Banner image with "Helping you gain self-acceptance to transform your personality, improve relationships, reduce anxiety and depression, and gain contentment" and pottery bowl

About Harper West, Psychotherapist

Harper West is a licensed psychotherapist and expert in improving relationships with yourself and others through self-acceptance. She is an expert in recovery from relationships with narcissistic or abusive partners or parents. Providing relationship therapy using Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy and attachment-focused child and family therapy. Trained in both Mindful Self-Compassion and Compassion-Focused Therapy.

Harper West is a contributing author of #1 Amazon and #4 New York Times bestselling “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” and award-winning “Pack Leader Psychology.” Appointed to the Michigan Board of Psychology.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer, resulting in something more beautiful than the original. In celebrating a history of imperfections, the art form reminds us to embrace our own flaws, perhaps even finding the shining beauty and value in our healed scars.

Peter Mayer’s song Japanese Bowl (on YouTube) explains this philosophy beautifully.

Photo courtesy www.lakesidepottery.com

The ability to handle shame, imperfection and failure with equanimity is self-actualization and enlightenment.

Hands making a heart shape in front of a sunset

The Power of Self-Acceptance

Do you want to feel more calm, contented and fulfilled? Be truly self-confident? Learn how achieving self-acceptance permanently frees the mind from low self-worth and self-blaming thoughts that lie at the heart of many experiences with anxiety, depression, relationship problems, and other struggles.

Improve Your Relationships

What emotion is most harmful to relationships? The answer may surprise you. Read a real life example of a rocky marriage and learn the root cause of most relationship difficulties, including high-conflict marriages and family relationships, domestic violence, abusive parenting, substance abuse and more.

Contemplative man looking at city skyline, words "Stop Stigma" stamped over image

An Outraged Psychologist Speaks Out

Why are normal human reactions — fear, shame, self-criticism — incorrectly labeled as “mental disorders?” The “disease” model promoted by pharmaceutical manufacturers and our mental health system discourages people from seeking therapy that can lead to solutions to anxiety, depression and more.

Recent Blog Posts

Father’s Trauma History Linked to Child’s Emotional Problems

I'm sharing this fascinating article on a study about the impact of a father's trauma history on a child's mental health. "New research from Romania has demonstrated a clear correlation between adverse childhood experiences in fathers’ lives and their children’s...

Developing a Mindfulness Practice

Meditation is an active training of the mind to increase focus, awareness and insight. In meditation, you will watch the functioning of your mind in a calm, non-judgmental and detached manner so you can gain insight into your thoughts, emotions and behavior.

A Psychological Explainer on Why We Must Hold Trump Accountable

I know, know. I headlined my previous blog “My Last (?) Blog about Trump.” And here I am writing about him again. My aim had been to distance myself from His Toxic-ness and reclaim my life. But this topic has me outraged and so here I am again writing about our...

I write often on topics related to human behavior including self-acceptance, anxiety, depression, shame, trauma, relationships, parenting, mindfulness, and more.

Read my Blog