Contributed by Rich Simon

282 Results

Covering Psychotherapy

The Evolution of a Life's Work

Every decade, on the anniversary of the Networker, Rich reflected on the trends and trajectories he’d witnessed in the field. This piece tells the story, in... Read more

Esther Perel on Adapting to Uncertainty

And How Relationships Are Changing in a Pandemic

There’s a profound change occurring in our relationship to space. In working remotely, it feels at times like we’re doing home visits. In video calls, we... Read more

The overwhelming shift to teletherapy this year represents the first wave of a sea change in the field of therapy—nothing less. We’ll need to marshal all... Read more

How can therapists of all races and ethnicities support their clients of color in voicing their experiences of racial oppression and naming what they need to... Read more

Dealing with Cybertrance Mindfully

Tara Brach Shares a Personal Story

With so much of our lives being conducted in front of screens right now, it can be easy to lose sight of the world around us, and this can make for some tough... 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 is it like for the more than six million women in the U.S. who face reproductive challenges? In simpler terms, what happens when you want a baby but... Read more

The stories in this issue are notable not only for their therapeutic wisdom, but also for their authors’ capacity to connect with us in a time of... Read more

Something’s afoot in the therapy world, and some clinicians will surely wrinkle their brows at it. Although it comes in various forms, the catchiest term for... Read more

Esther Perel traces the development of her approach and the wider response to her ideas about sexuality and intimacy. Read more

VIDEO: Facing Difficult Emotions

Tara Brach on the Power of Deliberate Practice

Our brain has hundreds of strategies for resisting emotional pain. But according to psychologist and renowned Buddhist Tara Brach, resisting pain... Read more

VIDEO: The Power of Predictability

The Cornerstone of a Strong Therapeutic Alliance

Providing familiarity and predictability is one of our greatest tools in therapy, and can provide much-needed comfort to clients who aren't used to it... Read more

The pace of our daily schedules can make it hard to look up from our appointment apps and ponder the bigger picture: Why are we doing this thing called... Read more

VIDEO: What Keeps Clients Coming Back?

The Power of Transparency

In today’s Information Age, therapy clients are more informed—and have greater expectations up front—when it comes to the look and feel of therapy... Read more

Many of us overlook our physical environments, and perhaps especially our work spaces, which may be so familiar that we no longer really see them. In this... Read more

VIDEO: Esther Perel on Speaking About Sex

Getting Comfortable in Couples Therapy

Many traditional approaches to couples therapy are built on the assumption that if you help a couple clear up the emotional issues in their relationship, sex... Read more

Bessel van der Kolk assesses the importance and possible impact of the growing psychedelic-therapy movement. Read more

VIDEO: Learning to Let Go of Trauma

Bessel van der Kolk on the Power of Creating a Narrative

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... Read more

The dimensions of the opioid epidemic are staggering, and the national conversation around drug abuse has begun to change. Today, more and more voices are... Read more

Fighting the Epidemic

An Interview with the Author of Dopesick

An interview with Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, on solution-oriented journalism and creative ways of confronting the opioid crisis. Read more

VIDEO: The Biggest Threat to Remarried Boomers

Helping Partners Deal with Stepfamilies

Successfully combining families as part of remarriage is always challenging. But it's especially hard when older re-couplers have adult children, who may or... Read more

VIDEO: Steve Andreas on Heading Off Resistance

What to Do in the Very First Session

When both client and therapist are unclear about the source of resistance, it can bring treatment to a halt. Renowned therapist Steve Andreas believes that... Read more

For a long while, most of us thought we had the signs and signals of teenage girls down: the growing obsession with friends, the pain of peer rejection, the... Read more

How both therapy and the challenges adolescents face have changed in the digital age. Read more

VIDEO: David Burns on Overcoming Resistance

Exploring Why Clients Might Not Want to Change

Do you have a client who you can't seem to help, no matter what techniques you try? In this brief video, master clinician David Burns—one of the developers... Read more

VIDEO: Helping Kids Find the Answers Inside

Here's a Fun Exercise That Gets Your Young Clients Involved

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... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 6, 2019

In the true tales published in this issue, the storytellers made a leap of faith, dropping all pretense of professional omniscience and trusting their... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 6, 2019

Therapy in a Challenging World

Highlights from Symposium 2019

Rich Simon, Networker editor, tried to highlight the role therapists can play in a world so turned upside down that "crazy has become the new normal." Read more

For many years after, body therapy remained a semi-underground movement within the field. Now increasing numbers of clinicians are utilizing highly... Read more

VIDEO: Susan Johnson on the Power of Emotion in Couples Work

The Behavior Patterns That Kill Romance, and How to Beat Them

Susan Johnson explains how attachment science can help couples discover a pathway to optimal lovemaking. Read more

VIDEO: Jack Kornfield on the Role of Ritual in Clinical Practice

Simple Rituals Can Help You Be Fully Present with Clients in Pain

It can be difficult to leave your emotions in the consulting room at the end of the day, especially when a client's story is heartbreaking or horrifying. But... Read more

VIDEO: Esther Perel on How to Talk with Men About Intimacy

Framing Intimacy as a Regular Part of Life

It's not always easy to get men to talk about intimacy and sex. But according to renowned sex therapist and author Esther Perel, there's a way to weave... Read more

For many traumatized clients, even beginning to explore a traumatic event can be an act of bravery. According to therapist and trauma expert Janina Fisher, in... Read more

According to trauma specialist Peter Levine, the body is the therapist's greatest tool in helping clients understand and heal from a traumatic event. So... Read more

In this issue, we hear from therapists who are moving beyond the confines of their offices to work with traumatized communities with enormous needs and few... 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

