We've gathered Psychotherapy Networkers most popular posts and arranged them here by topic.
Mindful Meditation for the Therapist
Dan Siegel Embarks On a Vipassana Meditation Retreat
I'm flying from Los Angeles to Boston for a week-long meditation retreat, and I'm feeling nervous. For the next seven days, I'll be sitting in silence with 100 other scientists at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. The event is unique: when before have 100 scientists, most of whom specialize in studying the brain, gathered together to sit in silence for a week and learn "mindfulness meditation"? As a therapist, I know that teaching mindful awareness can markedly improve physical and mental well-being. Still, I have no background in meditation, my mind is always busily running on at least 10 cylinders, and I've never been known for my taciturnity.
The Mind-Body Magic of Jon Kabat-Zinn
One Man's Quest to Bring Therapeutic Mindfulness to Medicine
In 1966, Jon Kabat-Zinn, a graduate student in molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spotted a flyer advertising a talk about Zen. Today, nearly 40 years after that portentous afternoon talk, Kabat-Zinn is acknowledged as one of the pioneers in mind-body medicine---a field that integrates ancient spiritual traditions like yoga and meditation with mainstream medical practice. In 1979, Kabat-Zinn established the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, the first center in the country to use meditation and yoga with patients suffering from intractable pain and chronic illness.
The Rebirth of Borderline Personality Disorder Treatment
How Marsha Linehan Revolutionized Therapy with DBT
For decades, most clinicians who had a choice avoided borderline clients, while agency staff (who couldn't) went through the motions with a sense of futility. Therapy consisted of guarding against "manipulation" and mining the borderline's reactions to the therapist for clues to her fragmented inner world. It was hard on clients---and on therapists as well. Then, in 1991, a behavioral psychologist and Zen student at the University of Washington named Marsha Linehan introduced an alternative. Her treatment was called Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT.
VIDEO: Focusing Techniques in Therapy
A New Practice of Inner Listening
How can you more effectively work with a client whose emotions have become all-consuming?
According to Joan Klagsbrun, author of Focusing-Oriented Art Therapy, Focusing techniques are especially effective for helping distressed clients navigate their inner repository of memories, feelings, emotions, and bodily sensations.
According to Joan Klagsbrun, author of Focusing-Oriented Art Therapy, Focusing techniques are especially effective for helping distressed clients navigate their inner repository of memories, feelings, emotions, and bodily sensations.
VIDEO: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Your Practice
Exploring Sensations with Mindfulness Techniques
Clients who struggle with PTSD, depression, and other stress-related conditions may have a tough time staying engaged in the consulting room. No matter how lively your approach may be, their minds are likely to wander.
A Week of Silence
Quieting the Mind and Liberating the Self
I'm flying from Los Angeles to Boston for a week-long meditation retreat, and I'm feeling nervous. For the next seven days, I'll be sitting in silence with 100 other scientists at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, at an event sponsored by the Mind and Life Institute, an organization devoted to the scientific study of mindfulness and compassion. The event is unique: when before have 100 scientists, most of whom specialize in studying the brain, gathered together to sit in silence for a week and learn "mindfulness meditation"?
Revolution on the Horizon
DBT Challenges the Borderline Diagnosis
DBT was no walk in the park: it required team treatment, including weekly individual therapy, a year-long "skills training" class, telephone coaching and supportive supervision for the therapist. But it offered clients and therapists alike a way out of chaos--a systematic clinical package that integrated the technical and analytical strengths of behaviorism, the subtleties of Zen training, the warmth and acceptance of relationship-centered therapies and the often undervalued power of psychoeducation.
