My History with Ego State Therapy

I wrote this as a prologue to the Greek version of Easy Ego State Interventions and realized that it will make a good post: I have been looking through the lenses of ego state therapies since 1981. During that year, my first out of graduate school, I took a course in Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis

By |2019-05-16T10:52:12-07:00May 16th, 2019|Comments Off on My History with Ego State Therapy

Easy Ego State Intervention Workshops

Dear Readers, Ego state work has been around since before Freud, and in latter years, has been the main stay of many practices. Interventions can range from "How old did you feel when you were yelling at your wife?" to "Let's identify those dissociative states that take over your body." I've been working with this

By |2018-04-16T12:30:12-07:00April 16th, 2018|Comments Off on Easy Ego State Intervention Workshops

Three Articles for Introverts

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 called Caring For Your Introvert.

By |2011-06-22T15:26:07-07:00June 22nd, 2011|Comments Off on Three Articles for Introverts

Psychiatric Diagnoses: The Epidemic of Mental Illness

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 here.

By |2011-06-17T15:00:06-07:00June 17th, 2011|4 Comments

Another Nice Review for Trauma Treatments Handbook

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 about the book and me

By |2011-03-08T13:01:45-08:00March 8th, 2011|Comments Off on Another Nice Review for Trauma Treatments Handbook

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 guide to the land of

By |2010-08-17T19:22:38-07:00August 17th, 2010|5 Comments

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 trauma therapists, we are privileged

By |2009-11-20T17:29:27-08:00November 20th, 2009|12 Comments

Lessons Learned While Writing A Book for Psychotherapists

I'm 13 chapters into writing Trauma Treatments Handbook, Across the Spectrum. Here's the advice I'd give anyone doing the same thing: Get a second screen for your computer. Keep the reference page, internet search materials, etc. open on the second screen. It will save you days of searching for the right open file. Start the

By |2009-09-07T20:28:46-07:00September 7th, 2009|5 Comments

Bainbridge Book-Signing Party

Book Signing Party! On Beautiful Bainbridge Island June 14, 2-5PM   Sandra Paulsen, Ph.D & Robin Shapiro, MSW, LCSW will be there to sign and read excerpts of their 2009 books. We may have a special guest reader, Yaak Panksepp.Bring your checkbook if you want to buy a book. Save shipping costs! Location: 9054 Battle

By |2009-05-29T09:09:04-07:00May 29th, 2009|Comments Off on Bainbridge Book-Signing Party

“The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook”

I'm reading piles of books in preparation for writing a trauma therapy survey book. My friend and colleague, Barbara Hinsz lent me Glenn Schiraldi's The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook. (McGraw-Hill, 2000) It's a great self-help book, one of the best I've seen. Schiraldi's a good writer. I never wanted to fix his sentences. He's simple without being simplistic.

By |2009-02-18T17:23:36-08:00February 18th, 2009|Comments Off on “The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook”

Phantom Itching Cured With EMDR

    A long time client came back to see me. She'd been ill and after weeks in bed, depression had colonized her, again. She mentioned, " that it's stupid, but what was really bothering me is this itch on the back of my head." She'd been to the doctor, who found nothing wrong with her scalp,

By |2008-11-25T07:46:57-08:00November 25th, 2008|Comments Off on Phantom Itching Cured With EMDR

Trauma and Temperment

I recently took on several new clients and am on my 3rd session with several new people, I'm struck by how much temperment affects people's experience of trauma. Some people have iron constitutions. It's hard to scare these people. It takes a truly life-threatening trauma for them to experience PTSD symptoms. Others are traumatized by

By |2008-10-31T22:04:08-07:00October 31st, 2008|Comments Off on Trauma and Temperment

EMDR Solutions II for Depression, Eating Disorders, Performance and More

Dear Readers, Excuse me for the dearth of posts this summer. Last night I sent in the the 26 chapters, "Front Matter" and Glossary for the book on which I've been spending 20 or 30 hours each week. I had whittled my practice down to two days each week. I belayed most of my social

By |2008-08-30T07:00:04-07:00August 30th, 2008|Comments Off on EMDR Solutions II for Depression, Eating Disorders, Performance and More

Why Book Editing Is Like Doing Psychotherapy

The Book has a title now: EMDR Solutions II, for Depression, Eating Disorders, Performance and More. It has a cover photograph, too. and the photo has a story. (Full disclosure--the photographer is my husband.) See it and read it at http://www.dougplummer.com/archives/ireland2/fall9.html I'm in full-blown editing mode: going through each chapter, attaching a header, reformatting it,

By |2008-05-05T21:10:47-07:00May 5th, 2008|1 Comment

Dan Siegel’s Parenting From the Inside Out

The Reading Group (Brena Lever and I) met last week to discuss Parenting from the Inside Out by Daniel Siegel and Mary Hartzell. At that moment Seigel happened to be meeting with the Dalai Lama, Dan Goleman, and some other child psychology types, about a mile from my house, to discuss how to grow compassionate

By |2008-04-21T18:41:48-07:00April 21st, 2008|2 Comments

The Instinct To Heal

My new favorite book is Instinct to Heal by David Servan-Schrieber (Rodale, 2003). It is simple enough for most clients and innovative and interesting enough for most clinicians. I recommend it to psychiatrists, any kind of physician or "alternative" medical practitioner and all psychotherapists. Why? Instinct to Heal gives clear explanations, references to good research

By |2008-01-18T17:31:12-08:00January 18th, 2008|Comments Off on The Instinct To Heal

Reading Group: The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy by Cozolino

The next book in the reading group will be The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, by Louis Cozolino (W.W. Norton, 2003). It's easier to read than you might think, and written by a psychologist, not a medical person, who struggled through the medical/scientific texts in order to bring we clinicians the good news. According to Cozolino, we

By |2007-10-23T18:19:41-07:00October 23rd, 2007|Comments Off on Reading Group: The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy by Cozolino

“Dark, Bad Day . . .Go Away!”

Ana M. Gomez has written a lovely book for children or anyone about trauma and EMDR: Dark, Bad Day. . . Go Away! It's simple, and complete, and true. The drawings by Carlos Serrano Acosta are lovely and expressive. And it has a good and true happy ending. There's a "Note for Professionals" in the

By |2007-09-28T22:15:07-07:00September 28th, 2007|3 Comments

Diana Fosha’s “Transforming Power of Affect”

The Tranforming Power of Affect (Basic Behavioral Science, 2000) is the best therapy book I've read in many years. It is a readable, comprehensive, and creative survey of attachment research and how to apply it to your adult clients. Diana Fosha comes from the Short Term Dynamic Therapy lineage of Davanloo and Malan, and adds

By |2007-04-02T14:38:27-07:00April 2nd, 2007|Comments Off on Diana Fosha’s “Transforming Power of Affect”

Healing Trauma, reading group report

The reading group had its first meeting. We discussed the first four chapters of Healing Trauma: attachment,mind, body, and brain edited by Marion Solomon and Daniel Siegel.(W.W. Norton & Co. 2003) It's a difficult book. Several chapters speak about brain physiology. Several are in "academic speak" in which all sentences must have at least 10

By |2007-01-28T18:08:24-08:00January 28th, 2007|Comments Off on Healing Trauma, reading group report
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