About Wood's Rules

I've had Wood's Rules for so long (since at least 1985) that I no longer recall how they originated. There's never been--until now--a formal published list: They are just pronouncements I have been making in therapy since I was a young sprout working for the Cobb-Douglas Community Mental Health Center in Marietta, GA (USA). I would tell a client, "One of Wood's Rules is. . ." and let 'er rip.

When I decided to name my blog Wood's Rules, back in the Fall of '08, I started this formal list, but for whatever reason, never published it. I guess I was waiting for Blogger's Pages feature to roll out! Be that as it may, here they are, in more-or-less logical order:

1. Where there's breath, there's life--and where there's life, there's hope!
2. I never wait for anyone, not even God, for more than 20 minutes.
3. Never be afraid of a fact.
4. If you don't have a problem right now, then for all practical purposes you don't have a problem. Also, see Rule #5.
5. If there's nothing you can do about it right now, you don't have a problem right now. (Think about it.) Also, see Rule #6.
6. This, too, shall pass!
7. Patience is a virtue.
8. Never say "I love you" to anything that weighs more than 50 lbs. for the first year after your divorce (or the moral equivalent) is final.
9. You can (indeed, should) say anything you are thinking or feeling in therapy--this is not, after all, Amy Vanderbilt's Manners Class--but you may not do anything to hurt yourself or me, or to bust up my place.
10. If you come to therapy drunk or drugged, I will not meet with you. And, of course, the corollary: You're not driving yourself home.
11. Never lie to your kid(s).

Periodically, I'll blog on one. Or not.