I’ve been utilizing an old Sufi practice, taught to me by Jamal Ramah, as a basis for a daily exercise for myself and my clients. The original exercise starts like this: “Cross your hands over your heart, and say to your heart, ‘I Love You.’ Let the love and light fill your heart. Then use
Everyone in Seattle is going through the formal stages of grief. All have some anxiety and some of them are panicking. What are the stages? Elizabeth Kubler-Ross lists them as Shock and Disbelief: our vibrant city is dead. No traffic. No restaurants or bars or hair salons or schools or colleges are open. No music
I live in Seattle, ground zero for the Coronavirus in the United States. Today, I had my first request from a client who wanted to have online therapy to avoid the virus. I said, of course and will do her session on Secure Video, a HIPPA-compliant platform for video meetings. I had no hesitation because
In mid-June, a woman with a young son returned to the park-and-ride in a suburban Seattle town. On the car was a note: "Kill all Niggers! I'm gonna kill you the next time I see you. KILL KILL KILL. KILL OBAMA." The woman called her white husband, who told her to get out of there
"Here's the latest about the CPT codes from NASW. I'm so glad I haven't tried to bill yet: ***ALERT CPT Code Snag*** The use of the new Psychotherapy Codes became effective on January 1, 2013. However, many Social Workers have encountered problems in being paid under the new codes. The reason for this is because
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 hair, when you can't do
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 to present a bit about
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 immune system The more homophobic
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 a trauma remover like EMDR,
"Lothlorien" a psychotherapy student and trauma survivor just sent me a link to her rave review of Trauma Treatment Handbook. Check it out here.
"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.
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 gratitude and hope that volunteers
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 Affect Tolerance Protocol) This is what I
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
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
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
(Dear readers, I'm deep into writing Trauma Treatment Handbook and have been neglecting my blog. Here's an email exchange that the correspondent has graciously given me permission to post.) From the asker: I just came across your site while researching heart rate coherence. I have Servan Shreiber's book(s) and actually had forgotten about heart rate coherence until
Book Parties EMDR Solutions II for Depression, Eating Disorders, Performance & More Robin Shapiro, Editor & Looking Through the Eyes of Trauma and Dissociation: An Illustrated Guide for EMDR Clinicians and Clients by Sandra Paulsen Meet both authors at each party. 2: 00, April 19th, 2009 at 6203 28th Ave NE, Seattle, WA
As I've been reading up on trauma therapies, I've been delighted at how attachment research and theory is permeating the new therapies. A few years ago I was delighted with videos of Dan Hughes working with distressed kidsusing his DDP technique. Last week, Arthur Becker-Weidman sent me an article that he and Hughes published in Child &
I just heard another horror story of humiliation in a consult group from a new consultee. It makes me almost as furious as finding out a therapist has been sexually exploiting a client. Another breach of professional ethics by someone who should know better! Grrr! So what is consultation supposed to do? In my less than humble opinion a
I'm sick at home today and was surfing EMDR articles. Here's a hilarious "Marxist" polemic about the war between Cognitive Behavior Therapy and EMDR. It's from a British psychotherapist, whose name is written in Russian, so I can't tell you who it is. If you can read the name, please post a comment for us.
Good NPR story of a woman who was doing fine, losing it when she lost her job. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100600029
Trauma and the Body (2006, Norton) is the new must-read book. Pat Ogden, Kekuni Minton, Clare Pain (with one chapter by the Lanius siblings) have written a comprehensive book about using "bottom up" processing to stabilize clients, clear trauma, and integrate people into healed lives. The book is readable, it incorporates all my favorite theories
MSNBC's Jeanna Bryer writes about how people who consider themselves the most "morally upright" can become the biggest cheaters. If they consider cheating "morally wrong", they won't do it. If it is a means to a "moral end", they will cheat, more than other people. Interesting research. Here's the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21820808/from/ET/
There's a new website in town: the EMDR Therapist Network. It has nice descriptions of EMDR and how it works and a referral list. Check it out at http://www.emdrtherapistnetwork.com/
I'm musing on the evidence of polarization in both a post by Doug Plummer on his Dispatches blog and some of the responses. Click here to read them. Two things come to mind, M. Scott Peck's definition of evil: (From Wikipedia, originally from Peck's book, People of the Lie) An evil person: Projects his or
The last book we're reading before the summer break is The Haunted Self: Structural Dissociation and Treatment of Chronic Traumatization by Onno van der Hart, Ellert Nijenjuis, and Kathy Steele. (Norton, 2006) We'll meet on June 22 to discuss it and I'll do my review. Here are some books we're considering for next fall and
My resident introvert just sent me this informative and funny article, Caring for Your Introvert, by Johnathon Rauch, in the newest Atlantic. To read it click here. My clients have been telling me to read The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney. Not all highly sensitive people are introverts, and not all introverts are highly
Dan Hughes on IntersubjectivityIntersubjectivity is when I know that you know that I know that we’re feeling the same thing at the same time. I know you feel me in your gut and I feel you in my mine. Crying together, laughing together, or good sex creates intersubjective experiences. So does good therapy. According to
Someone asked me last week how I have marketed my private practice. After 26 years of practice in the same town, I've got a perpetually full practice. It wasn't always that way. What's worked for me in the past? Paid referral services. The therapist pays a monthly or yearly fee, fills out
READING GROUP DATES: Fridays, 10-12 @ Robin’s house, potluck lunch is optional (If you're in the Seattle area, email me for directions.) Come with your answers to these questions: What is the main theoretical basis of this method? From this point of view, what exactly do you do with a client in front of you?
NPR had a distressing story about soldiers with PTSD. Not all bases are the same. Some take better care of their personnel. Some don't. I'm on the board of the EMDR-Humanitarian Assistance Program. Among other things, our organization gives low cost trainings to military psychotherapists and VA therapists. It's disheartening to hear what is happening
Laurel Parnell's A Therapist's Guide to EMDR is essential reading for every EMDR clinician. Parnell's clear, practical, and comprehensive instructions will assist new EMDR practitioners to master the mechanics and variations of EMDR, and experienced clinicians will find new tools and perspectives to help with thier most difficult cases. Parnell writes about EMDR as it
Here's a link to nice news video about a Gulf War veteran, who upon witnessing a horrible accident, was beset with images/affect from the war and from his abusive childhood. EMDR at the Amen Clinic cleared the trauma. There's some good before and after brain images. http://kcbsimg.dayport.com/htm/cbs2player.htm?Art_ID=1624&tf=SPECIAL%20ASSIGNMENT%3A%20Post-Traumatic%20Stress
As a psychology undergraduate working at a psychiatric half-way house in late 70’s Seattle, I had my first therapeutic epiphany. The clients were severely mentally ill. The pay was minimal and the working conditions drab. The consultation was amazing. Mike Flowers and David Calof were consultants to SMHI, the community mental health center to