Contributed by Lauren Dockett

59 Results
The Therapy Beat March 1, 2024

A New Generation of Analysts

Why Depth Work Still Works

Modern psychoanalysts are breaking free of old tropes, helping diverse clients and communities—and they still believe change takes time. Read more

Emotional Support Animals

Cures or Crutches?

In the last few decades, pets who offer company and calm have become therapeutic tools to help people manage their mental health. Read more

The Therapy Beat September 1, 2023

The Return of the Enneagram

A Pop-Psych Gimmick or a Path to Self-Knowledge?

The Enneagram is an ancient self-help tool that seems to be experiencing a resurgence in popularity. Does it have a place in the therapy room? Read more

Honoring the Choice to Be Single

Have We Gotten Past Our Relationship Biases?

Americans are choosing to remain single in unprecedented numbers—and contrary to commonly held assumptions in our field, they're not unhappy about it, not... Read more

Allen Frances, formerly of Duke University, wrote the clinical diagnosis for narcissistic personality disorder that first appeared in the third edition of the... Read more

Supporting Women's Voices

Carol Gilligan on Today's Patriarchy

More than 50 years after feminist psychologist Carol Gilligan's pivotal study on how women think about the choices in their lives, she speaks up about our... Read more

Fair Play at Home

Are Women Still Carrying the Heavier Load?

Eve Rodsky is on a mission: to rebalance the "mental load" that many women still unfairly shoulder in domestic life, affecting their physical health... Read more

Sexual Intimacy and the Aging Client

A Conversation with Dr. Regina Koepp

Based on her article from our September/October issue, Dr. Regina Koepp talks about how to have "the talk" with your aging couple clients. Read more

VIDEO: Wartime Trauma Treatment

An Interview with Elaine Miller-Karas

Networker sits down with Elaine Miller-Karas about the trauma resources for individuals in wartime. Read more

Senior writer Lauren Dockett speaks with feminist author and psychologist Carol Gilligan about the future of women's reproductive rights. Read more

Free Play with Neurodivergent Kids

Insights from DIRFloortime

Is there an alternative to applied behavioral analysis for children on the spectrum? Read more

The Healing Power of Community

A Conversation with Shawna Murray-Browne

Networker talks with Shawna Murray-Browne about ways to bridge racial barriers in and outside of the therapy room. Read more

Humility First

Avoiding Transcultural Overreach

There’s no recipe book when it comes to working with another culture. Read more

Couples Therapy Around the World

Putting EFT to Work in Two Cultures

With its Western focus on secure emotional bonds and demonstrative, healthy attachment in couples, how does Emotionally Focused Therapy fit into ancient and... Read more

Mental Health or Marxism?

Therapists on the Fight over Social Emotional Learning in Schools

Social-emotional learning isn’t entirely new, but as more districts emphasize the curricula in the wake of COVID, confusion from parents appears to be on the... Read more

Access for All

Tackling Therapy’s Biggest Challenge

Denise is slumped in her chair, declaring that she’s not a believer in therapy. A middle-aged, Indigenous, transgender woman, she’s heard too many bullshit... Read more

“Everything Mike Touches Turns to Fun”

A Paean for Psychotherapy Networker’s Epic Sweetheart

Funny and flagrantly caring in a way the muttering writers and editors around him can only marvel at, Mike’s long been the company’s warmest heart, always... Read more

"Networker Live" with Frank Anderson

Parenting During a Pandemic

The Networker's senior writer, Lauren Dockett, sat down for a live conversation and Q&A with psychiatrist, therapist, and program consultant at the IFS... Read more

Families Under Pressure

Helping Relieve Today’s Parents & Kids

The pandemic has created an emotional petri dish for kids and parents who are stuck in place, terribly stressed, and feeling alone. How are families supposed... Read more

Overeating Issues in Quarantine?

