Tariq Essop

Way back when I was in graduate school, which seems like eons ago (it was the middle 1980’s), I studied the work of an attachment researcher named Stephen Johnson. That is Stephen M. Johnson, apparently there are many Stephen Johnsons. He was also one of an early wave of somatic therapists that began to appear […]

When I was in ninth grade, my English class planned a field trip to the theater to see Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Strange how all this detail has endured in memory. My teacher was a grumpy, curmudgeonly guy with a “toothbrush” or Charlie Chaplin style mustache. ChatGPT says he passed away in 2013, but

 I remember the first time I went to New Orleans. It was probably 2000 or thereabouts, for a sex therapy conference. What a perfect venue for a crowd of sex therapists to get together. You know what they say about sex therapists: “people become sex therapists because they already think about sex 24 hours a

Often, I feel like a large block of cheddar. The day of mixing and stirring, heating and cooling, seems to be the big day in which it is made. But the real artistry, when flavors mix and grow and ferment and magically become the delicious result, when it becomes ready to eat – that all

Caution: this blog contains references to sexual violence. I have always loved clothes: color, textiles, buttons, lace, all of it. For as long as I can remember, I always felt like I had to compensate or justify my existence, by creating and giving objects of beauty. When I think about it, what I most treasure

It is hard to believe we are about to observe the fifth anniversary of the barbaric murder of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. I feel compelled to make sure we observe and remember him, even as he drifts further into a muddy haze of years. Admittedly I do think of

The internet as we know, is a wide world of “answers!” There is a definite answer, or three, or three thousand on any topic! It is dizzying and confusing for many who are looking for “true information.” All claim to be “it!” Truth! And stated as such. I recently read the quote from some erudite

I remember when the Pandemic began in March of 2020. London Breed, the then mayor of San Francisco, announced that we all had to “shelter in place” for two weeks. I had no idea what “shelter in place” meant, I had never heard that expression before. When I learned that it meant stay home, and

With some dismay I read a recent article that the US game giant Hasbro is unveiling its new and updated version of the familiar board game Monopoly. Although we only lived in parts of the country with snowy winters until I was seven, I can remember sitting in the cozy basement with my sister for