VIDEO: Peter Levine's Somatic Tools for Self-Soothing

Creating a Path to Client Independence

Often, traumatized clients find that they become dependent on their therapists to help them handle their extreme emotional states. But according to Peter... Read more

Here, we focus on today’s young adults (many of whom bristle at the label millennials). Not only have they ushered in many of the changes taking place in the... 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: Dan Siegel on Engaging Teen Clients

They're More Interested in Brain Science Than You Think

Dan Siegel knows that nobody—especially an angst-filled teenager—likes being told what to do. That’s why he takes a more roundabout approach to... Read more

When I first heard about the growing research on the therapeutic use of psychedelics to treat trauma, I was frankly a bit bemused. But it’s been hard to... Read more

As a researcher and outspoken advocate for therapeutic innovation, Bessel van der Kolk has been as influential as anyone in shaping the landscape of trauma... Read more

The Challenge of Psychedelic Therapy

How It Could Change Your Practice

With his latest book, How to Change Your Mind, noted author Michael Pollan has drawn a comprehensive portrait of the growing psychedelic therapy movement. In... Read more

VIDEO: When is It Trauma? Bessel van der Kolk Explains

Is Your Client Traumatized? For the Answer, Look to the Body

Often we hear things from clients like “My relationship ending was so traumatic for me,” or “When my uncle passed away, I was totally traumatized.”... Read more

VIDEO: What to Do When Your Client Cries

Making Tears Your Therapeutic Ally

Many times, when clients cry, clinicians feel an urge to rush in and “fix things” that aren’t broken, which can actually make things worse. Watch as Jay... Read more

VIDEO: How Symptoms Reveal the Path to Growth

IFS Developer Richard Schwartz on Befriending the Inner "Protector"

Often, our attitudes toward anxiety symptoms are misguided, says Richard Schwartz, the originator of Internal Family Systems. By understanding responses... Read more

VIDEO: Why Not All Mental Health Problems Are Psychological

Minding the Body Means More Than Just Taking a Pill

Most therapists recognize that physiological processes hugely influence emotion and behavior. But according to psychiatrist Robert Hedaya, too many tend to... Read more

VIDEO: Why We Need to Talk with Psychiatrists

How Being “On Call” Keeps Kids from Falling through the Cracks

According to therapist Ron Taffel, author of Breaking Through to Teens, kids who need the extra boost from medication need their therapists to go the extra... Read more

We may look back on June 2018 as a tide-turning moment in public awareness of severe depression for reasons virtually all of us hate. In this issue, we... Read more

Taking on the largely unnamed complexities of the #MeToo movement for men, this issue explores how therapists can help men respond to women’s experiences in... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 9, 2018

The Symposium and the Psychology of Shopping

Highlights from Symposium 2018

In Networker editor Rich Simon’s introduction to the conference, he likened it to a deeply stimulating marketplace of ideas, where clinicians get an expanded... Read more

Symposium Highlight March 21, 2018

VIDEO: Tara Brach on Awakening from the Cybertrance

Dealing with the Challenges to Mindfulness in a Digital World

It should come as no surprise that, in our culture, immersion in cyber activities far outpace the interest in mindfulness. But how do you deal with the... Read more

Increasingly, therapists are becoming important players in a new era of more conscious aging, as more people make their way to our offices with issues related... Read more

VIDEO: What Infidelity Looks Like

All Types of Cheating Have This in Common

Of course, sexual affairs are red flags for infidelity, but there are common elements that make any outside relationship an infidelity. Sex therapist Tammy... Read more

Symposium Highlight January 31, 2018

VIDEO: Tony Robbins on “The Art of Fulfillment”

Being Content Doesn’t Have to Mean Choosing Happiness Over Success

The bad news? We all have a two-million-year-old brain that keeps us constantly anxious and self-critical. The good news? It doesn’t have to define who we... Read more

VIDEO: How to Think Scientifically about Medications

Why Having a Hypothesis Works for the Non-Medical Therapist

Despite the increasing popularity of psychiatric meds as the go-to remedy for everything from seasonal depression to social anxiety, drugs are often not the... Read more

VIDEO: Why Anticipating Relapse Is Our Best Defense Against It

How to Mobilize the Client’s Support System

It’s always cause for celebration when depressed clients nears the finish line of treatment, feeling energized, empowered, and more content with their life... Read more

Three decades ago, doing therapy was a relatively uncomplicated affair. After graduate school, you set up shop as a family therapist, a psychodynamic healer... Read more

Remembering Salvador Minuchin

A Networker Tribute

To be a young, intellectually curious therapist in the 1960s and ’70s was to fall under the spell of the new systems practitioners, who were redefining what... Read more

VIDEO: What's the Difference Between Brain and Mind? Dan Siegel Explains

The Distinctions between Neuroscience and Psychotherapy

With all the buzz about brain science, is it possible to lose sight of the mind? Dan Siegel, a pioneer in the applications of brain science to psychotherapy... Read more

VIDEO: Helen Fisher on the Truth about Adultery

Match.com's Scientific Advisor Weighs In

In a world of new and emerging norms about commitment, intimacy, the right to personal happiness, and open relationships are there also new patterns? Has the... Read more

Symposium Highlight November 22, 2017

VIDEO: Tony Robbins on Overcoming Limitations

Leading Yourself and Your Clients to Greatness

According to life strategist and bestselling author Tony Robbins, there may be more that therapists can do to help clients create the life they want, rather... Read more

Symposium Highlight November 2, 2017

VIDEO: Tony Robbins on “The Absolute Truth” of Change

…And Why We Need to “Update the Software”

Peak performance strategist Tony Robbins says he operates from a simple premise—if a person shows up looking for your help, it means they want to change. And... Read more

In this issue, we take a stab at understanding this larger social phenomenon, a perilous downward spiral of faultfinding that we might call the National Blame... Read more

A Q & A with Tony Robbins

A Personal Look at his Biggest Challenge

What it’s like to be the focus of so many people’s hopes and expectations for how they might change their lives? Read more

Symposium Highlight November 1, 2017

Ever wish you could bring about change in your clients faster? Life and business strategist and 2018 Symposium presenter Tony Robbins says it’s easier than... Read more

Symposium Highlight November 1, 2017

VIDEO: The Tony Robbins' Key to the Process of Change

How Much Does Your Particular Approach Really Matter?

