We've gathered Psychotherapy Networkers most popular posts and arranged them here by topic.
VIDEO: Incorporating Energy Psychology in Your Practice
Getting Clients Comfortable with Energy Psychology
It’s not within the standard protocol of talk therapy to tap on clients’ acupuncture points as they focus on a problem or goal. Even therapists convinced of the purported benefits of Energy Psychology may not know how best to present it to their clients without seeming too “out there.”
The Poetics of Progress Notes
Using Your Imagination with Tough Cases
While we're generally trained to focus on preparing notes that are clinical and objective, confining ourselves to this format severely restricts the creative potential of the process. It's interesting to consider, in fact, that although many clinicians encourage their patients to keep a journal, draft real or imaginary letters to family members, and compose poetry, few clinicians use creative writing in their own work. The act of writing is, in its most elemental form, an act of self-discovery.
Positive Aging
From a practical point of view, it would seem that growing old portends misery, not happiness. However, in spite of the harsh realities of aging, most of us believe that old age is still worthwhile. This optimistic attitude has been fueled by the Positive Psychology movement, which champions the idea that how we think about our day-to-day living shapes what it means to be happy.
Supershrinks
What's the secret of their success?
Trying to identify specific interventions that could be reliably dispensed for specific problems has a strong commonsense appeal. No one would argue with the success of the idea of problem-specific interventions in the field of medicine. But the evidence is incontrovertible. Who provides the therapy is a much more important determinant of success than what treatment approach is provided.
The Art of Therapeutic Conversation
The growing emphasis on treatment manuals and empirically validated methods is a step in the wrong direction. Yes, the public needs to be protected from quacks, and managed care organizations certainly want some assurance that their money is being spent wisely. In the final analysis, however, the effectiveness of a client-therapist pairing is a function of their collaborative dialogue--a process that resists standardization. Undoubtedly, one can specify general principles and guidelines, and therapy can be anchored in a contract that defines roles and sets boundaries. However, therapy also requires a certain creative ambiguity that can't be reduced to stock exercises or "bottled" like an antidepressant.
The Accidental Therapist
Jay Haley Didn't Set Out to Transform Psychotherapy
Jay Haley, who died earlier this year at the age of 83, was an unlikely candidate to become a founder of the early family therapy movement. An outsider to the field, he had no formal training in psychology or psychotherapy. Yet, if you ask family and brief therapists who most inspired them, chances are his name will be among the first mentioned, and if you ask which figure inspired the best arguments about therapy, you'll probably get the same result.
The Whole World Is Watching
Therapy and the TED Talk Stage
Earlier this year, therapist Michele Weiner-Davis spent hours in front of a camera, her husband patiently hitting the record button as she rehearsed for what she believed could be the most important 18 minutes of her professional career: her first TED talk.
How to Make a Group Practice Work
The Challenge of Becoming the Boss
I’m finding myself unable to take on more clients due to a full schedule, but I still want to grow my practice and finances. Would starting a group practice be a smart career move?
VIDEO: What Therapists Need to Know about the Research on Meds
Helping Clients Recognize their Treatment Options
When it comes to treating depression, neuropsychologist John Preston, author of Clinical Psychopharmacology Made Ridiculously Simple, says that psychoactive medication is only one alternative and often not the most effective. In addition to his integrative approach—which includes exercise, combating social withdrawal, family involvement, and possibly meds—he’s always on the lookout for toxic relationship issues in the client’s life.
Shedding Light on DSM-5
The View from the Trenches
While the polemical debates over the new DSM have received widespread coverage, the reactions of ordinary clinicians have yet to receive much scrutiny.
