Am I Enough to Love?

By: Dr. Rick Petronella We all want to receive love. But maybe it comes in a form you don’t want – perhaps someone offers romantic love but that’s not what you’re looking for – or it doesn’t come at all. Then there is the heartache and helplessness; you can’t make others love you if they […]

Difficulties Can Make Us Become Better People

By: Dr. Rick Petronella Troubles come in every shape and size. Depending on how you define it, trouble may visit uninvited, stay too long, and then stubbornly refuse to leave. If that’s the way it is– if trouble, difficulties, and hardships are commonplace in life, then our challenge becomes learning what we can about them. […]

Don’t Let COVID Be the Christmas Grinch!

By: Dr. Rick Petronella The Grinch is a fictional character created by Dr. Seuss and is best known as the main character in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The grumpy, anti-holiday spirit of the character has led to the everyday term “Grinch”. In this difficult year with all the challenges that 2020 has brought us, we […]

Thanksgiving

By: Dr. Rick Petronella It is easy to feel grateful when everything is going well in our lives. What about when things are not going well? When there are burdens and struggles it’s hard to feel grateful. Do we wait until life gets better again or can we start where we are, in the midst of problems […]

What Can We Learn from Our Regrets?

By: Dr. Rick Petronella Is there anybody in this world who has not regretted a decision they’ve made or a path they’ve taken? I am sure we all have. Yet, how people respond to their regrets varies considerably. Some people easily shrug off their regrets; no problem! Others review their regrets and seek to make […]

Why Does Everything Seem So Hard?

By: Dr. Rick Petronella We’ve all seen and heard the recommendations flooding the media about how to take care of our physical health during this challenging time… We’re supposed to wash our hands, maintain social distancing, and wear a mask whenever distancing isn’t possible. But what about our mental health? What can we do to […]

How to Have Self-Confidence When You Don’t Feel Like It

By: Dr. Rick Petronella Self-confidence essentially means to trust and have faith in oneself. It is our certainty as to our judgement, and our ability. A self-confident person is able to act on opportunities, rise to new challenges, take control of difficult situations, and accept responsibility and criticism if things go wrong. The word “confidence” […]

The Power of Choice: Does It Really Matter?

Dr. Rick’s June 2020 Newsletter Here at Compass we have a group therapy program called Choices. Its name is derived from the words in Deuteronomy 30:19 where God, speaking through his servant Moses, addresses the dilemma Israel was in by poor decisions they had made. Moses communicates that God would restore all that had been […]

When Bad Becomes Good: Finding Meaning in the”Negative” Events

Dr. Rick Petronella March 23, 2020 CNN shared the stories regarding the fallout caused by COVID-19. Children are out of school. Patrons are forgoing restaurants and are flooding grocery stores.Toilet paper is bought at alarming rates. Millions have been ordered to shelter-in-place. Despite so much uncertainty and with lives indefinitely upended, people and communities have […]

Working With Reality

Acceptance Means Not Accelerating or Avoiding By: Charity Simpson I have heard many metaphors used to describe the experience of the changing times in COVID-19. Some have compared it to the plague where all people were impacted and desperate for relief. Some have likened it to a hurricane that we were able to see creeping […]

Author Archives: Dr. Rick