Articles and Posts Featuring Dr. Susan Pollak

As I walk into the waiting room of the family clinic where I work, a tall woman with deep, dark circles under her eyes rises when I call her name. I’m struck by the words on her faded black T-shirt: It Ain't Easy Being Me. And I pause to take in what she has told me without uttering a word...

Many of the parents I see in my clinical practice are telling me about the nightmares their children are having. One client in particular was concerned about his young son. “My four-year-old is waking up every night in tears,” he explained. When he asked what was wrong...

Have you felt awkward lately? If so, don’t worry, you are not alone. As we collectively rebuild our social and communal lives, many of us are feeling unexpectedly awkward at what were once routine gatherings. A year of social distancing has created psychological distance...

On a dark and frigid day in February 2020, we found out that my husband had a rare and deadly blood cancer. It could be treated but not cured. It was difficult to diagnose and we initially thought it was just back pain. Everyone in mid-life has back pain, right?

In the 1960s, the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., acquired a white tiger named Mohini. For decades, she lived in a 12-foot by 12-foot cage with iron bars. Day and night she would pace the pen, back and forth, back and forth, tracing the interior confines of her cage...

The pandemic has been especially hard on the elderly. Even though, at last, many are now receiving vaccines, people over 70 remain at increased risk not only of Covid-19, but also of anxiety, depression and loneliness, due in part to social isolation. I have seen this firsthand...

In this new reality in which we are living, many of us now live the bulk of our lives online. From work negotiations, to talking with friends, to family interactions and even holiday celebrations, we depend on our screens to keep us connected And yet, while we are grateful for the ability...

Everyone has days where just getting started is a job in and of itself—whether it's due to stress, sluggishness, or an ongoing pandemic, there's a whole world of distractions that can demand our attention and pull us away from the tasks at hand...

For many of us, being confined to quarantine because of the coronavirus has been the most challenging time in our lives. The very scaffolding of our world, all that we had depended on to sustain us, has come tumbling down—work, school, friends, family, travel, places of worship...