Let me introduce myself.

My name is Victor Best. If you live in Santa Barbara, California, and you are seeking psychotherapy, I would likely be high on most referral lists. I have been practicing for over thirty years. Even now at sixty-eight, I love my work and the people I serve. My wife taught public school here as long as I had been in practice until she retired five years ago. She was struck down with cancer three years later. Her last months were brutal for both of us. She died a year ago, and my friends and I spread her ashes at sea as she had requested. The experience has been so unreal to me that I as yet haven't come to terms with her being gone from my life.

I have not done well in dealing with her passing. She was so central to my life. Only through friendship and work have I kept my life together, but I feel as if I am only going through the motions. This day is a painful anniversary and will be more of a challenge for me and the patients I will see than usual. Hopefully, all will somehow benefit from it.