Dispatches from the Yellow Brick Road
A Journey Through Delusion and Back
July/August 2021
A terrifying journey shows just how much psychotic delusions are embedded in the unquestioned essence of a person’s thinking—as true as ocean, ground, and sky.
Magazine Article
Editor's Note
July/August 2021
In the therapy field, especially, we tend to view self-deception as a path to any number of bad ends, like a sense of failure when reality collides with fantasy, or making ill-begotten choices. Of course, illusions do carry these hazards, and plenty of others! But as science journalist Shankar Vedantam argues in our lead piece, perhaps we need to widen our lens beyond what’s true or not, and ask what function an illusion is serving. What are the consequences? Might there be occasions when the benefits justify the costs?
Magazine Article
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Family Matters
Something Close to Warmth: A Daughter's Search for Meaning
July/August 2021
Finding solace after the death of an absent father.
Magazine Article
In Consultation
The Threat Response of Appease: Do You Know It When You See It?
July/August 2021
How can therapists address historical trauma and the common threat response of appeasement?
Magazine Article
Point of View
The Angry Therapist: Transparency as a Therapeutic Tool
July/August 2021
John Kim believes that a therapist’s own vulnerability helps clients feel comfortable enough to bare their own souls—and he practices what he preaches.
Magazine Article
The Fox and the Hedgehog
Flexibility and Focus in the Therapy Room
July/August 2021
As a therapist, is it better to adapt an eclectic approach or specialize in the one you believe in most? Perhaps the answer isn’t as simple as it seems.
Magazine Article
The Lure of Self-Deception
Exploring How It Serves Our Clients
July/August 2021
To create a world that produces the best in us, we must certainly be informed by reason, rationality, and science, but we must also deploy the aspects of our minds that are prone to storytelling, symbols—and even self-deception.
Magazine Article
The Magic Dial
Reframing Cognitive Distortions
July/August 2021
Beyond identifying the distortions in negative cognitions, how can we help clients understand that negative thoughts and feelings aren’t the result of what’s wrong with them—but what’s right with them?
Magazine Article
The Myth of Infallibility
A Therapist Comes to Terms with a Client’s Suicide
July/August 2021
When it comes to coping with suicide deaths, we therapists need to let go of our superhero expectations and support one another as dedicated, fallible professionals and human beings.
Magazine Article
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The Therapy Beat
The TikTok Therapist: Goodbye, Blank Slate
July/August 2021
For some therapists, using TikTok isn’t a marketing tactic, but a public service.
Magazine Article
You Can Do Anything
The Outsized Dreams of Adolescents
July/August 2021
What if we stopped looking to modify the unique functioning of the teenage brain—delusional though it may be at times—and did more to foster the creative and generative aspects of an adolescent’s alternative worldview?
Magazine Article
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Bookmarks
The Anthropocene Dilemma: Can We Save Ourselves from Ecological Despair?
May/June 2021
It’s a truism that climate change has become an existential crisis. Can a new book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist help mitigate ecological despair?
Magazine Article
Family Matters
Relearning Parenthood: When Children Reach Adulthood, What Then?
May/June 2021
When our kids no longer need us to be problem solvers, what do we become?
Magazine Article
Point of View
Casting a Wider Therapeutic Net: Dr. Joy on Therapy for Black Girls
May/June 2021
The founder of a rapidly growing online community helps young Black women candidly discuss and destigmatize mental health issues.
Magazine Article
Practice Tools - May June 2021
Four Body Awareness Techniques from Manuela Mischke-Reeds' Bestselling "Somatic Psychotherapy Toolbox"
May/June 2021
Your FREE practice tools download to use with clients right away.
Magazine Article
Case Study
Evoking the Inner Artist: How to Replace Discomfort with Creativity
May/June 2021
Vulnerability, doubt, fear, and uncertainty—feelings most people try to avoid—are essential to cultivating creativity.
Magazine Article
Hip Hop Therapy
The Healing Power of Giving Kids the Mic
May/June 2021
The process of creating beats and lyrics is rooted in therapeutic practices. At one South Bronx high school, a school social worker has traded the therapy room for the music studio.
Magazine Article
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In Consultation
Gender-Affirmative Therapy for Kids: What Parents Need to Know
May/June 2021
Supporting transgender children doesn’t always mean rushing toward medical intervention.
Magazine Article
Loving Ourselves into Safety
Resilience and Strength in Perilous Times
May/June 2021
A cancer diagnosis, while devastating, can be a powerful teacher. Through the fear and anxiety, we can discover how to reliably calm ourselves and ask for support.
Magazine Article
The Therapy Beat
Psychedelic Therapy and Racial Trauma: Offering Clients a Deeper Experience of Healing
May/June 2021
Can psychedelic therapy offer a faster, deeper way to heal the intergenerational effects of racial injustice?
Magazine Article
Access for All
Tackling Therapy’s Biggest Challenge
May/June 2021
Will screening peer counselors for empathy create an affordable, effective option for the tens of millions of Americans who can’t access therapy, or perhaps don’t want it?
Magazine Article
Community Wisdom
Walking in Balance with Indigenous Cultures
May/June 2021
In working with an Indigenous community, a therapist learns the importance of walking with his clients, not out in front of them.
Magazine Article
Courts of Dignity
Replacing Punishment with Compassion
May/June 2021
A movement to integrate trauma-informed care into our justice system aims to decriminalize mental illness and address a foundational cause of mass incarceration.
Magazine Article
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Editor's Note
May/June 2021
I’m inspired by the courage of the therapists featured in this issue, who are stretching beyond their customary professional roles to apply their clinical skills in new ways. It takes commitment, an adventurous spirit, and often it’s a juggling act. But their common goal—and their passion—is to expand access to those too often shut out of the mental health system.
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