Santa Cruz therapist Lisa Herendeen believes we can all learn from the social media jabs Gavin Newsom is hurling at Donald Trump as a lesson in reclaiming power from a bully. She connects the current political dynamic to her work helping clients recognize their own power in difficult situations.
Lisa Herendeen
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
A Santa Cruz therapy session with anxious Blue America
Santa Cruz therapist Lisa Herendeen sees a lot of anxious clients these days. Here, she offers an impromptu therapy session for “Blue America,” touching on the anger and frustration many feel as they watch big changes the Trump administration is making in national policies. She also makes suggestions for what we in Santa Cruz County can do to channel our rage.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I gave myself a new boob for Christmas: How picking the right surgeon to rebuild my breast made me feel whole
After surviving breast cancer and a difficult divorce, Santa Cruz therapist Lisa Herendeen decided to undergo reconstructive surgery. She gave herself a breast as a Christmas gift in 2014. But getting the breast meant navigating the complexities of the U.S. health care system, tossing out surgeons she didn’t trust and reclaiming her new breast. She chronicles her saga here and urges women thinking about post-cancer options to find the right surgeon and understand their choices.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
A Santa Cruz therapist’s take on Zelenskyy’s diplomacy problem: Don’t tell a person with a personality disorder they are weak
Santa Cruz therapist Lisa Herendeen tries to make sense of the public argument that erupted between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “Mediation is difficult with someone who has a borderline personality disorder,” she writes. “Ask anyone who has tried to mediate a marital settlement agreement. Mediators are cautioned to go slow and stop the action when there is any sign of cohesive control and manipulation.” Or, she says, it could just be that Venus is in retrograde, as her astrology-minded friend suspects.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
We need comfort, not conflict, amid L.A. fires: Here’s a lesson in nonviolent communication for Trump, Musk and more
Santa Cruz therapist Lisa Herendeen is stunned by the harsh rhetoric and blame game circling the Los Angeles fires. What we need is empathy, she writes, and leaders who understand the merits of nonviolent communication. She just finished a training on this and she applies nonviolent communication skills to the political moment – and to the angry language she hears coming from Donald Trump, Elon Musk and others. Where are our leaders, she wonders. She longs for public rhetoric that raises us all up. She is even nostalgic for the Terminator.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The fantasy of Trump: I’m trying to figure out why people I know voted for him
Therapist Lisa Herendeen is trying to understand why people in Santa Cruz voted for Donald Trump. She sees parallels in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Match Girl.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Don’t let Trump steal your joy: We have to stay sane the next four years
Santa Cruz therapist Lisa Herendeen is worried about another four years with Donald Trump as president. She fears for democracy, free speech, climate change initiatives and immigration and human rights. She has composed a speech she wishes all the Trump supporters in her life would say to her. And, she insists, we can’t let Trump’s reelection suck out all our happiness.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
It’s hard to break up with Trump – Red America, I understand
Santa Cruz therapist Lisa Herendeen tries to walk the American public through a breakup with Donald Trump. Depression, shame, anger are all normal feelings after falling in love with a narcissist, she writes in this humorous piece.