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Dr. Lipson Responds

- Listen to the Masters Audiocasts

Dr. Michael Lipson is one of those gifted people one runs across from time to time in the helping professions (see Behind the Scenes). He can be heard on NPR affiliate WAMC and his show demonstrates his ability to be present with the matter at hand and to respond spontaneously with care and profound insight.

BMA has invited him to do the same on-line. Note how he approaches each issue with the soul and craft of an artist which is why he is one of our favorites. Clearly there is poetry in his words.

Dr. Lipson's audiobook The Stairway of Surprise - Six Steps to a Creative Life is due out this summer on BMA Audio.

Questions are taken from submissions by email and anonymously by regular mail. Do you have a question? Send it to Dr. Lipson at lipson@bmastudios.com or BMA Studios P.O.Box 433, Monterey MA 01245 Please limit to 150 words. Photo: Richard Sands

Most of the time I feel bad – fears about the future and getting older, my depressing job, whether or not people like me or think I’m attractive, wanting a bigger house and better car and money anxieties weigh me down. I keep thinking it's going to change - that gets me through - but things seem to stay the same. How can I really make this change?

I think I have a problem with developing obsessions with attractive self-possessed men in what is usually an inappropriate circumstance. Sometimes its my boss or friend's husband or someone else’s or I am in a committed relationship at the time. The songs say this is love – that ol black magic - but I’m beginning to think it’s a neurotic disorder of some kind because it has a destructive effect on my professional and personal life. I suffer in silence. What can I do?

I feel like I've been swimming upstream my entire life. Everything I’ve done has been accomplished with a thousand pound wait on my back which is why I am not further along compared to other people I know. The weight I refer to is my low opinion of myself. My parents were psychologically abusive and made me feel that I could do nothing but fail and I feel like I have proved them right. I also resent my friend’s self esteem and think life's unfair. I keep continuing on with what feels like a flat tire or two and a couple of shot cylinders. Can you give me some advice?