We've gathered Psychotherapy Networkers most popular posts and arranged them here by topic.
Passionate Marriage
Helping Couples Decode the Language of Their Sexuality
Over the years, I've worked with many couples who complain bitterly that the other kisses or touches, fondles, caresses, strokes the "wrong" way. I used to take these complaints at face value, trying to help the couple solve their problems through various forms of marital bargaining, until I realized that their sexual dissatisfactions didn't stem from ignorance, ineptitude, or a "failure to communicate." Instead of trying to spackle over these normal and typical "dysfunctional" sexual patterns with a heavy coat of how-to lessons, I have learned that it makes much more sense to help the couple analyze their behavior, to look for the meaning of what they were already doing before they focused on changing the mechanics.
Treating Complex Depression Symptoms with Bill O’Hanlon’s “Exceptions" Technique
Rarely is someone always depressed, or always empty, or always without energy, or always suicidal. If you (or the person you’re helping) explores exceptions to the usual problem, feeling, or thought, you can usually find moments when it’s not occurring. A lot can be learned from these exceptions that may be helpful in finding relief from the depression.
20 Weeks of Happiness
Can a Course in Positive Psychology Change Your Life?
Today, Positive Psychology, as popularized by former American Psychological Association president and bestselling author Martin Seligman, is taking folk wisdom and Greek philosophy, mixing them with solid contemporary research on joy, optimism, satisfaction, contentment, forgiveness, and gratitude, and popularizing the result as scientifically validated fact. The result, they hope, will be a new take on psychology, at once Victorian and scientific.
Hungry for Connection
10 Ways to Improve Your Therapy with Adolescent Girls
Working with girls in therapy is what I do with the greatest interest and passion. Like many female therapists who have this specialty, I had my own tough times as a teenager. I have wells of empathy to draw on, and can stay attuned with them more easily than with males, or females of other ages. Our bond is implicit, and by being as fully authentic, connected, and present as I know how, I help them make it explicit. Thus the thoughts that follow are largely informed by my 20-odd years of experience treating adolescent girls and their families. They synthesize what's helped me forge alliances with them quickly and inspire change.
VIDEO: Alternatives to Prescribing Meds for Children and Teens
The Need for Treading Softly with Meds and Children
Sometimes psychoactive medication can work wonders with agitated young clients in the throes of a psychological emergency. But psychiatrist Robert Hedaya, an expert in alternative psychotherapy and founder of the Whole Psychiatry methodology, is concerned with how little we know about the effects of meds on the brains of children and teens.
VIDEO: Breathing Techniques that Reduce Anxiety and Stress Quickly
Integrate this Powerful Mood-Regulating Technique into Your Work
Are you at a loss when it comes to helping your high-strung, distressed clients? Maybe you’ve made some progress in helping your clients reduce anxiety, but think they could do even better with the right techniques.
When the Pursuit of Happiness Backfires
Beware of What You Wish For
Happy people are more likely to be social, exploratory, inventive, and healthy. It’s a short logical jump from there to the idea that happiness provides an evolutionary advantage. It’s no wonder that happiness is often touted as a panacea. In fact, happiness seems so valuable that it’s sometimes difficult to imagine that it has any downsides. But the pursuit of happiness often backfires, ending in unhappiness.
Satori in the Bedroom
Tantra and the Dilemma of Western Sexuality
Many of us enter the bedroom now as if we have been told we are about to play a high-stakes game. There is no rule book, or else it's been hidden. Everyone else, we think, knows how to play. We charge down the field. We pass the ball. A whistle blows. The rules have changed. We are given five different rule books and told to choose one that suits us. (We have no idea what book the other team is playing from.) Bleeding from the shin, we strap on our battered equipment again and once more run down the field.
The Evolution of Modern Sex Therapy
Twenty years after the sexual revolution, in the most sexually explicit culture in the world, a surprisingly large number of people continue to have difficulties with the sexual basics. Psychoanalytic therapy had little to offer them beyond symbolic explorations of their upbringings and "Oedipal" conflicts. But modern sex therapy consists mainly of counseling and "homework" in which new experiences are tried and new skills practiced.
VIDEO: When Meds Pave the Way for Successful Therapy
Reducing Arousal with Meds
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.
