Marcia Sirota

Everyone gets angry now and then. Anger is a normal emotion that arises when you feel attacked, abandoned, imposed upon, or deprived. It's a signal that something bad is happening to you, or that you're about to lose something that you need.

When you're in touch with your anger and...

One of the worst things that can happen to a person is to be dumped. By "dumped" I mean when you're dating someone or in a relationship with them and then all of a sudden, they decide that they don't want to see you anymore.

It hurts to be rejected,...

In a recent article I described 10 bad habits to let go of in the coming year. Now I'd like to talk about 10 good habits to adopt in 2012 so that you can go into the year armed with some tools designed to bring you success and...

Instead of making another batch of new year's resolutions that you're probably going to break before January comes to a close, consider the following 10 bad habits and which of these you might want to let go of in the coming year.

Jealousy is the first one. The way I...

Intellect and emotional intelligence are very different things. The former is the ability to synthesize and analyze data, to problem-solve and make associations based on available information. The latter is a set of innate and learned skills which facilitate relationships and enable a person to negotiate more easily through all...

Those of you who insist that there are no differences between the sexes should probably stop reading this right now.

I regard men and women as equal but different and I'm going to be talking about how understanding these differences will foster better male-female relationships.

Getting our needs met...

Friendship, like many other things in life, can have an expiration date. There are some friends who stay with you for your whole life but there are also many friends who come into your life and are part of it only for a certain amount of time.

Through our lives,...

If you're someone who aspires to something beyond the ordinary, you must have figured out by now that there will always be those who are jealous or resentful of your success.

It doesn't matter that you've worked long and hard to get where you are, nor that you've made...

Lately, my patient Lisa has been disappointed with her boyfriend Dennis, whom she describes as usually very supportive. Something happened that put Dennis and his family into clearer perspective.

Dennis has an older sister, Marjorie. All of Dennis' family and friends recognize that Marjorie has an abrasive personality and...

One of the most important questions in a problematic relationship is when you ought to work on things and when you ought to walk away. It's not always easy to know what to do. Here are some tips for how to determine whether a relationship is salvageable or best gotten...

We hear a lot about the notion of forgiveness lately. We're supposed to forgive those who trespass against us, thereby finding inner peace and healing, but I have a different take on forgiveness. To me, it's a potentially dangerous notion that can cause more problems than peace.

When I think...

We talk about happiness all the time but do we really understand what it is​? We're trying so hard to find it but often, it remains just out of our grasp. It seems that we've gotten off track and that we're looking for happiness where it will never be found.

The other day I was talking to one of my patients about infidelity. She was convinced that her husband had cheated on her because she'd behaved badly in the marriage, being both overly critical and overly demanding. I agreed that her previous behaviour had been unacceptable, but explained to her...

The word "confrontation," makes some of us very uncomfortable. When we contemplate talking to a friend about something they did that upset us, we can be filled with dread.

Some of us believe that confrontation is a recipe for disaster but really, the opposite is true. Sharing our concerns...

I have to admit that I watch very little reality TV. I've never seen an episode of Jersey Shore, The Hills or Big Brother. I don't watch the Housewives shows, Survivor or heaven forbid, Toddlers and Tiaras.

I watched some of the Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise because I was writing about...

There's a disturbing trend I've been noticing in my practice lately. My patients have been coming into the office telling me that they've recently taken the advice of their close friends, with disastrous results.

We love our friends and most of the time our friends love us, but they aren't...

There are six basic truths that you should be aware of if you want to be really happy in love. Having this knowledge will enable you to transform a so-so relationship into something that's deeply satisfying.

Secret #1: Face the truth about each other. You need to see and...

You've heard the phrase, "So-and-so is a really nice person," and probably thought nothing of it. In my work, though, I think a lot about what it means to be "really nice" as I see a major distinction between being nice and being genuinely kind.

The way I understand it,...

Are you one of those people who finds it really hard to see the bad in others? Do you need to believe that everyone in your life is a good person and can't imagine that someone you love or respect could be capable of cruelty, manipulation or thoughtlessness? Do you...

Just the other day, one of my patients, let's call her Ellie, came into my office in crisis. She'd just found out that her husband "Jules" had been cheating on her. What made things worse is that they'd been separated for almost a year and were supposedly working toward a...