This is self-work and I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford.

At self-work we'll discuss psychological and emotional issues common in today's world and what to do about them.

I'm Dr. Margaret and self-work is a podcast dedicated to you taking just a few

minutes today for your own self-work. Hello and welcome to the podcast Self-Works. I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford. I'm a clinical

psychologist out of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Gosh, I've been doing this almost 25 years and

last year I decided I wanted to expand the walls of my

practice or extend them to people who might or might not ever really consider

therapy but might be interested in hearing what a psychologist

had to say.

I've gotten lots of emails from you and I love getting those emails that describe what

you're getting out of self-work and I am so pleased to hear

that some of my own personal stories make a difference. I often feel as if I'm

sharing the wisdom of many of the patients I've worked with

over the years with those who listen here at self-work. I'm a conduit of sorts.

So I hope you'll listen today. We're going to be talking about the holidays.

You can already hear the pressure. We're already hearing Christmas commercials and all that

kind of thing. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the things

that I don't do at the holidays,

poking a little fun at myself.

And then we're going to talk about the importance of ritual.

My parents died the week before Christmas in 2007.

So I have some personal experience of grief at the holidays and how to handle that.

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