What do all good therapeutic techniques have in common? In the following video clip from his interview with Networker Editor Rich Simon, peak performance... Read more

Symposium Highlight November 1, 2017

VIDEO: Tony Robbins on the Power of Love, "the Ultimate Weapon"

How to Help Your Client Master the Dance Between Fear and Desire

What do life coaches and therapists have in common? According to renowned life and business strategist Tony Robbins, plenty. In this clip from his interview... Read more

VIDEO: How to Broach the Subject of Medication with Kids

When Is It Necessary? An Expert Explains.

Given the stigma still attached to psychiatric drugs, it’s no surprise that today’s kids might have reservations about taking them. But as a specialist in... Read more

VIDEO: Stepfamilies: Great for Parents, Grief for Kids?

Patricia Papernow On The Double-Reality New Stepfamilies Face

Patricia Papernow, an expert in working with stepfamilies, helps us understand the fundamental issues and unique hurdles most stepfamilies must navigate. Read more

This issue doesn’t try to resolve all the myriad challenges of couples work. Instead, it opens up a conversation about the things couples therapists rarely... 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

VIDEO: Lisa Ferentz on Planting the Seeds for Post-Traumatic Growth

Removing the Glass Ceiling for Trauma Survivors

It’s not always easy to tell trauma survivors in the midst of deep suffering that one day they’ll find meaning in what happened to them. But according to... Read more

VIDEO: Ron Potter-Efron on Helping Clients with Anger Problems

"Building a Bridge" from the Old Brain to the New Brain

Is it possible to overcome the typical oppositional response of a client with anger issues? According to Ron Potter-Efron, the key to working effectively with... Read more

VIDEO: Ken Hardy on Getting Through to Inner City Youth

Helping Traumatized Kids Discover Their Inner Resources

In its coverage of race-related discord, the media has fixed on lurid images of violence and destruction without providing much context for understanding the... Read more

Even if the diagnosis of “internet addiction” is legitimate (and many experts think it isn't), surely it can't apply to the billions of people on the... Read more

Psychotherapists are usually on the front lines of mental health treatment, trained to spot and assess everything from changes in mood to unusual physical... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 8, 2017

The Courage to Connect

Highlights from the 2017 Symposium

Year after year, therapists have come to the Networker Symposium expecting to escape the turbulence of everyday life and the real world. But this year... Read more

Editor's Note: May/June 2017

Thoughts on Storytelling

These days, when psychotherapy is supposed to be “evidence based” and “empirically validated,” standardized and manualized up the wazoo, therapists... Read more

VIDEO: Combining Trauma Treatment with Family Therapy

Making Sure Treatment Sticks Outside the Therapy Room

Far too often, trauma survivors appear to progress in therapy and then go home and fall right back into the same old patterns of negative emotion and... Read more

In spite of what seems to be as many different therapy methods as stars in the sky, and in spite of reams of outcome studies, no empirically studied model... Read more

We all want to build strong relationships with our clients, but when working with adolescents, don’t overdo the empathy, says therapist Janet Edgette... Read more

According to Dan Siegel, understanding the connection between the brain and the miraculously various operations of the human mind and body is the first step in... Read more

VIDEO: A Breathing Antidote for Stress Responses

A Six-Minute Exercise for Overcoming Stress

Our depressed clients don’t only exhibit their symptoms through speech and vocal tone. You see them in their body language too—in slouching torsos, folded... Read more

VIDEO: Maggie Phillips on the Four Levels of Traumatic Pain

Exploring an Uncommon Side Effect of Trauma

When Maggie Phillips and Peter Levine co-authored Freedom from Pain, they aimed to explore what’s been missing from the field’s treatment of chronic... Read more

This look back at the last 40 years of this magazine and our profession comes at a time when we could all use perspective on what we’ve learned from the... Read more

Turns in the Road

Highlights from the Networker Journey

Out of all the hundreds and hundreds of articles that have appeared in the Networker over the past four decades, we’ve chosen a small sampling that captures... Read more

In this issue, our contributors reveal, in ways that were all quite stunning to me, the magnitude and vast social implications—for us and our profession—of... Read more

Living Brave

From Vulnerability to Daring

With millions of people having seen her TED talks and read her books, researcher and bestselling author Brené Brown is a phenomenon. But aside from her... Read more

Clearly, therapists must always respond with empathy, understanding, and attuned clinical expertise to clients’ suffering. But the theme of this issue is... Read more

Today, with all the presumed advances therapists have made in reducing mental suffering from previously untreatable conditions, is there a solution, a cure, a... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 6, 2016

At this year's Symposium, we invited veteran therapists to tell their true stories of their “most unforgettable session,” and those stories are the focus... Read more

VIDEO: Making the Case for the Emotional Man

Pat Love Explains Why We Need to Rethink the "Empathy Gap"

Have you ever wondered if some men in your practice are simply unable to listen, connect, and empathize with their partners? According to Pat Love, it’s more... Read more

VIDEO: When One Partner Wants Out

Discernment Counseling for the Mixed-Agenda Couple

In at least 30 percent of couples who come to therapy, partners enter the consulting room with different agendas---one wants a divorce, the other wants to save... Read more

