Dr. Paula Bloom's RX For Happiness

There may not be a business card large enough to list everything that Dr. Paula Bloom does in her professional life.

She’s a clinical psychologist with a thriving practice, a CNN contributor, and writer of  three blogs - This Emotional Life for PBS.org, The Huffington Post and The Shoe Shrink.

Add public speaker, writer (she's penning a book about relationships) and has moderated a PBS-sponsored webinar with Gretchen Rubin, the best-selling author of "The Happiness Project."

She’s also a wife, mother, pet owner and Decatur resident.

A child of Chilean immigrants, she grew up in Florida. Bloom was certain from a young age how she wanted to spend her life and focused her not inconsiderable energy toward her goals.

As a result her career trajectory started early. At 21-years old she started to study for her doctorate in clinical psychology. She was seeing patients by the time she was 25.

Now, at 38, she has a busy therapy practice and a growing career in the media, thanks to her appearances on HLN’s Nancy Grace and the popular blogs she writes as “Dr. Paula."

For a weary public seeking answers in a fast-paced and increasingly fractious world, Bloom is a blast of fresh air. She offers advice on common difficulties with an uncommon cheerfulness. She tackles human emotions and problems ranging from grief and lack of faith to parenting challenges in her clear and direct style.

Her mission is also her message. Listen to her speak and read her blogs and it soon becomes apparent she takes on more than mental and emotional health. She helps people seek happiness.

She insists that being happy, for the most part, isn’t the end product of an elusive equation but a very simple one: Do things that give you pleasure. Do things that engage you in the world. Do things that give you a sense of purpose and lend meaning to your life.

By filling your life with pleasurable, purposeful activities that allow you to interact meaningfully with people around you, you will be happy, she says.

Bloom also feels many people’s problems stem from how hard they are on themselves.

“They talk to themselves in a way they would never talk to others,” she notes.

She muses further, “The biggest issue people have is they are afraid to accept who they are because they think that acceptance is ‘giving up.’ ”

She forcefully advises against falling into the trap of caring too much about what other people think of you and says personal boundaries are important.

“A boundary is ‘I’m for me, but I’m not against you,’ ” she says.

An unrepentant optimist she also calls her herself “a truth teller," and acknowledges that in her younger years her frankness got her into trouble a few times. Even now she says, “I use a lot of transparency.”

The subjects of her blog posts range from the whimsical-with-a-message to the weighty and she tackles her topics with both humor and empathy. Her posts range from “What Can You Do To Lower Your Kids Future Therapy Bills?” to “Transforming Your Pain Into A Gift For Others”.

She follows her own advice and takes good care of herself, even as she cares for her family, her clients and her career. Although some of her days might overwhelm even the busiest businesswoman, wife and mother, the constant needs of others don’t dim her enthusiasm for life.

Add “extrovert” to her personality profile.

“I get energy from people,” she says, “Some consider it draining to be around a lot of people. Not me.”

Bloom didn’t expect her burgeoning career to bring her to Georgia but she’s glad it did.

“I absolutely love living in Decatur,” she says of her home there that she shares with two children, a very supportive spouse, and her dog.

She gives generous kudos to her husband, calling him the “the pilot light to my strobe light,” and makes sure that even in the midst of her busy life she gives their relationship the time and attention it needs.

The human mind and psyche can be complex but Bloom sometimes offers her clients and readers wisdom that is maddeningly simple.

“Your mind is a magnifying glass,” she states, “What you focus on, gets bigger.”

She would know.