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.”

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

A Real Conversation with a Trump Voter Sounds Like…Trump

Many people wonder: Who could still support Trump after he has said and done so many immoral and illegal things? After he has said he won’t accept a peaceful transition of power if he loses. After he has repeatedly lied for months and said the election will be...

Beware Escalating Danger as US ‘Divorces’ Trump the Abuser

For the US, the next four and half months with Donald Trump as president will be like the ending of an abusive marriage. In “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”, I compared Trump to an abusive spouse in relationship with the country because the behavior traits of...

Bill Press Pod Interview on How Trump’s Mental State Affects Us All

I'm pleased to announce that I've been interviewed by Bill Press on his podcast. The topic is Trump's antisocial tendencies and how they affect the mental health of all of us. I'm joined by Jennifer Panning, PsyD, one of my co-authors in "The Dangerous Case of...

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

Read my Blog