VIDEO: Attuning to Reluctant Teens

Getting Through to Shut-Down Kids

Most therapists are aware of the perils of trying to connect with teenage clients. Teens are often brought to therapy against their will by adults, which can... Read more

I found talking to the transgender kids and their parents that I interviewed for this issue not only enlightening and educational, which I expected, but also... Read more

VIDEO: Using Yoga to Calm the Revved-Up Client

The Yoga Breath’s Universal Application

Rich Simon interviews Amy Weintraub about the use of yoga in therapy. Read more

VIDEO: Susan Johnson on Attachment Issues in the Bedroom

How to Help Couples Have "Hold Me Tight" Conversations

In a brief video, Susan explains how to create moments of emotional sharing so deep that they automatically translate into couples' lives. Read more

I suspect that no matter how sophisticated we become about sex in the abstract, there’s some half-hidden, unacknowledged suspicion within most of us that... Read more

This issue of the Networker is an attempt to explore what we can contribute as a profession to the “conversation about race,” which, as lame and ungainly... Read more

VIDEO: Overcoming Barriers to Self-Compassion

Tim Desmond on Self-Compassion in Therapy

In this video, Tim walks us through his process for engaging a client who’s resistant to self-compassion. It’s a great step-by-step example that will give... Read more

The Healing Power of Emotion

New Perspectives. New Approaches.

Emotion shapes and organizes our experience and connection to others. It readies us for specific actions and motivates us to change—research now confirms all... Read more

VIDEO: Treating Anxiety

David Burns on the Paradox of Resistance

David Burns explains how he addresses outcome and process resistance in a way that quickly leads to meaningful and lasting change with clients. Read more

Over the course of their careers, most psychotherapists discover that to be genuinely helpful they must learn to do something more than simply wield a set of... Read more

VIDEO: Depression Is Not a Disease, It’s a Wake-Up Call

James Gordon on Healing without Antidepressants

Depression is not a disease, so the promise of antidepressants as a cure just doesn’t hold water. That’s the assessment of James Gordon, M.D. and he should... Read more

VIDEO: The Mindful Path Out Of Depression

Zindel Segal on Helping Clients Take The First Step

What’s happening when a client suffering from symptoms of depression is willing to follow the therapist’s voice with eyes closed? According to Zindel... Read more

VIDEO: Changing the Brain to Take In the Good

Rick Hanson on 5 Simple Steps to Use Right Away

In this brief clip, Rick walks us through surprisingly simple steps that can shift our memory systems to internalize positive experiences and states with equal... Read more

VIDEO: Four Steps To Get Potential Clients To Contact You Now

Joe Bavonese on how to make your website a magnet for new clients

What if you could immediately to make your website more compelling and more effective in helping potential clients connect with you? Joe Bavonese, marketing... Read more

VIDEO: The Rewards of More Direct Contact with Potential Clients

Lynn Grodzki On An Opportunity Presented From Tough Times

In this quick clip, Lynn Grodski invites us to think entrepreneurially about how to make the most of just one of the new opportunities she sees in today’s... Read more

At this moment in history, we seem to be in a divorce-busting mode, relatively speaking, and so fewer therapists are likely to tacitly encourage divorce as... Read more

VIDEO: Why Clients Will Pay More For An Intensive Session

Casey Truffo On Structuring A Therapeutic Intensive

With some clients, issues, or circumstances, an hour is not quite enough time to dig in. That’s why it’s great to have an “Intensive Option.” Think of... Read more

Throughout history, for most people it was just expected that work was a difficult, tedious, underpaying, and often soul-killing grind. But in today’s world... Read more

Defusing Male Shame

Understanding the Significance to Male Clients

Shame is an emotion that isn’t healthy. Unlike guilt–which causes remorse for something you did wrong–shame can cause someone to feel as... Read more

VIDEO: Men and Intimacy

A Relational Approach to Helping Male Clients

According to Patrick Dougherty, the biggest problem men have in psychotherapy isn’t that intimacy and the language of emotion is such foreign territory, but... Read more

There’s been a decline in the public’s utilization of psychotherapy as a consequence of the rise of what might be called the Gang of Three: DSM, Big... Read more

VIDEO: Who Should You Talk To?

Janina Fisher on how and when to speak to a client’s “child part”

When an adult is in your consulting room, it’s understandable if you use adult language and logic. But at certain points in the healing process, you may need... Read more

VIDEO: How to Help Clients Cope With Overwhelming Emotion

Joan Klagsbrun on Three Focusing Techniques That Work

Intense emotion in the consulting room can leave some clients overwhelmed; others shut down. Either response can derail your session. Now here’s some help... Read more

Symposium Highlight January 25, 2015

Meditation for Slow Learners

Mindfulness Goes Big Time

Over several thousand years, different cultures around the world have discovered how to nurture the seed of a specifically human capacity for mentally stepping... Read more

Editor's Note - January/February 2015

Nurturing the seed of the specifically human capacity.

Over several thousand years, different cultures have discovered how to nurture the seed of a specifically human capacity—a saving grace, as it were—for... Read more

The Reluctant Guru

Staying in the Moment with Jon Kabat-Zinn

A Conversation with Jon Kabat-ZinnSince he first developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn has not only become a key figure in... Read more

What’s the true nature of your feelings for your lover? An honest answer to that question is what a therapist needs in order to help a couple decide how to... Read more

Do therapists have a responsibility to educate people about society's role in generating unprecedented levels of depression? Read more

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... Read more

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... Read more

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? Read more

Steven explains that clients are rarely cured by medication or therapy alone. Read more

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... Read more

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... Read more

VIDEO: Beginning Therapy with High-Conflict Couples

Tips from Ellyn Bader and Peter Pearson

Highly distressed couples seek out help for immediate solutions for their pain and suffering. Why is tackling the issues head-on a big mistake for a therapist? Read more

