Dr. Gregory Jantz, Ph.D.

HBO is running a documentary called The Weight of the Nation, dealing with obesity in the United States. This four-part series will present information and analysis on how it is we've gotten so large. According to the trailer, "Nearly 69 percent of all U.S. adults are overweight or...

The picture is adorable; a pink little angel with feathery wings, wearing a faux pearl necklace and toddler-sized glasses atop her button nose. Her name is Emmelyn; she's 3 years old and immediately captured my attention. According to the story, Emmelyn is the youngest person to be...

It's been a while since I've heard anyone use the phrase "I'd give my right arm" for something. That phrase is one of those flippant remarks people make when they really, really want something. I'm not sure where this phrase comes from but, because most people are right-handed, if you're...

Something strange happens when a loved one dies and it's time to distribute the estate. No matter how close people are, money has the ability to widen wedges and force family members apart. Regardless of how those assets are distributed, someone will inevitably feel slighted. In death, there are few...

There are all sorts of conditions that can cause a person to become overwhelmed: natural disasters, loss of a loved one, disease or violence. Circumstances can spiral so completely out of control it's as if life itself has been hijacked and the person is merely along for the ride, clinging...

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" That question's been around for centuries, even before the Brothers Grimm placed Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in their 1812 collection of fairy tales. The story has variations but most contain a magical mirror, a beautiful young...

There is an old adage, which says "Familiarity breeds contempt." I've always taken that to mean that the more you know a thing, the more you take it for granted. Another way to say it might be, "same old, same old." The more familiar you are, the more you think...

While the rest of the country was preparing to watch the Pats, the Giants and Madonna in the Super Bowl, Josh Powell, the Utah man under suspicion in the disappearance of his wife, Susan, blew up himself and his two young sons in a premeditated ball of fire...

When are we going to let children just be children? When are we going to stop dressing children up in adult get-ups for adult entertainment or amusement or shock value?

I got my buttons punched this week. Once again, it was over the treatment of children,...

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine saw Menopause The Musical, a comedy billed as "the hilarious celebration of women and The Change." When she turned 50, she went with a bunch of her middle-aged female friends, explaining it was a rite of passage. I've always considered her...

As a therapist, I'm in the face-to-face business. On occasion, I'll conduct a session over the phone and I've certainly responded to email, but the vast majority of my work occurs through physical proximity. Not only do I listen to what people say, I note how and when they say...

Every generation of young adults think they know more than the generation before. Call it the hubris of youth. This expansive self-confidence doesn't stick around indefinitely. Life has a way of leveling the generational playing field. I vividly remember the point when I realized my parents might not actually be...

When I was a kid, there were certain things you didn't do. You didn't tattle to the teacher. You didn't cheat and you didn't cut the line. Cutting was unseemly. Muscling or weaseling or conning your way into a better, more advantageous, spot in line was unfair. The rule of...

As children, we're taught to "do the right thing." Somewhere along the line of that instruction, we figure out doing the right thing is usually hard. If it was easy, doing the right thing would be automatic and we wouldn't have to be taught. Perhaps, as adults, we should just...

Last year, the International Center for Media & the Public Affairs (ICMPA) teamed up with the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change to conduct a study called Unplugged. They got around 1,000 university students from 10 countries over five continents to go 24 hours without media. No...

"Have you seen that article about older women and vitamins?" a colleague of mine breathlessly asked the other morning. Immediately feeling deficient for missing it, I had to admit, "No. What did it say?" She couldn't remember specifics but said a study came out of Finland that older women who...

I saw a blurb the other day that planted a little seed of hope in an otherwise dreary news cycle from, of all places, the business section. Amid dire predictions of global economic meltdown, there was this little article on a new trend in grocery stores. Apparently, some supermarket chains...

I'm not a fan of gratuitous violence in films. I'm an adult; I understand why it's there. It's the therapist part of me that's the problem, having sat in my office and experienced horrific destruction through the lens -- not of a camera -- of other people's pain. I guess...

It's started: the buildup to the anniversary of 9/11. This year is different, because it's the 10-year anniversary. There's nothing like a decade milestone to capture your attention. I have to admit, it caught me a little off-guard when I realized it had been that long (you always hear it...

A recent Los Angeles Times article coined the term Generation Vexed, referring to the young adults who are putting their career and life plans on hold due to this stalled economy. The article talked about pessimistic polls with fewer than half believing this generation will have a better...