Ossining Counselor Offers Tips to Mend Washington’s Broken Marriage

Ossining’s Jean Fitzpatrick, LP, who usually helps couples work through troubles at her therapy practices in Ossining and Manhattan, thinks her advice might also apply to the dysfunction in Washington.

In a recent Washington Post article, she offers up some tips to cure this Great American Impasse we’re in.

Fitzpatrick summed it up later on her own blog, 

“When it comes to major conflict, both couples and government officials are most effective when they 

• refrain from blaming; 
• focus on creating a shared future; 
• avoid seeking advice from people who are more likely to undermine than to support their union; 
• and make sure they find time to share some positive experiences despite some hefty differences.”

Do you think these tips would do the trick?

Fitzpatrick noted of course that this government shutdown also causes pain to those in the audience. Such a Federal family feud might stir up bad memories of toxic upbringings for those of us from homes “where adults were not acting like adults.”

“If that was your experience, the government shutdown may be all too unpleasantly familiar," Fitzpatrick said. To those folks, she offers up some Anne Lamott, meditation, turning off the TV, taking a walk.

If only some politicians would do the same.