Symposium Highlight September 11, 2014

The Power of Paying Attention

What Jon Kabat Zinn Has Against Spirituality

Jon 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... Read more

Has the time come to consider whether the profound changes in our economy, technology, and culture over these last couple of decades have opened up a breach in... Read more

VIDEO: Adjusting Lifestyle Habits for Mental Health

Connecting the Dots between Biology and Brainwork

If you’ve got a client who frequently oversleeps, binges on junk food and alcohol, and passes up fresh air for hours in front of the television, there’s a... Read more

VIDEO: Engaging Kids who Hate Therapy

How to Talk to Kids in a Way They Understand

Connecting with today’s youth doesn’t mean being able to recite Justin Bieber’s latest hit. According to Janet Edgette, author of Adolescent Therapy That... Read more

VIDEO: Unlocking the Emotional Brain

Confronting Self-Limiting Beliefs

Bruce Ecker shows how to apply the process of memory reconsolidation to bring about transformational change and therapeutic breakthroughs. Read more

VIDEO: Bringing the Family Into Trauma Treatment

Mary Jo Barrett on Family Consultations

In this brief video clip, Mary Jo explains why bringing the family into therapy should be our first stop when treating trauma. Read more

VIDEO: Somatic Tools for Self-Soothing

Peter Levine Describes How Somatic Experiencing Helps Clients Self-Regulate

In this brief video clip, Peter demonstrates a body awareness technique that includes loud, vibrating deep breaths to help clients minimize anxiety and... Read more

VIDEO: Helping Traumatized Clients Understand their Automatic Responses

Richard Schwartz Explains Why Panicked Trauma Responses are Also Defensive Ones

In this brief video clip, Richard explains how trauma survivors can have a dialogue with the damaged inner parts—the “Exiles”—by first consulting their... Read more

VIDEO: Helping Clients Integrate Past and Present

Bessel van der Kolk on Integration and Healing in Trauma Treatment

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... Read more

VIDEO: Presencing Secure Attachment

An Experiential Approach

What keeps people stuck in destructive relationship patterns? While Attachment Theory has provided some answers as to how those patterns originate, many... Read more

With years of experience treating anxiety-riddled clients, Reid Wilson, author of Don’t Panic, knows a thing or two about helping people rein in the... Read more

Coauthor of Freedom from Pain, Maggie has found that Attachment Theory is a useful framework for understanding the unreleased trauma that often lies at the... Read more

VIDEO: Stop Shooting the Messenger

The Case for Hearing Anxiety Out

As far as universal human experiences go, anxiety is usually seen as a heinous beast. Clients hate it and therapists offer ways to get rid of it—but not many... Read more

VIDEO: Attachment Work with Cut-Off Kids

Becoming Part of the Young Client’s Story

When Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy developer Daniel Hughes first started working with children who struggled with serious behavioral and emotional... Read more

VIDEO: Winning the Anxiety Game

How to Change the Rules

There’s a reason agoraphobic people stay home and acrophobic people stay grounded. No one enjoys the way that panic feels. But the trouble with trying to... Read more

Wired for heterosexuality or homosexuality?

The difference between the gay and straight brain

It’s a topic that has been at the center of countless debates, both rational and irrational. Is there a clear biological difference between the heterosexual... Read more

An Attachment-Based Approach with Couples

Harnessing Emotion in Couples Work

When a couple leaves the consulting room, what keeps them from falling back into the destructive, deep-seated behavioral patterns that brought them there in... Read more

VIDEO: A New Way to Engage Teen Clients

Dan Siegel on the Power of Teenage Brain

Dan Siegel, author of Brainstorm: The Power and the Purpose of the Teenage Brain, knows that nobody—especially an angst-filled teenager—likes being told... Read more

VIDEO: Getting Anxious Families to Loosen Up

A Homework Assignment for Anxious Kids

Anxiety is a demanding beast, with a long list of conditions that must be met to keep it at bay. It forces anxious children and their families to banish... Read more

VIDEO: Supplementing Attachment Theory

More Tools, More Solutions

While developing Coherence Therapy, Bruce Ecker, coauthor of Unlocking the Emotional Brain, spent a lot of time uncovering the differences between... Read more

Editor's Note - July/August 2014

An adequate substitution for psychotherapy? Our Love Affair with Psychotropics

In the age of Big Pharma, meds have flattened all before them in their virtual conquest of the mental health field. Over the years, antidepressants have come... Read more

VIDEO: Single-Session Cures with Anxiety Problems

Are You Asking the Right Questions?

When it comes to understanding your clients’ inner world, words can only go so far. Clients can use words to tell you what they’re conscious of (“My... Read more

VIDEO: Connecting with Avoidant Clients

What Secure Attachment Looks Like

For those who struggle with early attachment injuries, even the presumably safe presence of the therapist can often evoke feelings of desperation, fear, and... Read more

VIDEO: Anxiety As a Co-Therapist

How to Make Your Clients’ Anxiety Their Ally

Danie Beaulieu, author of Impact Techniques for Therapists, sees anxiety in a different light. “I was tired of looking at anxiety as a pathology,” she says... Read more

VIDEO: How to Become a Lifelong Learner

The Principles of Neuroplasticity

According to Michael Gelb, a world-renowned speaker on innovative approaches to enhanced learning and author of How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven... Read more

VIDEO: The Neurobiology of Worry

How the Brain Creates Neurobiology Ruts

In this brief video clip, Margaret Wehrenberg, cognitive behaviorist and author of The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques, offers some facts about the... Read more

What Makes Psychotherapy Possible

Clarifying the Fundamental Task of Therapy

Stephen makes it clear that hard scientific evidence now exists for what most therapists instinctively know: successful therapy depends utterly on establishing... Read more

