Cliff Heegel Ph.D.

Subtitled: An uncertain mind sometimes deals with Reality better than a mind that is certain
“It ain’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so” ~Will Rogers
I love that Will Rogers quote. It captures, in a humorous way, the essence of the human predicament. We [...]

Here’s a short audio reflective exercise that can help you awaken from what Tara Brach calls “The Trance of Unworthiness.”  Below the audio link is an excerpt from one of her articles that I found on the internet. And if you want to know a lot more, read her book “Radical Acceptance.”
Audio Link: http://askdrcliff.com/audio/tranceunworthy.mp3
Excerpted from [...]

I had a dream the other night.
In my dream I was talking to a woman I’ll call Julia about how to handle her thoughts about herself. I realized that Julia was quite good at handling her thoughts about other people. She was powerless, however, when it came to thoughts about herself. Whatever Julia thought about [...]

People do not come to my office because of physical or emotional pain- they come see me because they are suffering.
I like that old saying ‘pain is inevitable, suffering is optional’. There is a big difference between authentic emotion and human suffering. Suffering is a fact of the human condition. However, it is not required. [...]

About that word ‘zen’. Don’t be scared of the word zen. After all, it is just a word.
The word ‘zen’ has a lot of different meanings.  In the context of me and my psychology practice, zen is simply a word that points to Awareness Practice. Although zen originated as a Japanese Buddhist practice, it isn’t [...]