For adolescents with depression not responding to an initial treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI; a class of antidepressant drugs), switching medications and adding cognitive behavioral therapy resulted in an improvement in symptoms, compared to just changing medications, according to a study in the February 27 issue of JAMA. Read the rest of this entry

© Copyright 2008 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Mill Valley Bureau - All Rights Reserved.

by Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

I once read a statistic that said many people die each year choking in restaurant bathrooms. Apparently, people in public places are often embarrassed that they are choking and they run to the bathroom to hide. This got me thinking about the fact that many of us are tempted to hide out when we are ashamed rather than seek help.

Healthy shame may help us to recognize when we need to change our behavior or adhere to healthy social norms. When we hold onto shame and begin to over-identify with our shameful feelings or behavior we move into toxic shame. Toxic shame can cripple us emotionally; it may keep us from moving forward in our life and we often find ourselves on a downward moving spiral to self-doubt and ultimately self-hatred.

Some people who tend toward perfectionism will react with shame when anything manifests in their life that looks unpleasant. Their pain is often doubled in that they have to deal with the pain of the situation and also the pain of shame. If they hide out with their shame they may also miss opportunities to be supported and loved by those whose love is unconditional. Read the rest of this entry

by Van Wiesner, Ph.D.

Click here to contact Van and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile

Patricia Love, Ed.D. and Steven Stosny, Ph.D. are contrarians in the book How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It (2007). Instead of endorsing traditional talk therapy methods for improving relationships such as, well, “talking”, they offer a more behavioral approach based largely on psychological differences in the genders as gleaned from research and their vast clinical experience. Early on the authors assert that couples “are not disconnected because they have poor communication; they have poor communication because they are disconnected” (p. 5). I have reread that sentence dozens of times sensing the paradigm shift this statement represents. Read the rest of this entry

by Patti Desert, LCSW-C, CEMDR, CP

Click here to contact Patti and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

The word holistic has been used to describe health care practices that include acupuncture, massage therapy, Reiki, naturopathy, and homeopathy. These practices attempt to bring harmony to the physical, energetic, and/or nutritional states of individuals.

Holistic Psychotherapy also seeks to bring balance between these systems. However, as with all psychotherapy, its primary focus is the treatment of psychological and emotional pain that manifests in depression, anxiety, trauma and related disorders. It is the way in which holistic psychotherapy treats these disorders that marks its departure from conventional psychotherapy and denotes its singular effectiveness.

Generally speaking traditional psychotherapy focuses on problematic thoughts and behavior, interprets the underlining meaning of these thoughts and behavior, and then provides solutions that are practiced by clients and adjusted as circumstances warrant.
Unlike traditional psychotherapy, Holistic Psychotherapy optimally fosters growth and healing by noting the synergistic relationship between all the ways we experience ourselves and the world—thinking, feeling, doing, and sensing. Holistic practitioners then channel this knowledge through methods that support the healthy interaction between the processes of the thinking mind, the feeling body, and the emotionally laden spirit to bring growth and healing. Read the rest of this entry

by Jennine E. Estes, M.A., Marriage and Family Therapist Intern

Click here to contact Jennifer and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

It is very important to show your partner that you are trust-worthy….and here are some quick tips.

1. Follow through with what you say. If you tell your partner that you will be home by 8:00, come home no later than 8:00pm. If you are going to be late, call them and let them know ahead of time.

2. Don’t be unrealistic. Avoid saying that you will “Always” have your cell phone on or you will “Never” turn your phone off. This is unrealistic. Sometimes your phone will die or you might forget it or you might not hear it ring. Instead, tell your partner that you will try your best to answer the phone. And then….follow through with what you say (tip #1).

3. Let your Partner in. If you have a wall up, it hides things and creates a suspicious feeling from your partner. Avoid the suspicious behavior and be an open book. The more open you are, the more trust you can build.
Read the rest of this entry

Dear Members and Visitors to GoodTherapy.org,

Today we were pleased to present the third teleconference in the GoodTherapy.org Winter Teleconference Series: Trauma Free Marketing for Therapists presented by Becky DeGrossa, MA, the developer of New Generation Practices: Trauma-Free Marketing for Therapists. Much thanks to Becky who volunteered her time to present to GoodTherapy.org members about her “follow your heart” approach to marketing and building a practice.

To support those of you who attended today’s teleconference and who may have more questions or would enjoy having a forum to discuss Trauma Free Marketing for Therapists & Counselors, we created this blog entry to serve as a forum where you can post your questions, leave comments, and engage in a dialogue about it. I hope you will feel welcome, whether you attended the conference or not, to join us in the discussion. Becky has kindly agreed to visit the blog and answer questions about her marketing approaches. So please feel free to post questions, concerns, feedback.

To view the comments or make your own, simply scroll to the bottom of this particular article and click on the “Comment” link.

