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Whole Psychiatry: Alternatives to Conventional Psychopharmacology with Robert Hedaya
Meds: Myths and Realities: NP0035 – Session 4
Is psychopharmacology is a 'go-to' in your practice? Join Robert Hedaya as he discusses how to treat the bodily systems that underlay many mental health issues while avoiding medication. After the session, please let us know what you think. If you ever have any technical questions or issues, please feel free to email support@psychotherapynetworker.org.Tough Customers: Is It Them or Us?
By Rich Simon As therapists, many of us practice in two different worlds. In the first, we see polite, well-behaved, articulate clients with solid values. They engage fully in therapy, talk cogently about their problems, listen attentively to our responses, make reasonably good-faith efforts to follow our suggestions, and sooner or later get better. No wonder we genuinely like these people! Does This Kid Need Medication? with Ron Taffel
Meds: Myths and Realities: NP0035 – Session 3
Do you feel like you could be a more effective therapist with your younger clients? Do you find it hard to determine when interventions--psychological and pharmacological--might be needed? Join Ron Taffel and learn to identify key diagnostic signs that indicate medications could be helpful when dealing with depression, anxiety, AD/HD, and affective disorders. After the session, please let us know what you think. If you ever have any technical questions or issues, please feel free to email support@psychotherapynetworker.org.
| Beyond the Consulting Room - Page 5 |
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Once you've identified an issue you care deeply about and have connected it with the public sphere, you're ready to join with a community. The first community I recommend is at least one fellow therapist with whom you can share your journey. Start conversations on what each of you feels passionate about and see whether you get charged up about the same issues. For me, this process began with a series of conversations with my colleague Patrick Dougherty. Over numerous lunches at a local cafe, we brooded, brainstormed, and hatched ideas about how to engage with the world outside our offices. Patrick then introduced me to two political scholars and community organizers: Harry Boyte and Nan Kari, who became my mentors. Eventually, I pulled together several colleagues and students into an ongoing group for mutual support and mentoring. Like most therapists, I'm not a good Lone Ranger: I do community work only with buddies behind or alongside me. Connect with a Community The next step is pivotal: finding a community to work with outside your professional world. This isn't as hard as it sounds. Ask yourself what communities you're already connected to. It might be the neighborhood you work in, the schools your kids attend and where you've given talks to PTA groups, or your faith community. For me, finding a community was initially difficult because of my assumption, common among therapists, that community work is needed only in low-income neighborhoods. As I saw it, my problem was that most of my contacts were in middle-class communities, so it was mostly suburban and well-off urban folks who invited me to speak on my favorite topic—overscheduled kids and reclaiming family time. People in struggling urban neighborhoods didn't seem to have overscheduled kids. Feeling stymied, I felt tempted to revert to save-the-world strategy number 1: stay in your office and support the best candidates and causes, venturing forth every four years to get out the vote. |
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