By Ruth Subrin, M.A., MFT-AT

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I work part time in a Geri-Psychiatric ward where my title is Recreational Therapist. What that means is that when elders are committed to this hospital ward, usually involuntarily, anywhere from 72 hours to one month they are termed “gravely disabled and in dire harm to themselves and/or others”. Along with individuals that are in a psychotic phase of their schizophrenia and those suffering from bipolar episodes, a large percentage of those admitted to our facility have dementia. When the dementia patients are admitted to the facility, they usually arrive in a stupor of confusion. The confusion is often exasperated because they have not been eating or have been unable to sleep for days. It is tragic to see elders who I imagine once had interesting lives be reduced to corpses that society does not have the capacity to handle, heal, or fully understand.

The procedure after they have been admitted to our facility is that psychiatrists assess their disabilities and prescribe medications that help to calm and re-orient them. While they are adjusting to medication, they often feel nauseous, dizzy, and/or confused. Many sleep for a few days to regain some equilibrium. Also disorienting is that their senses are impaired. Few arrive with their glasses and thus can’t see very well, and many have hearing loss and have lost their hearing aids in the transition. They are frail; a majority of them are in wheelchairs or can only move with the help of walkers. Read the rest of this entry

By Jaffy Phillips, MA, Hakomi Topic Expert Contributor

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Prospective clients often ask what first drew me to study Hakomi therapy. My answer: the principles. (And a touch of fate or providence.)

I first encountered Hakomi by way of a lucky accident. Someone left a copy of Ron Kurtz’ book (Body-Centered Psychotherapy: The Hakomi Method) on a windowsill in a house I moved into. I quickly read it from cover to cover. As a body-worker at the time, I was interested in the relationship between body and mind, but the main thing that kept me reading was the chapter about the principles. As I read it, I felt myself relax and settle in. I felt a sense of relief, like a big exhale: finally, something that made sense to my heart! It was like the feeling of coming home after a long time away. Read the rest of this entry

By Susanne M. Dillmann, Psy.D., Post Traumatic Stress / Trauma Topic Expert Contributor

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Many individuals who have survived a traumatic life event wish to simply forget about the experience and hope that forgetting will be synonymous with overcoming. However, it is not possible to erase out pivotal life experiences or to truly forget about them. The human mind, body and/or soul remember and clamor for healing. Healing from the wounds inflicted by a traumatic experience takes time, perseverance and faith – faith that one will heal, that life will not always be so painful and that the trauma will not always define one’s sense of self.

So if one cannot forget away a traumatic experience then how does one heal? The process or act of growing through a traumatic event can be divided into three quasi-linear stages or phases (please see the work of Judith Herman, M.D. for a detailed discussion of the phases of healing). People move through each one of these stages in their healing journey. The pace at which people grow through the phases varies. Overall, an individual will journey through the phases in a progressive manner even though at any point in time someone may be moving back and forth between the three stages. This re-visiting of past phases is not backwards movement but rather an integral part of the healing process. This article will focus on the first phase of healing, which has the central theme of establishing safety. Read the rest of this entry

By Leslie H. Petruk, MA, LPC, NCC, Play Therapy Topic Expert Contributor

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Play therapy is a counseling method used to help children communicate their inner experiences through the use of toys. Non-directive play therapy, also called child-centered play therapy is a non-pathologizing technique based on the belief that children have the internal drive to wellness. Non-directive play therapists are trained to trust that children are capable to direct their own process rather than the therapist imposing their own ideas of what the child needs to do in therapy to work through any challenges they may be facing. This requires the therapist to enter the emotional world of the child rather then expecting the child to understand the therapist’s world, which is beyond their capability. Play therapy is based on the theory that play is a child’s language, the toys in the play room considered the “words” that a child uses to express their inner experiences and how they perceive and experience the world. The toys in the play room are then used by the child to “speak” to the therapist and communicate their inner thoughts and feelings. Within a play session and over the course of sessions, themes emerge in the child’s play, giving the therapist insight into the child’s experiences, thoughts, feelings and interpretations of their world. Read the rest of this entry

By Beth S. Patterson, MA, LPC, Grief & Loss Topic Expert Contributor

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The intense and painful experiences of grief are generally considered “normal.” However, when those experiences are extremely distressing, unduly interfere with day-to-day functioning or do not subside to a manageable level over time, the bereaved may be experiencing complicated or traumatic grief. Complicated grief has been proposed as a new diagnostic category in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), and suggested components of the diagnosis include (1) that sufferers experience bereavement by death; (2) that their reactions include intrusive and distressing symptoms, including yearning, longing and searching for the deceased; and (3) that the bereaved exhibit at least four marked and persistent trauma reactions, which may include: “avoidance of reminders of the deceased, purposelessness, feelings of futility, difficulty imagining a life without the deceased, numbness, detachment, feeling stunned, dazed or shocked, feeling that life is empty or meaningless, feeling a part of oneself has died, disbelief, excessive anger or bitterness related to the death, and identification symptoms or harmful behaviors resembling those suffered by the deceased” (Mitchell et al, 2004, p. 13).

