Articles

A childhood ADHD diagnosis or an old prescription doesn't end a flying career before it starts. The FAA sorts ADHD histories into a Fast Track and a Standard Track, and the difference between them is one interview versus days of testing. An aviation psychologist explains who qualifies for each, and why the order you do things in matters most.

A DUI, a positive test, or an honest answer on Item 18 can put a pilot in the FAA's HIMS program. It's not the end of a career. An FAA/HIMS trained aviation psychologist explains the evaluation, treatment, monitoring, and special issuance steps, and what a substance abuse evaluation actually looks at.

Pilots can fly on certain antidepressants. The FAA's Antidepressant Protocol has a short list of approved medications, a stability period, and a defined evaluation path. An aviation psychologist walks through what it involves and what to do before you fill the prescription.

Yes, pilots can go to therapy, and as of May 2026 the FAA says it wants you to. What actually has to be reported, what doesn't, and how to walk in with your eyes open, from an aviation psychologist who used to fly.

If the same dream keeps coming back, it's tracking something in your life that hasn't moved. Here's what recurring dreams are, why they repeat, what they can tell you about your mental health, and what it takes to make one stop.

I dreamed about an office building nobody was allowed to leave, with a fake ocean on one floor and a real river under another. Here's the dream in full, how I read it as a psychologist, and what dreams like this can tell you about your mental health.

When I ask new clients how COVID affected them, almost all of them say nobody has ever asked. Then every one of them has an answer. Here's why the pandemic counts as a shared trauma, what it did to adults and kids, why therapists skip over it, and how to finally take it seriously.

Most of us were told we were supposed to know who we are by now. A psychologist walks through James Marcia's four identity statuses and Erik Erikson's psychosocial moratorium, and why the messy, uncertain middle is how a durable identity actually gets built.

The people who come to me for burnout almost never lead with that word. They say they're fine, just tired, and then they explain a life that would exhaust anyone. Vacation doesn't touch it, because burnout was never about hours.