For more information about Becky and the services she offers, visit New Generation Practices.

Enjoy,

Noah :)

Noah Rubinstein, LMFT, LMHC
Executive Director
http://www.GoodTherapy.org

by Jeanine Austin, Ph.D.

“Big ego is lack of trust in your own soul.” ~ Lauren Brownell (Vermont Artist)

We all know exactly what people mean when they describe someone as having a big ego. They are describing someone who is very self-referenced and self centered, often with mind-bending hubris, and perhaps someone who thinks we should worship gratefully at their feet. For some of us, a big ego may call to mind the “big ego anthem” You’re so Vain by Carly Simon. (On an ironic note-it was rumored to be written about Warren Beatty who I happened to say hello to last Saturday. He was warm and friendly. No trace of ego!).

When we talk about this type of ego, we aren’t using Sigmund Freud’s definition of the ego. In his seminal work, he defined three aspects of the self: the ego (the core self), the superego (the conscience) and the id (the primitive and impulsive self). In our current vernacular, we talk about a big ego in the way that A Course in Miracles describes the ego. In Marianne Williamson’s classic A Return to Love, she writes, “In Course terminology, our entire network of fearful perceptions, all stemming from the first false belief in our separation from God and one another, is called the ego. The word is used differently here than the way in which it is often used in modern psychology. It is being used as the ancient Greeks used it-as the notion of the small, separated self.”

When anyone is running around with a big ego, we can be assured that the person is operating from fear. Read the rest of this entry

by Mary Ellen Barnes, Ph.D.

Click here to contact Mary and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

The conversation began easily enough, “My brother is bleeding our parents into the poor house with his unending demands for money – money to support his addictions – and they don’t seem able to stop giving it to him, even though he isn’t getting any better. What can we do?”

Or we hear from the parents themselves, “How can I get my spouse to stop giving our adult daughter money she just spends on booze or drugs? Her promises are worthless and the demands endless.”

It’s not an uncommon condition. Parents are living longer, some adult children make childishness a career, and it isn’t easy to say no to a son or daughter, regardless of their age. Then add in the grandchildren, hostages held for ransom as your child essentially blackmails you into supporting their drug and/or alcohol abuse: “Give me the money or I will kill myself,” or “they will starve,” or “we’ll be on the streets,” is the implied or actual threat, yet the money does no good. Read the rest of this entry

A GoodTherapy.org Featured Column written by Cedar Barstow, M.Ed., C.H.T.

Click here to contact Cedar and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

What a pleasure to go to the site here at GoodTherapy.org and find responses to the Ethics Column from Sam and Sally and Meg and Rob. I want to appreciate you for your interest in ethics and for your thoughtful and thought-generating words.

Grief and the Sensitivity Cycle

Both Meg and Rob were thinking about grief. So a bit more about that. Grief, of course, has it’s own rhythm and pace, and is a process….neither to be rushed nor clung to. I’m reminded of the Sensitivity Cycle from the Hakomi Method. The Sensitivity Cycle describes the process of becoming more and more sensitive and effective. It has four phases: clarity, effectiveness, satisfaction, and relaxation. All four phases need attention and organically move on to the next. In thinking of grief, for example, first you need to be clear about what you’re grieving, then take some kind of effective action, then find and integrate some satisfaction from the action you took, and then relax and let go—so that you will have made space for a new cycle. It is easy to get stuck at each phase and with grief it seems that the most common place to get stuck is in letting go. Getting unstuck and letting go when it is time seems to involves having a “gut” sense of the timing. It also involves trusting that letting go of the process of grieving for a person, thing, or event, doesn’t mean letting go of it all, but rather knowing that you have integrated it, or the learning from it, within you.

In responding to Sally who is looking for some more depth, I’d like to say something about two kinds of ethical decision-making edited from pages 59-61 of my book: Right Use of Power: The Heart of Ethics. I find that we as professionals most often think of ethical decision-making simply and solely as the second kind I describe as complex decision-making without putting conscious attention toward ordinary moment, every day kind of ethical decision-making. Read the rest of this entry

The GoodTherapy.org team sends our deepest condolences to the family of Dr. Kathryn Faughey, who was fatally stabbed Tuesday night in her New York City office. All of us here at GoodTherapy.org feel the terribly painful loss and the horror of this awful incident.

We hope that the many therapists and counselor of the world, who dedicate their lives to helping and caring for the well being of others, and who are likely deeply affected by this incident, will work through any secondary trauma and take very good care of themselves. The profession of psychotherapy requires effective counselors to keep their hearts open to those who seek their help and guidance. Incidents such as these in which a client directly and severely harms their therapist challenges the ability of other therapists to stay centered, calm, compassionate, and confident. May we all do what is necessary to both take care of ourselves and to remain helpful to those we serve.

© Copyright 2008 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Longwood Bureau - All Rights Reserved.