Editor's Note
Rich Simon • 12/28/2015
Overall, putting together the new video course and the magazine issue was an oddly touching experience, because I felt that there was a deep sense of camaraderie, common discovery, and shared vulnerability. I had the sense that whether we felt uncomfortable, exhilarated, or just fascinated by what is, after all, an endlessly fascinating topic, we were all in this project together. And by “this project,” I mean not just our exploration of sex, but the whole human project.
Daily Blog
We're Older. Are We Better?
Rich Simon • 3/22/2015
There’s been a decline in the public’s utilization of psychotherapy as a consequence of the rise of what might be called the Gang of Three: DSM, Big Pharma, and Managed Care. Today, we appear to be an atomized and poorly organized field that’s lost economic ground to other approaches promising mental health consumers improved wellbeing. But while recognizing the missed opportunities and missteps we’ve made as a profession, the contributors to our latest issue of the Networker also point to what we need to do to make a more concerted and effective stand to reclaim lost territory.
Daily Blog
Jack Kornfield on Practicing Mindfulness in the Therapy Room
Rich Simon • 2/20/2015
What exactly is it that mindfulness helps bring into focus that our other theories and methods of therapeutic practice haven’t already addressed? For an answer to that question, we asked Jack Kornfield---Buddhist teacher, psychotherapist, and someone who’s been at the forefront of those helping Westerners grasp Eastern spiritual concepts and practices since the 1970s. In this interview, he describes how ritual---what he calls the experience of the sacred---and a concern with the larger mystery of our lives can deepen the therapeutic encounter.
Daily Blog
The Father of MBSR Reflects on Mindfulness Today
Rich Simon • 2/6/2015
On the 10th anniversary of the publication of Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World, Jon Kabat-Zinn will be the keynote speaker at the 2015 Networker Symposium this March in Washington, DC. He’ll explore the connection between the intensely private experience of living a meditative life and responding to the vast deluge of global and social problems we collectively face. In this interview, he explains the concept of mindfulness, how to practice it, and its role in the world today.
Daily Blog
Mindfulness Goes Big Time
Rich Simon • 1/25/2015
Daily Blog
Exploring a Hidden Epidemic
Rich Simon • 11/16/2014
In spite of profound historical changes that make us more vulnerable to depression, the entire mental health establishment still regards the condition much as it did more than two decades ago---as an individual problem, confined within an individual skull, best approached with individual therapies or nostrums. In the face of massive evidence that “individual” depression is really a vast social and cultural problem inextricably linked to the habits, mores, and expectations of our era, our tunnel vision is remarkably unchanged. So why do we continually use a relentlessly individualized remedy to fight a socially mediated disorder?
Daily Blog
Please tell us what information you really need
Rich Simon • 10/26/2014
A year ago today, we launched the Networker Daily—a blog that we hoped would be a source of digital caffeine for therapists every morning. We wanted to strengthen the sense of connection we already have with you and, along the way, inform, educate, and inspire the whole Networker community with news of the latest happenings in Therapy World. Now it’s 12 months and over 300 blogs later. While we’ve received plenty of fan mail, we’ve also gotten more than a few signals that we’ve provided too much of a good thing.
Daily Blog
Reducing Arousal with Meds
Rich Simon • 10/1/2014
Have you ever had a new client come to a first session and announce—with a formality that seems right out of the DSM—exactly what his diagnosis is? Perhaps this client is also certain about what symptoms are the result of a “chemical imbalance” and thus can be immediately treated with medication, not therapy. He may be willing to talk about some things in therapy, like his job or his marriage—but in terms of his anxiety, that’s what the pills are for.
Daily Blog
Making Clients Active Participants in their Healing Journey
Rich Simon • 9/15/2014
Want to instill hope in your depressed clients? According to Jim Gordon, author of Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven Stage Journey out of Depression, you can start by reinforcing the idea that antidepressants aren’t always necessary for recovery.
Daily Blog
Is There a Crisis of Pseudo-Connection in Today’s Families?
Rich Simon • 9/14/2014
Has the time come to consider the whether modern families lack some of the intimate connections they used to have? And, if so, what can we as therapists do about it?
Daily Blog