
For
- Individuals (older adolescents and adults)
- Couples
- Families
- Groups
