Imagine the helplessness of being unable to distinguish painful past experiences from present ones. According to Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, this is what happens when a traumatic memory is triggered. Old emotional responses bubble up even when the current trigger has little to do with the original trauma.

It's no surprise that, with all the political infighting going on, many people are anxious about the direction of our country. But is there room to discuss political matters with clients, or does this constitute an ethical breach? According to therapist Bill Doherty, clinicians are not only well-equipped to discuss politics, but sometimes have a duty to do so. In the following video clip from his 2017 Networker Symposium Keynote address, Doherty explains how to get the ball rolling.

Psychotherapists are usually on the front lines of mental health treatment, trained to spot and assess everything from changes in mood to unusual physical reactions. But given all their expertise, why don’t more of us make judgment calls when it comes to medication? And why do so many therapists show only a perfunctory interest in the ups and downs of their clients’ reactions to psychiatric medications?

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a magic therapy wand to wave in front of our young clients and give them all the answers they need? What if this magic wand could conjure rainbow lizards and talking dogs to sit on our clients’ shoulders, bypass their defense systems, and whisper good, therapeutic advice in their ears? That’s exactly the kind of approach Charlotte Reznick uses with her young clients.

Choosing the right words to open and close therapy sessions is one of the most important skills a clinician can master. But very few of us were taught how to do it. In this video clip, Bill Doherty explains how to jump start therapy from the very first minute of the very first session.

A maverick and a visionary in the ’60s and ’70s, Salvador Minuchin transformed the very idea of what a therapist was supposed to be. Beyond that, he put forth a brand new model of psychotherapy—family therapy. In the following video clip from the 2017 Symposium dinner event celebrating Minuchin's work, renowned couples therapist Esther Perel shares her memories of working alongside Minuchin when she was just beginning work as a young therapist.

What does it take to restore physical intimacy to a failing relationship? In this video clip, Susan Johnson, the originator of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, uses bonding science to explain the one condition every relationship needs in order to repair emotional hurt and restore satisfying sex. Take a moment to watch this clip. You'll be glad you did.

According to neuropsychiatrist Dan Siegel, we've spent much of modern history thinking that physiological brain activity determines everything, and ignoring what goes on in the mind. In the following video clip from his 2017 Networker keynote, Siegel challenges us to help the mind rise above the brain's inborn, evolutionary vulnerabilities.

Joan Borysenko is something of a polymath—a licensed psychologist with a doctorate in medical sciences from Harvard Medical School, a postdoc in cancer cell biology, another in behavioral medicine. In our stressful, tech-obsessed, and data-based world, Borysenko reminds us that the nonlinear, nonquantitative wisdom of the heart and spirit is the source of peace, healing, and joy. In the following clip from her Symposium keynote, she explains how resilience is more than just "bouncing back"—it's transformative.

In the following clip from his Symposium Keynote address, William Doherty offers an expanded vision of therapy and explains why clinicians are uniquely suited to serving as “connectors and trust-builders” to address the stress and anxiety many clients—and therapists—are feeling in the current political climate.