PERCY BALLARD, MD

The following essay was written on July 10, 2016.  I have shared the essay in several venues, including a Harvard Law School class where I was recently urged to post it online.  Though the events discussed here are not new, I hope that some will find the content releva...

When people ask me what Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy is, I tell them it’s that thing I always wanted to do when I grow up.  I remember telling my parents that one day I was going to be a neurosurgeon, however not a neurosurgeon who removed tumors, but one who...

I’ve spoken to many people lately who struggle with procrastination.  With IFS (Internal Family Systems) Therapy, the story for procrastination is simple: part of you wants to do something, and another part of you, that you are sometimes less aware of, does not want t...

Sadness:

Is a normal part of being human.

A natural biological response to loss or failure.

Sadness has a purpose:

1. to get support from others when there is a loss.

2. to help one make sense of loss and understand how to move forward.

It does this by:

1. getting...

Fortunately, most mental health professionals have tools at their disposal in addition to our most basic starting point, empathy.  However for non-professionals who might be seeking basic starting advice in being helpful for people in need, the link below might be ver...

Greetings!  I have decided to start a blog, to get some tools out there that many of my clients have found helpful.  In this way I intend to provide some help for a few more people, as I am running up against the limit of how many people I can see and impact through in...