Do We Still Need Therapy?
Michael Yapko • 2/20/2020
By Michael Yapko - Americans have a history of valuing quick-fix solutions to difficult problems. But the simplistic psychopharmacological approach to depressive disorders underestimates the remarkable human capacity for self-transformation.
Daily Blog
Using the Power of Suggestion in Your Clinical Work
Michael Yapko • 2/26/2019
By Michael Yapko - If you talk to mindfulness practitioners about the similarities between guided mindfulness meditation and hypnosis, they tend to react with various degrees of indignation, if not downright revulsion. But a closer look at the processes, goals, and outcomes of both mindfulness and hypnotism reveals that they share fundamental similarities of purpose and practical knowledge.
Daily Blog
To Get a Depressed Client Unstuck, First Understand Their Thought Process
Michael Yapko • 10/3/2018
By Michael Yapko - Often when I work with depressed clients, I learn about the discriminations they didn’t make that have made matters worse. That typically leads to my asking a series of questions that begin with the word how. I’m not looking to interpret the meaning of people’s depression: I’m trying to understand the way my client is thinking that limits their perspective.
Daily Blog
Michael Yapko on the Role of Suggestion in Mindful Awareness
Michael Yapko • 6/18/2015
If you talk to mindfulness practitioners about the similarities between guided mindfulness meditation and hypnosis, they tend to react with various degrees of indignation, if not downright revulsion. But a closer look at the processes, goals, and outcomes of both mindfulness and hypnotism reveals that they share fundamental similarities of purpose and practical knowledge. Both mindfulness and clinical hypnosis use suggestive methods to elicit beneficial, nonvoluntary responses.
Daily Blog
Anti-Depressants Haven't Made Therapy Obsolete
Michael Yapko • 1/2/2015
Americans have a history of valuing quick-fix solutions to difficult problems. But the simplistic psychopharmacological approach to depressive disorders underestimates the remarkable human capacity for self-transformation. We have the ability to use imagination and intelligence to change our life circumstances, our attitudes and emotions, even, to some extent, our personalities. It is the privilege of our profession to be able to help troubled people along this path, and though medications may make this journey less arduous, in the long run, therapists are indispensable for getting their clients to this destination.
Daily Blog
Helping Depressed Clients Make Better Choices: An Interview with Michael Yapko
Michael Yapko • 11/12/2014
One of the most useful ways of understanding depression is the stress generation model, based on the idea that depressed people need better skills and resources for managing life challenges so that they don’t wind up feeling trapped and victimized in their own lives.
Magazine Article
Awakening the Hypnotist Within
Michael Yapko • 6/18/2014
As a clinical intervention, mindfulness is best understood by stripping away its aura of mystical spirituality and understanding the crucial role suggestion plays in the change process.
Daily Blog
Awakening the Hypnotist Within
Michael Yapko • 9/1/2011
As a clinical intervention, mindfulness is best understood by stripping away its aura of mystical spirituality and understanding the crucial role suggestion plays in the change process.
Magazine Article
Anti-Depressants Haven't Made Therapy Obsolete
Michael Yapko • 1/2/2009
Magazine Article