I Warmly Welcome You to My First Perfectly Imperfect Blog!

Dr. Alyson Nerenberg: I Warmly Welcome You to My First Perfectly Imperfect Blog!by Dr. Alyson Nerenberg

After 26 years of practice, I am finally writing a blog…..  The reason for my long overdue post is that I have been very busy living my own beautiful/messy life and have not gotten around to writing about it, until now! By way of background, I currently juggle: a husband, three kids between the ages of seven and eighteen years old and a white fluffy dog. Additionally, I own a private practice that consists of myself and five other incredible psychotherapists, as well as a bookkeeper/office manager who keeps us all organized.  On the good days, everything runs smoothly and I am filled with gratitude to do what I love and still manage to be there for my family. On the difficult days, I am managing life’s chaos the best way I can using spirituality, a positive approach and a sense of humor.

I am aspiring for this blog to be a genuine place to share some of my insights, wisdom and my down to earth way of treating obstacles. I do not claim to have all the answers, but I have learned quite a bit over the past two and a half decades of counseling patients, along with my own humbling experiences being a parent, wife and family member. Additionally, I am hoping this blog will provide an opportunity to spotlight the voices of the powerful men and women who work as psychotherapists in my practice.

In describing my approach as a psychologist, I do not believe in working from a distance, but instead bringing my whole self into the room in order to be both genuinely accessible and open. I wholeheartedly invest in the people who I work with and am very loyal, as well as care deeply about my patients.

Two of my best attributes as a therapist are my ability to be both honest and authentic. Along those lines, I need to share that one of my fears in developing a blog is that I will not have the time to update it frequently. I guess it will be my own opportunity to practice what I preach. I am frequently quoted by my patients as saying “90 percent of life is just showing up”.  This blog will be my opportunity to just “show up” in a written form.

I also frequently quote the 12 Step saying that we need to “make progress, not perfection”. As a person who struggles with her own sense of perfectionism, it is okay to just have a “perfectly imperfect” blog.  The psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott describes the “good enough” mother and explains that for a child to grow he doesn’t need a parent who is perfectly attuned to him at all times. Instead, he just needs a parent who is showing up, doing her best and meeting most of the child’s emotional needs.  I have adapted this term to apply to the “good enough” student/therapist/blog site.

For my readers who are joining me on this blogging journey, I promise you it will be a “work in progress” but never boring and worth the ride!

Wishing you peace, love and compassion,  Alyson Nerenberg, Psy. D.