VIDEO: Examining DSM-5's Most Controversial Change

Gary Greenberg on the Bereavement Exclusion

“When DSM-III came out and the major depression diagnosis was created,” Gary tells us in this brief video clip, “it was immediately clear that many... Read more

VIDEO: Beating Relapse to the Punch

How to Preempt Anxiety Relapse

Before David Burns wraps up therapy with recovered clients, he makes sure they’re well prepared for relapse. In this brief video clip, he breaks down the... Read more

Neuroplasticity Isn’t Always for the Best

Why Therapists Should Know about the Plastic Paradox

Psychiatrist and author Norman Doidge believes that while the brain has an astonishing capacity for change, brain plasticity doesn’t always work out for the... Read more

VIDEO: Stopping the Anxiety-Go-Round

Lynn Lyons On Helping Anxious Kids

Fifteen-year-old Grace doesn’t know it yet, but her troubling anxiety symptoms are run of the mill. Like most anxious kids, it’s not the content of her... Read more

VIDEO: Assessing the Unintegrated Brain

How to Change the Brain in Therapy

It’s one thing to throw around the scientific-sounding language of brain science, it’s another to actually develop concrete clinical procedures based on... Read more

VIDEO: The Hidden Toll of DSM-5 on Psychotherapy

How Increasing Medication Sales Hurt the Therapy Profession

Allen Frances—author of "Saving Normal: Has Psychiatric Diagnosis Gotten Out of Control?"—is one of DSM-5’s most outspoken critics, but his ultimate... Read more

VIDEO: The Neurobiology of Anxiety

How to Incorporate Brain Science into Your Treatment Approach

According to Margaret Wehrenberg, when it comes to clients with panic disorders, the first thing to discern is what they’re doing to avoid panic. “The... Read more

VIDEO: What Distinguishes the Male and Female Brain?

How the Evolutionary Story Lives within Each of Us

Why do young boys tend to roughhouse while young girls lean towards relational play? According to Louann Brizendine, these and many other differences observed... Read more

Rather than continuing to lament the deficiencies of DSM-5, forensic psychiatrist David Mays wants to focus on what's ahead for the psychotherapy field. In his... Read more

VIDEO: The Key to Dramatically Accelerating Anxiety Treatment

Being Anxious Doesn’t Mean You’re Anxious to Change

Most therapists assume that, just as any rational person with a broken arm would be an eager customer for medical care, surely a person suffering from severe... Read more

VIDEO: How to Install New Mental States

What Therapists Should Know about Brain Change

Until recently, the impact of brain science on the everyday work of most therapists has been pretty limited. According to Rick Hanson, that’s because we’ve... Read more

VIDEO: How to Make Clients Feel Safe

Today's Video: Bringing Polyvagal Theory into Your Practice

How can therapists acquire neuroscientific knowledge without becoming brain scientists themselves? Even more pressing, what real-life practical therapeutic... Read more

Why DSM-5 Is a Step Forward for Psychotherapy

Find Out About the Benefits of Dimensional Diagnosis

In this video clip, Regier talks about how the new definition of a major depressive disorder in DSM-5 better enables clinicians to diagnose clients who exhibit... Read more

Editor's Note - May/June 2014

Trauma, the alluring diagnosis of the therapy profession.

No other single condition tests the therapeutic relationship quite so stringently, demands so much from the clinician, or combines so many disparate treatment... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 12, 2014

Engaging the Emotional Brain

Highlights from Symposium 2014

To get through to clients in our increasingly ADD culture, therapists must learn to evoke a deeper, more visceral engagement with them. At this year’s... Read more

VIDEO: Creating Antidote Experiences in Therapy

How to Turn Positive Mental States into Enduring Traits

In this video clip, Rick talks about how to activate positive mental states and help clients embody them so that they become permanent resources. Read more

Understanding the Dangers of Diagnostic Epidemics

The Most Powerful Psychiatrist in America on Why DSM-5 Is a Step Backward

Allen Frances learned first-hand how, even when motivated by the best of intentions, changes in the “bible of psychiatry” can have large-scale negative... Read more

VIDEO: How Meeting Condition Criteria Doesn't Equal Mental Disorder

Jack Klott on One of the Diagnostic Changes in DSM-5

While the publication of DSM-5 came with many surprises, few were as shocking—or as controversial—as the number of changes made to diagnosis specifiers... Read more

VIDEO: DSM-5 and the Elimination of Disorders

Martha Teater on the Removal of Asperger's from DSM-5

Asperger’s no longer exists—at least not in the DSM-5. And there are other changes, like the omission of sexual addiction, that many therapists are... Read more

VIDEO: Like It or Not, DSM-5 Will Affect Your Practice

Martha Teater on One of the Major Changes in DSM-5

Whether you’re a critic or a proponent of DSM-5, that fact that it exists and will affect your practice is undeniable. Between several new diagnoses, the... Read more

The Best DSM Ever Written?

Jack Klott, an Advocate for DSM-5, Speaks Out

Jack Klott discusses the DSM5 and why it's a triumph in the field, despite its flaws. Read more

VIDEO: Is Psychotherapy Becoming Overly Diagnostic?

