cohnruth@aol.com, Author at Ruth Cohn

Milestones: Self Reflection, Miracles, and Best Wishes of the Season

On my mind, Relationship, Couples, Sexuality, Trauma and Neglect / cohnruth@aol.com

For me historically, holidays, anniversaries, birthdays and other marked dates that cycled around every year laden with hopes and expectations, fantasies and even magical prayers were always a terrible trap. Particularly those that were supposed to be occasion for lavish and abundant presents. In our family they of course usually were not. I certainly longed […]

Milestones: Self Reflection, Miracles, and Best Wishes of the Season Read More »

A Sense of Self

On my mind, Relationship, Couples, Sexuality, Trauma and Neglect / cohnruth@aol.com

People, Place, and Brain In our apartment building in New York, everyone seemed to have numbers on their arms, sad eyes and thick German accents. My great Aunt Gertrud would take me to the park in my stroller. She called me a “dickopf “ (fathead) because I was such a “terrible eater” right from the

A Sense of Self Read More »

Pleasure to Meet You

On my mind, Relationship, Couples, Sexuality, Trauma and Neglect / cohnruth@aol.com

Wanting, Longing and the Conundrum of Need In the attachment literature Berkeley luminary Mary Main eloquently describes the “dilemma without solution.” For this bereft infant the source of safety and the source of terror, reside in the same person, who happens to be the most important person in the world: the primary parent. As every

Pleasure to Meet You Read More »

Angels Dimensions of Possibility

On my mind, Relationship, Couples, Sexuality, Trauma and Neglect / cohnruth@aol.com

Another remarkable BBC story in the wee hours inspired and compelled me; an interview with an Afghan refugee speaking about his narrow escape from the death grip of the Taliban, actually from death itself. Knowing he was in perilous danger, of survival necessity he had planned his precarious flight from the country. He describes his

Angels Dimensions of Possibility Read More »

Amending Our Process: Crafting Apologies that Heal

Relationship, Couples / cohnruth@aol.com

When I was perhaps as young as four years old, my mother taught us a little apology ritual. I don’t know how she devised it or where it came from. Whenever we had a tangle or disagreement with a sister, play mate or friend, we had to rhythmically shake hands, in time with the handshake saying

Amending Our Process: Crafting Apologies that Heal Read More »

Life, Love and Healing: The Wonders of Oxytocin

On my mind, Relationship, Couples, Sexuality / cohnruth@aol.com

When I was young and first learning about sexuality, an older, mentor-like friend, taught me “Don’t have sex with someone you don’t like, because you will secrete oxytocin, which then bonds you to that person. So even if you don’t like them, you will find yourself kind of stuck like glue.” I can’t say I

Life, Love and Healing: The Wonders of Oxytocin Read More »

Too Much of Nothing: Spotlight on Neglect

Trauma and Neglect / cohnruth@aol.com

“Now, too much of nothing can make a man feel ill at ease One man’s temper might rise while another man’s temper might freeze In the day of confession, we cannot mock a soul Oh, when there’s too much of nothing no one has control… Too much of nothing can make a man abuse a

Too Much of Nothing: Spotlight on Neglect Read More »

The Best of 2019

On my mind / cohnruth@aol.com

As a perennial bookworm each year approaches its end, I peruse the stacks and contemplate, what was the best book I read this year? It is like my own little Nobel Prize for Literature, and likely many will receive it as their holiday gift from me. This year it was easy to choose, a slender

The Best of 2019 Read More »

One Becomes Two: Two Books Are Better Than One

On my mind / cohnruth@aol.com

After much reflection, I’ve made a decision about my next book project. I thought I could write a book intended for therapists about how to work with clients who had been neglected as children that, using accessible language, would also be valuable to non-therapists. The audience would have also included “children of neglect,” as well as

One Becomes Two: Two Books Are Better Than One Read More »

Coming Home to Passion: Restoring Loving Sexuality After Childhood Trauma and Neglect

Relationship, Couples / cohnruth@aol.com

1. Introduction In the long and arduous journey of healing from childhood trauma and neglect, sexuality is often the last frontier. It is particularly complex and challenging in that sexuality is a place where body and psyche, nervous system and emotion, vulnerability and attachment intersect and entwine with perhaps everything that is essential to being

Coming Home to Passion: Restoring Loving Sexuality After Childhood Trauma and Neglect Read More »