Dear Members and Visitors to GoodTherapy.org,

Today the GoodTherapy.org Team was pleased to experience the second teleconference in our Spring into Summer Teleconference Series: Wired for Intimacy: Awakening the I-and-Thou Experience in Couples Therapy presented by Hedy Schleifer, MA, LMHC. A big “thank you” to Hedy for taking the time to present her empathic & optimistic approach to enhancing and healing relationships: Tikkun Relational Therapy to GoodTherapy.org members.

To support those of you who attended today’s teleconference and who may have more questions or would enjoy having a forum to discuss Hedy’s methods, 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. Please feel welcome to join us in the discussion.

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 Hedy and her workshop programs, please visit her website:
http://www.hedyyumi.org

Enjoy,

Noah :)

Noah Rubinstein, LMFT
Executive Director

http://www.GoodTherapy.org

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

By Marianne Esolen, L.M.S.W.

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

As a professional who has worked in one capacity or another with children and teens for nearly twenty years, the topic of grief and loss has been consistently present in all my interactions with young people. Long before I decided to return to graduate school for social work, I found myself encountering youth from all walks of life struggling to cope with issues of loss, from the grief attached to a parent’s divorce to the grief associated with the death of a pet, a friend, a teacher, a parent. I found the topic in hushed tones of colleagues, in open rap groups for teen girls, acted out in games at a shelter for abused women, as quiet conversation among middle school students on a field trip, and as a random question or comment seemingly out of the blue during some recreational event, like a baseball game or Halloween Party. During most times when the topic emerged, there was a tentative and questioning look or brief and uneasy pause where I sensed a combination of hope and caution, curiosity and reservation. Read the rest of this entry

A GoodTherapy.org News Update

Therapists first began the use of virtual reality in the treatment of stress 20 years after the Vietnam War ended. In 1997, researchers in Atlanta created Virtual Vietnam, a program that produced the sights and sounds of war: Huey helicopters with whirring motors, rice paddies, jungle clearings. The idea was to use exposure to the traumatic events to help relieve veterans of the effects of Posttraumatic Stress.

Exposure methods to treat trauma were first used by Edna Foa in the treatment of rape victims. The idea, in using “prolonged exposure”, is to disconnect the patient’s memory from his or her reactions to the memory. Studies have shown that after prolonged exposure, the memory remains but the “cues” that trigger trauma response–sounds of gunshot or a car backfiring, say–are reduced to insignificance. “The trauma thus becomes a discrete event, not a constant, self-replicating, encompassing condition,” reports Sue Halpern, in a recent New Yorker article on Virtual Iraq.
Read the rest of this entry

By Victoria Schlicht, LMFT

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

No one wants to be a fool, least of all a fool in love. But what of being a Fool for Love? Is there any difference? Foolishness, folly, fool-hardy. We know it all too well. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. This is true of gambling with our hard earned dollars. Might it also be true of gambling with our hard won hearts? Shouldn’t we be just as careful and cautious about how, when, where, and why we choose to invest our love? And yet, we can be smart, brainy, canny, and wise in the ways of the world. Too smart to be taken in. Too smart to be trusting. Smart enough to value safety and avoidance of pain and brokenheartedness above everything else. Even with the one we love. Too smart to allow the vulnerability that open-hearted love demands. Read the rest of this entry

By Jeanette Raymond, Ph.D.

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

Flora was proud of herself. Her stomach felt flatter. Her new diet and exercise regimen was paying off. She ate things she liked and found exercises that fitted in with her energy levels- not the self flagellation she inflicted on herself in the gym the last time she tried to lose weight. She was amazed at how easy it was to follow her program and how much she was enjoying it.

A couple of weeks into the project Flora was part of a decision making team at work. There were disagreements and heated opinions flying around making her feel uneasy. She wanted to let them know what she thought but couldn’t fight her way into the conversation. She didn’t want to be the center of attention by yelling her way into the debate. Nor did she want to be ignored. Suddenly Flora sensed something was missing. She grabbed a pillow and put in on her abdomen. What a relief! At that very stressful moment Flora missed the ‘padding’ that her fat had provided. The cushion smothered her conflict, removing the need for making a choice. Driving home she felt annoyed that no one had invited her to comment or made room for her opinion. Demeaned and diminished Flora’s anger frothed up. She stopped at a store and bought a quart of vanilla ice- cream and a large bag of corn chips. Read the rest of this entry