Allen Frances on Why DSM-5's New Diagnoses Aren't Necessary

One of the most note-worthy changes in the DSM-5 is the abundance of new diagnoses that are included in this new edition. Many DSM-5 critics worry that this is... Read more

Discover How DSM-5 Will Affect Your Practice

Martha Teater on One of the Major Changes in DSM-5

Martha Teater discusses a huge change in the DSM-5 that many therapists are still adjusting to—diagnosis-specific severity scales. Read more

VIDEO: What to Do When Therapy Stalls

Bill Doherty on Handling the Issue of Progress Before it's a Crisis

Bill talks about a proactive approach that can lead to positive developments when therapy starts to stall. Read more

VIDEO: Letting the Body Lead

Ann Randolph on Truly Embodied Emotion

Ann explains how imbuing body parts with feelings can lead clients to more embodied and clarifying emotional experiences than talk alone can provide. Read more

VIDEO: Psychotherapy as Experiential Drama

Jeffrey Zeig on Bridging the Gap between Knowing and Realizing

Jeff explains the tools he uses to make therapy a true experience—including trance, novelty, and precision in his use of language, and resonant gestures that... Read more

What Really Motivates Resistant Clients

Finding Emotionally Compelling Reasons to Change

Push up against a resistant client, you get more resistance. Try a comforting, helpful approach, and you can undermine a client's motivation to act. So what's... Read more

Making Creativity in the Consulting Room Productive

Steve Andreas on the Clinical Mastery of Virginia Satir

What does inventive therapy look like? We often overlook that for all skilled therapists, there are well-established patterns and techniques underlying even... Read more

Defiance vs. Compliance—Two Faces Of The Reactant Client

John Norcross on Different Approaches that Work with Each Extreme

John Norcross gives us a clear and compassionate take on reactance—what it is, how it’s different from resistance, and how to begin with each extreme. Read more

Should You Have Leverage Over Your Clients?

Terry Real on Why Male Grandiosity Necessitates Leverage

Terry talks about grandiosity and the destructive behaviors it leads to, thus making leverage a part of the therapeutic process. Read more

Getting to the Heart of the Stuck Couple’s Story

Peggy Papp on Using Metaphor for New Insight, Fresh Language, and Forward Movement

How can a therapist cut through a couples’ intellectualizations, defensiveness, and ritualized use of language? The key is to bypass the language and explore... Read more

Is Therapy Creative?

Erving Polster on Rethinking the Concept of Creativity

Erving Polster talks about the concept of creativity how he sees it and how it is applied to the work we do with our clients. Read more

VIDEO: How to Engage a Narcissist in Therapy

Wendy Behary On The Keys To Successfully Treating Narcissists

Underneath it all, the narcissist is skeptical and frightened. That’s the first thing to remember, according to Wendy Behary, a recognized expert in treating... Read more

VIDEO: Making Something New Happen In the Consulting Room

Erving Polster on Creativity in Therapy

Gestalt Therapy pioneer Erving Polster is recognized as a master at bringing a quality of immediacy and connection into his work. Here’s a video clip that... Read more

Editor's Note - March/April 2014

DSM, Psychotherapy's World Almanac

Even though the grumbling about DSM-5 does seem to have reached some kind of tipping point, it isn’t clear at all what alternative would be any better... Read more

The Debate Over DSM-5: A Step in the Right Direction

A Step in the Right Direction: An Interview with Darrel Regier

The vice chair of the DSM-5 Task Force is bemused that the release of what was intended to be a more accurate and rigorously researched manual has raised such... Read more

VIDEO: Where Do You Want to Take Your Clients?

Courtney Armstrong on Approaching Sessions from a New Angle

Watch this clip to hear Courtney Armstrong talk about a specific client she saw who needed guidance more than she needed understanding. Read more

Dealing with Dishonesty in Couples Therapy

David Schnarch on Not Taking Lying Personally

Part of the healing process is seeing and understanding how clients operate in their day-to-day existence, so a client who's being dishonest in their life... Read more

VIDEO: Working With The Borderline Client

Dick Schwartz Demonstrates How to Minimize Reactivity

When a deeply troubled client begins a first session by shifting erratically through different mood states and periodically going numb, many therapists... Read more

VIDEO: The Art of Evoking Felt Experience

Using Positive Emotional Imagery to Counter Negative Beliefs

Most of us have been trained—at least in part—to appeal to the cognitive mind of our clients. But, according to Courtney Armstrong— who trains mental... Read more

The Debate Over DSM-5: A Step Backward

A Step Backward: An Interview with Allen Frances

As the man responsible for the previous edition, the foremost critic of DSM-5 is perhaps the last person you’d expect to trash this latest, biggest version. Read more

VIDEO: What Does a Client Really Want from Therapy?

Stephen Gilligan on the First Step Toward a Creative Breakthrough

In this clip Stephen Gilligan talks about one of the techniques he employs to help new clients be more specific in setting their therapy goals. Read more

VIDEO: The Inevitability of Challenging Clients

Janina Fisher on Seeing the Cracks in the Foundation

In this clip Janina Fisher talks about how years of experience do not guarantee easy clients and how she reacts when faced with a challenging case. Read more

When Depressed Clients Blame Themselves

Elisha Goldstein on Treating Depression with Self-Compassion

To help depressed clients figure out what they need to heal, mindfulness specialist Elisha Goldstein has developed several effective self-compassion practices... Read more

VIDEO: In Search of the Therapeutic Breakthrough

Bruce Ecker on Finding the Underlying Reasons for Detrimental Behaviors

Watch this clip to hear Bruce talk about a client unwilling to leave an abusive situation and the approach he uses to uncover the underlying reasons why. Read more

VIDEO: Using Corrective Experiences in Attachment-Based Therapy

Diane Poole Heller on Bringing the Concrete to the Abstract

Diane Poole Heller talks about one of her therapy techniques: Corrective experiences. Read more

VIDEO: When "One-Size-Fits-All" Doesn't Measure Up

Courtney Armstrong on Creatively Connecting

Courtney Armstrong discusses how she connected with some clients who weren't interested in traditional therapy approaches. Read more

The Therapist as Improv Actor?

Ann Randolph on Using Acting to Access Emotions

Ann Randolph talks about one acting technique in particular that can easily be incorporated into therapy sessions to help clients express their emotions. Read more

What Type of Depression is It?