How to Relate To Food and Weight Now and Let the Shame Go

When COVID-19 hit and many of us began stocking up on food and sheltering in place, I grew deeply concerned for my clients. How were they going to handle the... Read more

The Agreement

Tackling a Teachable Moment on Race

In the days after George Floyd’s murder, and amidst their work to address gang-related trauma and violence, a white therapist and her Black cofacilitator... Read more

Confronting Inherited Trauma

My Journey into Family Constellations

Every clinical approach has its stories of sudden, life-changing breakthroughs. But a relatively obscure therapeutic school called Family Constellations... Read more

The Addict in All of Us

Gabor Maté's Unflinching Vision

Canadian physician Gabor Maté believes that addictive behaviors are woven into the very fabric of our materialistic society. Read more

What We Need is Awe

Cultivating Wonder in a Time of Lockdown

Feelings of awe can have strongly prosocial effects and provide us with an existential and lasting sense of calm. Building our capacity for awe could not only... Read more

A Need for Speed?

How Therapists Can Meet a Growing Demand

The push in popular culture to raise awareness about mental health means more and more people are seeking help. With resources limited, often where they’re... Read more

VIDEO: Helping Teen Clients Make Good Decisions

...And What to Do When They Talk About Risky Behavior

Are teen clients entitled to confidentiality? How should therapists discuss confidentiality with their teen clients? What’s the therapist’s role... Read more

VIDEO: Handling Microaggressions in Therapy

An Eight-Step Process for Talking About It With Your Clients

Let's say your client lets a microaggression slip during a session. Do you bring it up? Therapist and author Anatasia Kim shares her eight-step process for... Read more

Walk and Talk

Psychotherapy Takes a Stroll

What if a park bench was your waiting room, and nature your co-therapist? A growing group of practitioners, who stroll with their clients not just every once... Read more

VIDEO: Continuing to See Kids for Therapy as They Age

...And Why They Need Ongoing Connection Now More Than Ever

When therapists work with anxious kids and their families, they’re often solving immediate problems, not envisioning a clinical relationship that could last... Read more

High Times in Therapy

Are We Ready to Talk Pot?

Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have legalized medicinal or recreational marijuana, or both. But sizeable protests against legalization are... Read more

VIDEO: Why EMDR Works

What Therapists Need to Know to Treat Trauma Effectively

While EMDR is best known for the treatment of PTSD, it’s evolved into a comprehensive, attachment-based approach that addresses a broad range of clinical... Read more

VIDEO: Becoming a "Citizen Therapist"

Working Beyond the Consulting Room

How does your work as a therapist contribute to the wider world? It’s a question couples and family therapist Bill Doherty asks his colleagues... Read more

VIDEO: What Therapists Need to Know About Polyvagal Theory

...And How to Use Safe Touch in Therapy

Although many therapists are wary of it, using touch in therapy can have a huge impact on your clients’ healing processes. Here, Deb Dana, author of The... Read more

The Inheritance Within

Coming Face to Face with Our Ancestors

For decades, Bert Hellinger and his Family Constellations approach have been a lightning rod for controversy. But the latest research on epigenetics and the... Read more

Fully Present Sex

How Mindfulness Can Heighten Desire, Arousal, and Satisfaction

When sex becomes fraught or painful, fear and worries can overtake this important source of pleasure. But clinicians and clients are embracing a nonmedical... Read more

VIDEO: Breaking Rigid Thinking Around Intimacy

A Three-Part Solution for Couples Therapy

Sex therapist Suzanne Iasenza talks about a three-part process that helps couples free themselves from the rigid narratives about sex that keep them from... Read more

Symposium Highlight April 17, 2019

VIDEO: Therapists Getting Real and Going Public

The Power of Transparency in the New Marketing Landscape

How can therapists reduce stigma around getting mental health treatment? When it comes to marketing your practice, how much personal information should you be... Read more

VIDEO: Using the Arts in Trauma Treatment

Expressive Art Therapist Cathy Malchiodi Weighs In

Psychotherapy Networker’s Lauren Dockett speaks with influential art and expressive art therapist Cathy Malchiodi about the broadening of her her field, how... Read more

From Margin to Mainstream

Peter Levine’s Bottom-Up Approach to Healing

Body psychotherapy, once shrouded in controversy, has gained growing acceptance in the wider field. So how do these popular bottom-up approaches actually work? Read more

VIDEO: Addressing Climate Fears in Therapy

Moving Clients from Paralysis into Action

In the following interview, ecotherapist Patricia Hasbach explains how practitioners can address the rise in eco-anxiety and depression. Read more

VIDEO: Talking Race in Psychotherapy

Deran Young’s Call for Action

Deran Young of Black Therapists Rock talks to Psychotherapy Networker’s Lauren Dockett about what the field can do to fight professional isolation and... Read more