Even in cases that do not fit the criteria for complicated grief as described above, the events surrounding the death may be sufficiently traumatic to interfere with daily functioning or result in unrelenting distress. As a psychotherapist specializing in grief and loss, I have found EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) to be an effective tool for alleviating trauma in grief. As in grief, trauma affects the whole person — body, mind and spirit, and on a hierarchy of needs, trauma must be dealt with in order for the healing process of grief to proceed in a healthy, and healing, fashion. Read the rest of this entry

By Arthur Becker-Weidman, Ph.D., Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Topic Expert Contributor

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Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, which is an evidence-based, effective, and empirically validated treatment is composed of a variety of elements and based on a number of principles that have strong empirical support. Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy is, in some respects, an amalgam of effective principles of treatment. This article will describe the elements of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and a few of its underlying principles.

It is helpful to remember that everything begins with building an alliance. “Without an alliance there can be no secure base. Without a secure base there can be no exploration. Without exploration there can be no integration. Without integration there can be no healing.” Read the rest of this entry

By William “Sandy” Pryor, MA, LPC, MT-BC, Gestalt Therapy Topic Expert Contributor

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When I tell colleagues that I am a Gestalt therapist, I generally hear “so you hit pillows” or “so you just talk to an empty chair.” The general lack of understanding of basic underlying theory and guiding philosophy is surprising given the approach’s popularity and influence over that last 60 years. In this article I would like to describe and discuss a concept that is at the heart of Gestalt therapy. This concept is the Gestalt “cycle of experience.”

In Gestalt Therapy, the self is not seen as a static thing but rather as a continually evolving process that is defined and illuminated by how the organism (client/person) makes contact with his or her environment. This process, when completed in a healthy and unimpeded way, generally follows a process called the “cycle of experience.” This cycle is a basic map for how a person becomes aware of a need, mobilizes to meet that need, and achieves satisfaction. The key phases of the process are sensation, awareness, mobilization, action, contact, satisfaction, and withdrawal/rest. Read the rest of this entry

By Jaffy Phillips, MA, Hakomi Topic Expert Contributor

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Hi, my name is Jaffy Phillips. I am a certified Hakomi therapist, and I have studied a number of other body-centered approaches to therapy as well. I volunteered to be the topic expert for Hakomi therapy here at Goodtherapy.org because I feel that Hakomi makes such an important contribution to the larger field of psychotherapy, and because it is really the foundation of my own practice.

There are so many wonderful things about Hakomi that it is impossible to address them all in one short article. Instead, what I would like to do here is to speak a bit about what makes it so special to me, and to briefly introduce some of the topics I will be covering in upcoming articles (monthly). Read the rest of this entry

By Roni Weisberg-Ross, L.M.F.T., Abuse Topic Expert Contributor

When we think of children who have been sexually abused, we think of fear, anger and violence. Most sexual abuse survivors talk of the terror and disassociation surrounding the abuse. Many still feel that way as adults and don’t enjoy sex now, even in a loving relationship. But there are those who have a more complicated story to tell. These survivors may have hated their abusers but experience an unspeakable shame over the fact that their bodies responded sexually to the abuse. They cannot live with the knowledge that they were sexually stimulated even as they were being raped. Now they are not only healing from the abuse but from the additional belief that they were partially responsible for the abuse – and that they may even have deserved it.

While adult survivors can intellectually understand that as children they were victims of their abuse, they don’t always feel that way. And they certainly can’t accept that fact if they responded sexually. Many of them can’t imagine how a child could respond sexually. So they believe that not only are they dirty, but that they are freaks as well. Yet children do have sexual feelings. Toddlers can sexually arouse themselves. And as they get older, many of them experiment and discover that their bodies respond. The myth that hormonal changes occurring at adolescence are the beginning of sexual feelings is just that, a myth. Read the rest of this entry

By Rachel Fleischmann, LCSW, Dance / Movement Therapy Topic Expert Contributor

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“We’re all bozos on the bus,
So we might as well sit back
And enjoy the ride”
~Wavy Gravy

As psychotherapists, we wear many hats; that of thinker, change agent, magician (if only….), loving detective, spiritual guru, compassionate witness, and more. We do everything we can to be consistent, kind and well put-together for our clients. This of course, is in their best interest; they need and deserve a sacred and safe container. We, essentially, are the constant object. We are also human, and prone to error. We need reminders that our human-ness is okay. I am offering some of my favorites. Read the rest of this entry