How to Keep Anxiety from Taking Charge
Rich Simon • 7/28/2014
It’s important to remember that parents of children in therapy often find their child’s problems just as anxiety-provoking as the child does, says Lynn Lyons, author of Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents. Don’t be afraid to lead with a little humor when dealing with parents, she says, and then follow with your knowledge and advice.
Daily Blog
Today’s Video: How to Change the Rules
Rich Simon • 7/24/2014
There’s a reason agoraphobic people stay home and acrophobic people stay grounded. No one enjoys the way that panic feels. But the trouble with trying to avoid or get rid of panic altogether is that it can lead to a fear of panicking itself. What panicked clients need from therapy instead, says Reid Wilson, author of Don’t Panic, are skills for engaging with their distress, not new ways to keep avoiding it.
Daily Blog
Today’s Video: The difference between the gay and straight brain
Rich Simon • 7/23/2014
It’s a topic that has been at the center of countless debates, both rational and irrational. Is there a clear biological difference between the heterosexual and homosexual brain? According to Louann Brizendine, author of The Female Brain and The Male Brain, the answer is predictably complicated.
Daily Blog
Today’s Video: Dan Siegel on the Power of Teenage Brain
Rich Simon • 7/21/2014
Dan Siegel, author of Brainstorm: The Power and the Purpose of the Teenage Brain, knows that nobody—especially an angst-filled teenager—likes being told what to do. As creative and adventurous as they may be, you’re likely to get eye rolls and crossed arms when you tell them, for instance, that the best way to control their anger toward their parents is through breathing exercises. That’s why Dan takes a more roundabout approach. “Would you like to know more about your brain?” he asks first. Only when the answer is yes—or rather, “Sure, why not? I’ve got nothing better to do.”—can you break out the brain science.
Daily Blog
Today’s Video: A Homework Assignment for Anxious Kids
Rich Simon • 7/17/2014
Anxiety is a demanding beast, with a long list of conditions that must be met to keep it at bay. It forces anxious children and their families to banish uncertainty, avoid surprises, cling to safety and security—the list of demands could go on forever. Unfortunately, when anxiety is running the show in a child’s life, the family tends to become more and more inflexible.
Daily Blog
Today’s Video: More Tools, More Solutions
Rich Simon • 7/15/2014
How do you decide when a problem is not rooted in early experience? While developing Coherence Therapy, Bruce Ecker, coauthor of Unlocking the Emotional Brain, spent a lot of time uncovering the differences between attachment-related problems and those that mimic them in therapy.
Daily Blog
Psychopharmacology: We Can Fear It. We Can Fight it. Could We Integrate With It?
Rich Simon • 7/13/2014
Daily Blog
An adequate substitution for psychotherapy? Our Love Affair with Psychotropics
Rich Simon • 7/11/2014
In the age of Big Pharma, meds have flattened all before them in their virtual conquest of the mental health field. Over the years, antidepressants have come to be sold as virtual panaceas for just about any emotional trouble to which humans are prone. According to many observers, however, these drugs are wildly overprescribed, often for conditions that wouldn’t be captured even in DSM’s ever more capacious net.
Magazine Article
Today’s Video: Are You Asking the Right Questions?
Rich Simon • 7/10/2014
When it comes to understanding your clients’ inner world, words can only go so far. Clients can use words to tell you what they’re conscious of (“My panic attacks come from nowhere!”), but they can’t tell you what they aren’t conscious of (“My panic attacks come from a preconscious desire to avoid embarrassment.”) The unconscious, where the origins of panic and anxiety reside, isn’t easily accessed through traditional talk therapy.
Daily Blog
Today’s Video: What Secure Attachment Looks Like
Rich Simon • 7/8/2014
For those who struggle with early attachment injuries, even the presumably safe presence of the therapist can often evoke feelings of desperation, fear, and threat. Diane Poole Heller, developer of the Dynamic Attachment Re-patterning Experience model, is an expert at creating a sense of safety with even the most troubled clients.
Daily Blog
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