VIDEO: The 3 Keys to Helping Clients Navigate Sexual Problems

You Don't Need to Be an Expert to Help Clients Get "Dumb and Happy"

Sex and relationship therapist Stephen Snyder talks with Psychotherapy Networker's Lauren Dockett about three simple things to do when you find yourself... Read more

American seniors suffer disproportionately from mental health issues and suicide. And many, these days, are having trouble getting the therapy they need... Read more

The Therapy Beat December 26, 2018

The Rise of Eco-Anxiety

Climate Change and Therapy

Dire climate reports and grim environmental realities are generating a new kind of eco-anxiety. What can therapists do? Read more

The Masculinity Paradox

An Interview with Esther Perel

The #MeToo movement has returned the field to many of the issues feminists raised decades ago. This time, however, there’s a new focus on avoiding... Read more

Psychologist and speaker Michael Alcée says therapists need to pay more attention to the introverts in their practice, to help them manage their anxiety and... Read more

The Man Who Became an Adjective

No One Writes about Psychology Like Malcolm Gladwell

No one writes about psychology with more irresistible readability—and book sales—than 2019 Symposium featured speaker Malcolm Gladwell. Read more

VIDEO: Dafna Lender on Harnessing Your Social Engagement System

Strategies for Building the Therapeutic Alliance More Easily

We all know therapists who seem magically able to establish a powerful sense of trust and connection with even the most distrusting clients. But are there... Read more

Supreme Testimony

What Christine Blasey Ford Could Mean for Survivors

By Lauren Dockett - As trauma specialist Mary Jo Barrett explains, Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony has been empowering for many survivors of sexual... Read more

VIDEO: Doing Therapy with MDMA

A Chat with Pioneer Marcela Ot'alora G.

What's it like to be a therapist on the front lines of treating trauma with MDMA? Psychotherapist Marcela Ot'alora G., a principal investigator in... Read more

Therapy’s Psychedelic Renaissance

A Different Kind of Healing Journey

It’s been nearly 30 years since SSRIs came on the scene, but despite their ubiquity and pairing with a variety of talk- and body-centered treatments, the... Read more

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, men are reevaluating the way they approach courtship, relationships, gender roles, and love. Their therapists must switch... Read more

Athletes Get Real About Mental Health

What’s Behind the Recent Slew of Confessional Essays?

A growing list of professional athletes have begun going public with personal mental health concerns all on their own. They contain unflinchingly honest... Read more

Silent and Confused

Opening Conversations with Men in the Wake of #MeToo

Most men publicly support #MeToo, but privately—very privately, often too privately even to share with their intimate partners—some are disoriented and... Read more

Therapists Talk Gun Violence

Brainstorming Ways to Make a Difference

As an estimated half-a-million protestors poured into downtown Washington, DC for the March for Our Lives, therapists who were in town for their field’s... Read more

#MeTooManyTimes

How the Latest Movement Against Sexual Predation is Rattling Some Therapy Clients

Many therapists who specialize in sexual abuse and trauma are reporting that the #MeToo movement and the ongoing accusations of sexual assault and harassment... Read more

Who's Steering the Boat?

Navigating Therapy with Today's Clients

Today’s clients are shifting out of their customary position of mannerly deference and asserting far more specifically what they want—and don’t... Read more

Everywhere at Once

Esther Perel Is Becoming Therapy's Most Visible Presence

By questioning some of the fundamental premises of traditional marriage, couples therapist Esther Perel has become, at least for the moment, psychotherapy’s... Read more

Loving Our Devices

When Does Attraction Turn into Addiction?

More and more therapists, regardless of how they feel about internet addiction as a diagnosis, are advising clients about the healthy use of their digital... Read more

Lauren Dockett

Lauren Dockett, MS, is the senior writer at Psychotherapy Networker. A longtime journalist, journalism lecturer, and book and magazine editor, she’s also a former caseworker taken with the complexity of mental health, who finds the ongoing evolution of the therapy field and its broadening reach an engrossing story. Prior to the Networker, she contributed to many outlets, including The Washington Post, NPR, and Salon. Her books include Facing 30, Sex Talk, and The Deepest Blue. Visit her website at laurendockett.com.