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Trauma & Attachment Therapy

How Not to Get Referrals

August 9th, 2012|Business of Psychotherapy, Technology and Psychotherapy|

Mike Langlois explains "How to Get Taken Seriously as a Mental Health Professional" in a mild rant about the uses and misuses of LinkedIn, etc. at  http://gamertherapist.com/blog/2012/08/08/how-to-get-taken-seriously-as-a-mental-health-professional/ I get a referral a day from my website and many consultees from this blog. I tell other therapists, "If you want any

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Stalkers: Classification and Treatment

June 29th, 2012|Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, Psychopathy, psychotherapy, Stalkers, Weblogs|

Stephanie Rhys wrote a helpful article about Stalkers on Robert Muller's fantastic Trauma and Attachment Report blog right here: http://trauma.blog.yorku.ca/2012/06/29/in-the-mind-of-a-stalker/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+trauma-report+%28The+Trauma+and+Attachment+Report%29

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Research: CBT FAIL!

June 19th, 2012|Anxiety disorders, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Empirically-based treatment, Professional Ethics, Pschotherapy websites, Psychiatric diagnoses, Psychotherapy Research|

Huge study in Sweden finds that CBT often doesn't work on anxiety and depression and can make the problems much worse:  REVOLUTION IN SWEDISH MENTAL HEALTH PRACTICE: THE COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY MONOPOLY GIVES WAY Please don't flame me, I'm just reporting the study.

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Lessons from a Dying Cat

June 2nd, 2012|Uncategorized|

Lila, our 18-year-old long-haired cat had a message for us all about how to live one's last day, so I let her ghost-write this post. 1. Try to keep a normal schedule.2. Stay hydrated.3. Connect with the people you love.4. Accept help: it's nice to have someone else brush your

Trauma and Grief Explained and Self-Help Instructions

June 2nd, 2012|Uncategorized|

A few days ago, there was a shooting in my neighborhood. An unmedicated bipolar guy shot up a cool hipster cafe (Cafe Racer), a woman in another part of town and himself, leaving six people dead, and the extended community around the cafe in shock and grief. I was asked

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Kristof on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, the Brain Disease Plaguing Veterans

April 25th, 2012|C.T.E., Current Affairs, PTSD, PTSD in Iraq war soldiers, Suicide, TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury|

Nicholas Kristof writes about the brain disease that may be underlying the suicides of Iraq & Afghanistan war veterans: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/opinion/kristof-veterans-and-brain-disease.html?_r=1

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NYT’s Article: Stimulants given to soldiers may increase PTSD.

April 22nd, 2012|Medicine and Psychology, Mental Health Policy, Neuroscience, Psychotherapy Research, PTSD, PTSD in Iraq war soldiers, Veterans|

Dr. Richard Friedman in "Why Are We Drugging Our Soldiers" shows the correlation between Ritalin and Adderall prescriptions and increased PTSD. He cites several studies showing that these drugs enhance the memory of fear-provoking events. Scary and makes all kinds of sense. Read it!

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Francine Shapiro in the New York Times on EMDR Research

March 2nd, 2012|EMDR, Empirically-based treatment, Psychotherapy in the media, Psychotherapy Research, PTSD, Science|

Three years ago, while I was at the at the Olympus Women's Spa celebrating the publication of EMDR Solutions II, a woman in the same jacuzzi interrupted my conversation to attack me about my obvious misperceptions about EMDR. "Everybody knows it doesn't work . . . it's woo-woo-bullshit . .

Boston Globe article about supportive family of transgender child

December 12th, 2011|Body Image, Child Therapy, LGBT, Medicine and Psychology, Sexual Minorities, Transgender|

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/12/11/led-child-who-simply-knew/SsH1U9Pn9JKArTiumZdxaL/story.html?s_campaign=sm_fb  A lovely article about the supportive family of male twin who knew from the beginning that she was female, and the courageous family that supported her through her life.

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Robert Trivers On Deception

December 1st, 2011|Uncategorized|

Robert Trivers On Deception. Great one hour talk on self and other deception research. Entertaining and informative. His book is The Folly of Fools. The smarter the kid the more he or she lies Being "out" is good for the immune system.  Talking about trauma is also good for the

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Penn State: Was the abuse too horrible to acknowledge?

November 16th, 2011|Abuse, Current Affairs, Dissociation, Evil, Sex Abuse, Sex in the Media, Trauma, Writing|

Here are two similar views of the Penn State child abuse debacle. One from the anonymous humble2humble blog (obviously by a man of faith who understands child abuse): http://humble2humble.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html. The second is by David Brooks, from yesterday's NYT's: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/opinion/brooks-lets-all-feel-superior.html Both speak to the commonality of denial and avoidance. Both are great writing.

Empirically-based Treatment?

September 21st, 2011|Empirically-based treatment, Psychotherapy Research|

Paul Matiuzzi's blog post nails the controversary about "empirically-based treatment"  for therapists: Read it here:  http://everydaypsychology.com/2011/09/yale-psychologist-calls-for-end-of.html  Empirically-based research is a helpful guide to what works for some people some of the time. I absolutely follow the research in my field. But if something doesn't work for the client in front

In Ego State Therapy, Let the Client Run the Internal Show.

August 20th, 2011|Abuse, Brainspotting, DID/MPD, Dissociation, Ego State Therapy, EMDR, Psychiatric diagnoses, psychotherapy, PTSD|

Twenty-seven years ago, when I worked with my first DID client, I became the "go to" person for soothing the young, distressed ego states. As a result, I was on-call 24/7, never took longer than a week's vacation, and was constantly fielding emergencies. Finally, a savvy consultant told me to

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The Names of Love

August 15th, 2011|Abuse, Aging, Artistic Process, Differentiation, Film, Grief, PTSD|

The Names of Love is a hilarious, serious, heart-breaking, heart-warming French movie that I recommend to everyone. It deals with generational PTSD, Holocaust survivors, war survivors, culture, temperament, politics, art, political correctness, and sex as a positive political tool. (Did I say that it was French?) Here's a website: http://www.namesoflovemovie.com/ One

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Gottman & Navarra: Couple Recovery Development Approach Workshop

July 31st, 2011|Addictions, Attachment therapy, Couples Therapy, John Gottman, Visual Aids in Psychotherapy, Weblogs|

John Gottman and Bob Navarra gave a useful workshop about working with couples in recovery from addiction, in Seattle yesterday. Here are some of the take-aways: "Mastery, Not Perfection" A wonderful thing to say to anyone learning a new skill ,is the "perfect" thing to say to recovering addicts, who

Beware of Prepayment Hoax

July 30th, 2011|Fraud|

You get an email or call from an overseas potential client who is coming to your town and wants psychotherapy for a compelling trauma. They want to pay you in advance, because it's hard to move money from there to here. When the check comes it's much larger than you

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Temperament and Genetics

July 3rd, 2011|Extroversion, Introverts, Temperament|

At my third day of a family celebration, I've been watching the genetic trends in my extended family. There is much discussion of who looks like whom. Two Asian mothers in this primarily Eastern-European Jewish family have added some gorgeous, great kids. I've been watching temperament. First I noticed that

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Dissociation Often Caused By Disrupted Attachment

June 29th, 2011|Attachment therapy, Daniel Siegel, Dissociation, Trauma|

Andrew Leeds' Sonoma Psychotherapy Training Institute posted a great article on its blog: Developmental Pathways to Dissociation. They quote Dutra, Bianchi, Siegel, and Lyons-Ruth saying that ". . . lack of positive maternal affective involvement, maternal flatness of affect, and overall disrupted maternal communication were the strongest predictors of dissociation

Linehan, creator of Dialectical Behavior Therapy, reveals her own struggles.

June 23rd, 2011|Uncategorized|

Marsha Linehan created DBT, a comprehensive mindfulness and cognitive therapy to work with suicidal, especially Borderline Personality disordered clients. She recently revealed, in a NYTimes article, that she was an out-of-control self-destructive Borderline client as a teenager here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/health/23lives.html?_r=2&src=tptw I like DBT. With the addition of ego state therapy and

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Three Articles for Introverts

June 22nd, 2011|Books, Introverts, Temperament, Weblogs|

These articles refute the myths that introverts are anti-social, shy, and wimpy. My resident introvert husband endorses both of them. Carl King's review of The Introvert Advantage (How To Thrive in an Extrovert World), by Marti Laney, Psy.D. called 10 Myths about Introverts. A funnier, snide 2003 Atlantic Article by Johnathon Rauch

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Beautifully written survivor blog

June 21st, 2011|Abuse, Shame, Weblogs, Writing|

I stumbled on an interesting blog. What makes it unusual is that it's by a man, beautifully written, spiritually and religiously and literarilly informed. The writer deals with themes of shame, humility, power-over, abuse, right speech and right action. He's not sanctimonious at all. He seems to know whereby he

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Psychiatric Diagnoses: The Epidemic of Mental Illness

June 17th, 2011|Anxiety disorders, Bipolar disorder, Books, Business of Psychotherapy, Current Affairs, Health Care Reform, Insurance for psychotherapy, Medicine and Psychology, Mental Health Policy, Psychiatric diagnoses, Psychotherapy in the media|

The New York Review of Books carried and a scathing and mostly right-on article about the medicalization and over-medication of mental illness by Marcia Angell. It's a review of three books about the history of psych meds, the power of the drug companies, and the minimization of psychotherapy. Read it

Trauma and Trauma Therapy: Interview on “Public Exposure”

May 31st, 2011|Anxiety disorders, Dissociation, Ego State Therapy, EMDR, Multiple Personality Disorder, Neuroscience, psychotherapy, PTSD, PTSD in Iraq war soldiers, Sex Abuse, Trauma, Trauma Treatment Handbook, Protocols Across the Spectrum|

I was interviewed by Stan Emert on his cable TV show, "Public Exposure" a few weeks ago. Here is the YouTube link to the show:  http://youtu.be/KsFoHFQxx4o  Topics include trauma definitions, PTSD, EMDR, Ego State Therapy, and a minute of traumatic grief. Due to a neck injury, I've been unable to spend

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Another Nice Review for Trauma Treatments Handbook

March 8th, 2011|Books, PTSD, PTSD in Iraq war soldiers, Trauma Treatment Handbook, Protocols Across the Spectrum|

Tim Brunson at the International Hypnosis Research Institute wrote a nice review of TTH. He liked the book though he thought it didn't have enough hypnosis in it and wanted it to discuss research and wished the "Self-care for Trauma Therapists" chapter was longer. Otherwise he said extremely positive things

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Next To Normal: the bipolar musical

February 23rd, 2011|Bipolar disorder, Depression, psychotherapy, Psychotherapy in the media|

I went to the opening night of Seattle's production of Next to Normal, the amazing Tony-winning dramatic musical about a bipolar mother, her family, her delusions, her therapy, and her slow, painful growth. Components: amazing 3 story set, great singing, great score (though a little loud), believable story, believable characters

Two Takes on Marriage

January 2nd, 2011|Couples Therapy, Marriage|

David Schnarch and the dynamic duo of Ellen Bader and Pete Pearson tell us that the secret to happy marriage is the level of differentiation of each spouse. (Differentiated people show completely who they are and what they want, even when the other partner doesn't like it or agree. They

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