I first met Dr. Kathleen Cairns, Psy.D at a Caribbean airport at midnight many years ago with my friend Frank Morgan (better known in West Hartford by his alias Marcus Franklin). She was standing behind us going through customs and I asked her where she was from.
Kathleen said Connecticut. I then asked where? She humored me and said West Hartford. I again asked where? She humored me some more and gave me her street name. I then asked for the street number. It turned out we lived one block away from each other.
Dr. Kathleen Cairns
The three of us hung out for a week at the resort. At 7 every night we would meet before dinner at Sharkie’s, a bar on the beach, and listen to a talented singer, Daniel, from Montreal who sang French and American music. My favorite was Sting’s Fields of Gold, which he sang every evening just as the sun was setting.
It was a magical week. We snorkeled frequently. JoJo, a dolphin who nearby scientists studied, would accompany our snorkeling boat and swam in circles around us, as if protecting us as we checked out the coral and sea life.
On my last day on the island when I was running on the beach a huge Doberman Pincher joined me and licked my hands before taking off.
Not only is Kathleen a great therapist, she is also a wonderful human being. I am so thrilled that she decided to become a blogger for us. She is here to answer your questions and give us advice on how to more fully live our lives: Isn’t that something a real consumer website should be for?
She will write a column a week that will appear Sundays, with the exception of today, the start of her blogging here.
Kathleen is a licensed clinical psychologist and certified hypnotherapist in private practice in West Hartford, Connecticut and Beverly Hills, California.
She is the author of “The Psychotherapy Workbook: A Home-Study Guide For Growth & Change” endorsed by New York Times best-selling author and psychiatrist Dr. Harold Bloomfield.
She co-authored “The Bald & The Beautiful: Surviving Breast Cancer.” She wrote and produced the self-hypnosis audio tape “Breathe… As If Your Life Depended On It.” She has also created a line of lithographic greeting cards entitled “Kathleen’s Condolences.” Her website www.kathleencairns.com displays her work, photo, and excerpts from her books and audiotape and greeting cards.
For over twenty-five years, Kathleen’s practiice, The Life Goes On Psychotherapy Center, has focused on the teaching and development of communication and intimacy skills in relationships. Her areas of expertise include anxiety and depression, recovery from addiction, couples, eating disorders in adolescents, phobias, stress management, the mindbody connection, and death and dying. Dr. Cairns was a consultant to Project Nightlight, an organization dedicated to helping AIDS patients without families in the final stages of dying.
She conducts seminars in Los Angeles, Boston, and Hartford and has appeared on national television and radio talk shows.
Her email address is kathleen.cairns@mac.com. She will get back to as many people as she can and will use some of your questions for future columns.
Hmm. If a complete stranger approached you in the airport and asked for your hometown, street, and even what you call the “street number” (do you mean “house number”?) would you divulge that information? This sounds like exactly the sort of behavior you typically discourage, yet you forced yourself on this woman and she foolishly responded. Not great modeling for a person who dispenses advice for a living. And who publishes personal email addresses on the open web? People who like spam. Sheesh!
I guess I have a trustworthy face.