CLAUDIA LUIZ IS THE WINNER OF THE 2006 PHYLLIS W. MEADOW AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PSYCHOANALYTIC WRITING* AND THE 2008 WINNER OF THE WRITER'S DIGEST BEST WRITER'S WEBSITE AWARD.

*The paper has been published in the 2006 edition of Modern Psychoanalysis. A copy can be ordered at: http://www.cmps.edu/publicatons/order_backissue.html.

Welcome to ClaudiaLuiz.com. This site is about personal advice and inner life.

Advice, even when it makes perfect sense, can lead to feeling even worse when you try to follow it. Great advice sets up an ideal; a higher standard, a personal "best" and all manner of "shoulds" which, when you read them, settle in nicely in the brain. Our brains love order.

Cut to action. Emotions, little pirates in the sea of life that they are, get in the way. They steal the thunder of the rational mind and sabotage the efforts of all reason. They are quirky and undependable; unexpected and unwanted. They interfere.

Advice, in the end, is not about what's best. It's about what's possible. Given the circumstances of emotion.

When people write to me asking for advice, I believe they already know, theoretically, what the "right" answers may be to their conundrum. They may seek confirmation or clarification - but if those pesky little feelings rule the world, most of the time, rational advice will become like a hollywood legend; something you might love to marvel at and ponder, but perhaps not feel you can invite to Sunday dinner.

Thinking about emotions, reading about them, talking about them and mulling them over - is what this site is about. Which pesky feelings may or may not interfere with sound advice is what I like to talk about. How you can integrate the soundest, best advice into your repertoire of feelings - now THAT's something to talk about. I hope you'll join me.

Come on in - click on links that may interest you, write to me, and ENJOY!

click here to request free download about happiness called "Supersizing Happiness."

Best regards,

Claudia Luiz

E-mail me at cluiz@post.harvard.edu.