Dr. James Tobin Ph.D. - Psychologist
Articles
WELCOME TO DR. TOBIN’S ARTICLES
Dr. Tobin regularly publishes blog articles and posts information and writings by other authors on various issues including child development and adolescence, parenting, romantic love, men and masculinity, the psychotherapy process, the training and supervision of psychologists, sexual compulsivity and addiction, and organizational culture and change. If there is a topic you would like Dr. Tobin to feature, please email him directly at jt@jamestobinphd.com.
Identifying Relationship Patterns Rooted in One’s Family of Origin
Identifying Relationship Patterns Rooted in One’s Family of Origin Many relationship struggles repeat not because of poor choices or lack of insight, but because early family-of-origin experiences quietly shape how intimacy, dependency, and conflict are experienced in...
The Unfinished Self – Understanding Longing and Its Transformative Power
Longing is a profound emotional state rooted in human incompleteness, bridging desire, loss, imagination, and identity. Drawing from psychology, neurobiology, and psychoanalysis, this essay explores longing as both symptom and signal — an engine of suffering,...
Moments That Matter: How Change Really Happens in Couples Therapy
Moments That Matter: How Change Really Happens in Couples Therapy Couples heal when partners begin to experience each other differently — when hurt and resentment give way to empathy, and chronic defensive patterns are replaced by emotional engagement and new pathways...
Post-traumatic Growth: How Adversity Leads to Personal Transformation
Post-traumatic Growth: How Adversity Leads to Personal Transformation Post-traumatic growth (PTG) is a positive psychological transformation that individuals may experience after a major life crisis or traumatic event. Recent research reveals that PTG is more complex...
Why Rumination Keeps You Stuck: Navigating the Interplay of Regret, Trauma, and Mental Loops
Why Rumination Keeps You Stuck: Navigating the Interplay of Regret, Trauma, and Mental Loops An obsessive cognitive-emotional tendency to revisit unresolved past experiences, rumination is perpetuated by destructive mental loops that negatively impact one’s...
The Culturally Sanctioned Manic Defense
The Culturally Sanctioned Manic Defense True psychological growth requires confronting rather than evading difficult emotions, relational disappointments, and the limitations of ourselves and others. The psychotherapeutic process often centers on building the...
Overcoming Infidelity: Rebuilding Trust and the Healing Stages of Couples Therapy
Overcoming Infidelity: Rebuilding Trust and the Healing Stages of Couples Therapy In the aftermath of infidelity, couples therapy provides a structured approach to recovery by supporting both partners through a series of stages that stabilizes the crisis, explores the...
Psychotherapy Changes Neurobiological Patterns of Relatedness: The “Still Face” Experiment and the Boston Change Process Study Group
Psychotherapy Changes Neurobiological Patterns of Relatedness: The “Still Face” Experiment and the Boston Change Process Study Group A group of clinicians and researchers, utilizing fundamental principles of bonding between the infant and caregiver, have identified...
The “Unthought Known”: Christopher Bollas’ Revolutionary Psychoanalytic Concept and Its Contribution to Psychotherapy
The “Unthought Known”: Christopher Bollas’ Revolutionary Psychoanalytic Concept and Its Contribution to Psychotherapy Bollas’ work emphasizes the non-verbal and implicit dimensions of the psyche, a focus that has prompted new techniques for accessing and interpreting...