
Saadia McLeod, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist Diamond Bar, CA (909) 720-4997Perception Changes Genes, and Good Therapy Changes Perception
This isn’t a whimsical fancy. It’s science, it’s epigenetics.1 It’s not just about inheriting the consequences of a forebear’s negative environment, but changes that can take place when you control your social environment.
The importance of perception is what I learned from a remarkable therapist and unwitting mentor, Saadia McLeod. Looking back I certainly wasn’t an easy patient. After a break-up, for about 10 years I had completely isolated myself. I literally had no friends. I might get one or two calls a month at most, albeit not from friends since, again, I had none. I left the house only three or four times a month; to see my therapist, or my psychiatrist, and to pick up meds. Isolation is certainly not uncommon in people with bipolar disorder or clinical depression, but I had reached a point where my fear of change would make any hope of remission impossible…