A GoodTherapy.org News Update Presented by Daniel Brezenoff, LCSW

It has long been known that depression increase the risk of heart disease by as much as 50%. A new study of Veterans in San Francisco indicates that the reason for this may be surprisingly simple: depressed people rarely exercise, and lack of exercise is well-known contributor to heart ailments.

Doctors at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco tracked the behaviors of 1,017 patients with heart disease, and about 10 percent of depressed heart patients had additional heart problems, compared with only 6.7 percent of other patients. That relatively small difference became a 31 percent higher risk of heart problems among the depressed people once confounding variables were removed. However, once the variable of exercise was removed, the difference vanished. Patients who didn’t exercise had a 44 percent higher risk of heart problems, whether or not they were depressed. Read the rest of this entry

A GoodTherapy.org News Update Presented by Jolyn Wells-Moran, PhD, MSW

A new study at Howard University, Washington, DC, has discovered that having a purpose in life may protect against the potential psychological effects of trauma and be helpful to recovery for those who do develop a trauma-related psychiatric disorder (Alim, Feder & Graves, 2008). Principal investigator, Tanya N. Alim, MD, said the findings show a significant relationship between purpose in life prior to trauma and resilience — lack of development of a psychiatric disorder related to the trauma, and between development of a purpose in life and recovery from psychiatric disorder related to trauma (Cassels, 2008). Study participants were 259 African-Americans who had experienced at least one major traumatic incident in their lives. The study was conducted in order to address the lack of evidence for effective treatment of trauma-related psychiatric disorders. Read the rest of this entry

A GoodTherapy.org News Update Presented by Daniel Brezenoff, LCSW

Several studies demonstrate the profound benefit of meditation on emotions, the brain, and mental health. The use of sophisticated technologies has made it possible to prove empirically what many therapists have believed for years – and what Buddhists, Hindus, and other religious and spiritual schools have taught for millennia.

Regular meditation in particular has a measurable effect on a several brain structures related to attention, and can actually change the physical structure of the brain.

In September, a team of Emory University researchers reported that people using Zen Buddhist techniques were much better than control subjects at refocusing their attention on their breath. The study, “‘Thinking about Not-Thinking:’ Neural Correlates of Conceptual Processing During Zen Meditation,” was published in the Internet journal PLoS ONE. Its conclusion that “meditative training may foster the ability to control the automatic cascade of semantic associations triggered by a stimulus and, by extension, to voluntarily regulate the flow of spontaneous mentation,” added force to similar findings at Emory last year. 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

“The task is to recognize our interdependence, honor boundaries and differences, and remember connectedness.” – Dyrian Benz

“Find the optimum closeness/distance to enable you to experience your OWN unique center of aliveness and awareness, as well as the other’s unique center.” – Mukara Meredith

Good boundaries are a centerpiece for safe and successful relationships. Boundaries are, as well, the space that people consider part of their identity. Skin is the physical boundary. People also have energetic and emotional boundaries. Inadvertent boundary crossings can be very upsetting. Boundaries are very individual, can be negotiated between people, are often communicated non-verbally. They are influenced by cultural values, styles and expectations. Try checking with your clients about precisely what feels to them like the right distance from you. You may be surprised about the amount of variation. Boundaries serve well to provide a consistent container that can define, contain, and limit relationships. Read the rest of this entry

A GoodTherapy.org News Update Presented by Daniel Brezenoff, LCSW

A new study from the University of Maryland sociology department provides evidence for what many teachers, parents, and therapists have long suspected: Happy people watch less tv.

John Robinson, UM sociology and the author of the study, and his colleagues relied on 35 years of data collected by the University of Chicago General Social Survey from about 45,000 Americans. The UM study looked at peoples’ level of happiness and then drew correlations with 10 activities, including going to church, visiting friends, reading newspapers and watching television. All of the activities were more likely engaged in by happy people, with the prominent exception of watching tv. In that case, the happiest people watched the least tv, and the least happy people watched the most. The data is correlative, not necessarily causal. Does unhappiness lead to more time in front of the tube, or vice-versa?

“I don’t know that turning off the TV will make you more happy,” Dr. Robinson said. The best predictor of how much time one watches television is whether one is employed. Unemployment can lead to unhappiness, and to more TV time. A controlled study would be very difficult, so causation may never be demonstrated.

Still, the study is certainly an indication that excessive time watching TV will usually be an indicator of dissatisfaction.

Click here to contact Daniel and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile ©Copyright 2008 by GoodTherapy.org All Rights Reserved. Questions or concerns about the following article can be directed to the author or posted as a comment to this blog entry. Click here to contact Daniel and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile