Trauma & Attachment Therapy
Robin Shapiro’s psychotherapy book reviews, training reviews, clinical experience, and musing about trauma, attachment, and affect-based therapies.
The King’s Speech
Some of the best therapy I've seen on screen is in a great new movie, The King's Speech. Geoffrey Rush plays Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist who tackles the debilitating anxiety-driven stammer of Colin Firth's, "Bertie", who become the king of England on the eve of World War II. The
NYT’s Article: A Typical Suicide of an American Soldier
James Risen writes about a soldier, Staff Sgt. David Senft, with PTSD who kills himself in Afghanistan. The article lists many things that predict successful suicide: Senft came from a distressed "broken" family. He had many attachment disruptions in childhood. He had been on multiple tours of duty. He had PTSD
Attachment Theory and Adult Relationships
"What Attachment Theory Can Teach about Love and Relationships" by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller, in the January 2011 Scientific American is a good introduction to attachment styles, how they affect our ways of relating, and how to get conscious control over some of our dating styles, despite our early experience.
Ailing Parents, Aging Selves
Many of my clients are near my age, the mid-fifties. Many of us are dealing with ailing and dying parents, just as our own bodies are showing signs of mortality. Here are several issues that arise: The balance of self-care and care of the increasingly needy parent The lack of
Tricare Refuses to Pay for CRT & EMDR for Veterans
National Public Radio wrote and spoke about the "Battle Over the Science" of Tricare not paying for cognitive rehabilitation therapy (CRT) for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) "despite pressure from Congress and the recommendations of military and civilian experts, the Pentagon’s health plan for troops and many veterans does not to
Is Schizophrenia Caused by a Retro-Virus?
Fascinating article, The Insanity Virus, in the November online Discover magazine describes studies that show that schizophrenia and MS may be from viruses that trigger the Toxoplasmosis and CMV viruses that most of us already carry. It's a long read that got more interesting (for me) on pages 3 and
When Encouraging “Self-Care” Feels Like a Brush-Off
Dr. Kathleen Young, writes in her wonderful blog: Treating Trauma in Chicago, about when self-care is interpreted as abandonment. Read the article and the comments, then look at the rest of this great blog: http://drkathleenyoung.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/does-self-care-mean-others-dont/
It Gets Better
The outpouring of support after the spate LGBT suicides has been amazing. The latest and most moving part is a song by young Broadway performers "It Gets Better". My homeboy, Dan Savage started the project with videos of gay and lesbian adults talking about how they survived harassment and worse
Living with the Awareness of Evil
I've had to confront evil again. In my every day life, I see it all the time. 60% of my clients have been sexually, physically, and emotionally abused by the adults, mostly their parents, who were in charge of them. As a consultant I hear therapists' most horrific cases. I
New Theory Links Chronic Brain Inflammation to Depression
The more stress and depression, the more inflammation. University of California, San Diego, medical school report from Newswise: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/569853/
Imaginal Nurturing, Ego States and Attachment
I've taken two different versions of April Steele's Developing a Secure Self course. Each time I learned more about creating good, strong, attachment experiences in clients with unfortunate childhoods. (Most of my caseload!) April teaches assessment, therapeutic stance, and has scripted protocols for bringing clients' loving adult attention to their infant
The Frugal Practitioner: How to start or support your private practice in hard times
The Washington State Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers put on a workshop for practitioners in Seattle this morning. First, Brian O'Neill, the CEO of Office Ally spoke about his free online billing and practice management services. I've been using Office Ally for billing for 3 years. It's easy, completely
Staff Diaries Prevent PTSD in Surgical Patients
I've written about medical trauma, especially surgeries, creating PTSD. This article shows a simple way to prevent traumatization in some instances.
Video with Amen brain scans and EMDR treatment of PTSD
Here's a 6 minute video of a Gulf War soldier's PTSD diagnosis with brain scans and then treatment with EMDR. He had a scary childhood, fear for his life in combat, and then was retriggered by witnessing a horrible accident.
Nancy Smyth on Why therapists should know about social media.
Nancy Smyth writes a great blog about social workers and technology. Her latest post is about how some therapists proudly acknowledge ignorance and no interest in Facebook and other social media and explains why they're wrong. See it here. Then check out the rest of her blog.
Launching the new website
The new website is up now at www.emdrsolutions.com. The old one was out of date and I didn't have the expertise to modify it so I paid a site-building company to help me. Here are the questions we tried to answer. Click on the colored links to see the pages.
Therapeutic Metaphors from Star Trek and other Popular Culture
Utilization is the idea that therapists should use the culture and the language that their clients already use. If your client has watched Star Trek, they already know how to utilize these great tools. Safe place: "Do you know what a containment field is on Star Trek? Great! So imagine
Trauma Treatment Handbook: Protocols Across the Spectrum
My copy of the new book arrived today. Here is what Diana Fosha says about it:"This is a thorough, accessible, and very practical book, filled with resources and sound ideas, filtered through the intelligence and experience of a savvy, compassionate, down-to-earth, and very experienced clinician. It is like a travel
First Person Account of EMDR
Mary Elizabeth Williams talks about receiving EMDR after a mugging. On Salon's site:http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2010/07/23/emdr_after_a_mugging/index.html
Is life more fun without children?
Is life more fun without children? Read this lovely, heart-breaking story from Jennifer Lawler, a mother writing about her experience with her severely brain-damaged child: http://jenniferlawler.com/wordpress/?p=747&cpage=9#comment-1554 . I think her answer is, "It doesn't matter."
“Anxiety” on To The Best of Our Knowledge
A great hour of interviews about anxiety on one of best radio shows around. This one includes Patricia Pearson, author of A Brief History of Anxiety, Yours and Mine, and her own experience with anxiety medications and learning to self-soothe; Ethan Waters, talking about the globalization of American psychiatric diagnoses and
Chillout song from ZeFrank
Here is a sweet short song about being okay, "just fine" and breathing. Good for anyone. Chillout song from zefrank
EMDR-Humanitarian Assistance Program and Doctors Without Borders
I spent yesterday afternoon at a fundraiser for EMDR-HAP's Haiti project and last night at "Living in Emergency", the new Doctors Without Borders/MSF film, followed by a live discussion with MSF staff/volunteers. I'm left with two feelings: overwhelmed that there is so much untreated physical and emotional trauma in the world and
Washington State Parity Law for Psychotherapy Sessions
On July 1, 2010, insurance companies in Washington state will have to provide unlimited sessions for psychotherapy clients in most categories. After fruitlessly spending more than 10 hours trying to get Regence Blue Shield to flip an inpatient benefit into outpatient sessions, I remembered the new law. I then called
Insurance Company Scam
If you get a phone call from Multiplan asking you to lower your fee with an insurance company in order to get "expedited payment", turn them down. This happened to me and to a colleague of mine. First your insurance company doesn't pay you for sessions that you did. Then
Andrew Leeds Positive Affect Training
Susan Kravitz and Katy Murray, the wonderfully effective stewards of the Southwest Washington Regional meeting, organized a training for EMDR therapists in Olympia, at which they played an audiotape of Andrew Leeds teaching about enhancing positive affect. (2007, Learning to Feel Good About Positive Emotions, from the 2007 EMDRIA conference worshop on the Positive
A Meditation for Clients Who Have Complex Trauma
This meditation was generously shared by someone else's client who was neglected and abused as a child. She does it as part of breathing practice: breathing in each true line. In it she speaks to different parts of self and all parts of self, counteracting distressing and untrue beliefs and
Ethics and Technology Workshop
I attended Lisa Erickson's Professional Ethics & Technology workshop today, sponsored by Cascadia Training. Here's what I came away with: SKYPE Skype, the computer phone and video-phone service, is encrypted and hard to break into. If Skype's employees wanted to listen in, they could. But why would they? The picture
Episode 27 – Dr. Charles Figley: Veterans and PTSD: Time for a New Paradigm? (Living Proof Podcast Series of the University at Buffalo)
Episode 27 - Dr. Charles Figley: Veterans and PTSD: Time for a New Paradigm? (Living Proof Podcast Series of the University at Buffalo)Posted using ShareThis
How Trauma Therapy Works, a Video
Here is a 9 minute video of me talking about how trauma therapy works. Expect more pieces of this video in the future. My husband, the videographer and photographer, Doug Plummer made the video.
Surviving An IRS Audit
Here's how we prepared, what we did right, and how it went: Our returns were "flagged" by the IRS because my husband, Doug Plummer, has a home office and $20,000 of travel expenses, and because I never gave 1099's to my three consultants, and because of our two rentals (one
By measuring magnetic fields in brain, researchers identify post-traumatic stress disorder biomarker
By measuring magnetic fields in brain, researchers identify post-traumatic stress disorder biomarker. Article in today's Science Daily, referred to me by Louise Maxfield
Eating Disorders, Not Otherwise Specified: EDNOS Article in the NYTimes.
Abby Ellin writes "Narrowing an Eating Disorder" in today's New York Times, describing her own eating issue, the too-broad EDNOS diagnosis, and the need for medically and insurance company recognized diagnoses for eating disorders.
Brain Connections in Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Research shows that anxious people have different wiring than non-anxious people: http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/12/08/abnormal-brain-connections-linked-with-anxiety-disorder/10043.html
Why We Do Trauma Therapy
Here is the last paragraph of the Introduction to Trauma Treatments Handbook, Protocols Across the Spectrum. You're seeing it before the publishers do. Before I send it in, do you have anything to add about why we do this work? I'll publish what you write, unless it's spam. As
Kathy Steele: Neurobiology of DID, on Science Friday
Kathy Steele, cocreator of the Structural Dissociation Theory, patiently defends the existence of Dissociative Identity Disorder to Ira Flatow and Numan Gharaibeh (a clueless psychiatrist) on NPR's Science Friday. Worth a listen: http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200911133 I've run into this blindness before, mostly in analytically trained psychiatrists, despite all evidence.
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