Margaret Wehrenberg on Working with Low-Energy Depressed Clients

Margaret Wehrenberg identified specific types of anxious/depressed clients and has honed different treatment techniques that are effective. Read more

What’s happening when a client suffering from symptoms of depression is willing to follow the therapist’s voice with eyes closed? According to Zindal Segal... Read more

Practicing Meditation Against All Odds

Zindel Segal on the Three-Minute Breathing Space

Zin Segal discusses how clients can achieve mindful awareness of their emotional states in just three minutes. Read more

Understanding Trauma and the Cycle of Growth

Mary Jo Barrett on Discovering How Clients Learn

Mary Jo talks about the first stage of trauma treatment, where she teaches clients about the natural cycle of growth in order to discover how they prefer to... Read more

Are Antidepressants the Answer?

Michael Yapko on the Safety and Effectiveness of Antidepressants

Michael Yapko lays out a variety of reasons why antidepressants are not the solution for every client suffering from depression. Read more

How To Follow Clients’ Subtle Clues To Deep Healing Places

Diana Fosha Shares an Example from Her Own Work

Diana Fosha uses an example from her own practice of how therapists can begin to catch incongruity Read more

Does Your Depressed Client Even Want to Change?

David Burns on Using Paradoxical Agenda Setting

David Burns talks about how to set an agenda for therapy. Read more

More and more therapists have begun wondering how far all our impressive-sounding talk about the brain has gone in improving therapy’s effectiveness. After... Read more

Learning What a Depressed Client Needs

Elisha Goldstein on Individually Treating Cases of Depression

Elisha Goldstein asks clients what they need in tough moments and explains why it helps them learn to trust themselves. Read more

Why We Focus on the Negative

Rick Hanson Explains the Evolution of the Negativity Bias

Much can be made of the power of positive thinking, but the real question is, why do we tend toward the negative in the first place? Read more

Working Through the Childhood Wounds that Feed Depression

Judith Beck on Understanding Emotions Intellectually

Judith Beck talks about an intellectual technique that she uses when doing childhood work with adult clients suffering from depression. Read more

Symposium Highlight December 22, 2013

A Conference for People Who Hate Conferences

Networker Symposium 2014: Psychotherapy’s Most Celebrated Anti-Conference

Genuine learning is conveyed via experience; something happening that resonates emotionally as well as intellectually, something that literally alters the... Read more

Letting Emotion Out and In

Susan Johnson on the Value of Using Emotion in Couples Work

Susan shares the latest research that backs up the central principle of EFT Read more

VIDEO: Desiring Change, but Clinging to the Familiar

David Burns on Turning Resistance into the Voice of Change

David Burns discusses the key to reaching resistant clients—and it's not a new technique. Read more

Coaching with Feeling

Jeff Auerbach on the Key Differences Between Therapy and Coaching

Jeff Auerbach discusses the differences between therapy and coaching. Read more

Losing Focus as a Therapist

Mary Jo Barrett on Being Better Attuned to Clients

Mary Jo Barrett talks about grounding during session to be in the moment. Read more

From Good Person to Ethical Professional

Mitch Handelsman on the Effectiveness of Ethics Acculturation

Mitch Handelsman explains integrating psychotherapy and ethics acculturation. Read more

To Self-Disclose, or Not to Self-Disclose?

Ken Hardy on Why Not Self-Disclosing Can Hurt Therapy

Psychotherapy Networker Founder Rich Simon talks to Ken Hardy about how self-disclosure is part of the power structure in the therapy room. Read more

VIDEO: Talk Like a Therapist—Even from the Podium

Lynn Grodzki on Attracting New Clients by Being Ourselves

Lynn Grodzki shares about speaking with audiences about your therapy practice and how to leave your audience wanting more. Read more

VIDEO: Ending Therapy: The Importance of Planned Termination

How to Ease the Transition Out of the Therapy Relationship

Lisa Ferentz discusses how to effectively terminate therapy with a client. Read more

Our Habits, Ourselves

What Role Do Habits Play?

Psychotherapy too often fails to help clients like myself make changes in their lives because of the blind spot at its core—it undervalues the central role... Read more

VIDEO: Social Conditioning, Or Are We Just Born That Way?

The Neuroscience Behind Primary Gender Traits

Louann Brizendine talks about one of the key neurobiological distinctions between the sexes: the need to reproduce vs. the need to nurture the helpless. Read more

VIDEO: Finding the Hero in Troubled Youth

Ken Hardy on Trauma Treatment that Taps into the Hero that Resides in All Youth

PN Founder Rich Simon talks with Ken Hardy about finding the heroism amongst young clients that helps them survive. Read more

How to Protect Yourself in the Ethical Gray Zone

Frederic Reamer on the Importance of Documentation

Frederic Reamer explains the importance of documentation and how it can save you from potential legal woes, even when you’re sure you’re in the right. Read more

Editor's Note: November/December 2013

First Comes the Hard Work

Romantically infatuated with the idea of psychological revelation—aka the therapeutic “breakthrough”—therapists too often ignore the fact that a... Read more

How To Talk About Sex With Men

Esther Perel Shows How Easy It Can Be

Esther Perel introduces the subject of a man’s sexuality, sexual practice, his approach to sex, and its place in his life in an effortless, organic way. Read more

Moving Beyond DSM-5

David Mays on the Future of Psychotherapy

David Mays talks about his disappointment in how medications are currently used and prescribed, the changes he’s seeing taking place, and what those changes... Read more

Male-Friendly Psychotherapy

How Brain Science Illuminates Gender Differences

Pat Love explains how the brain engages and reflects with the emotional state of others and why it comes down to gender. Read more

Examining the Most Controversial Change in DSM-5

Gary Greenberg On The Bereavement Exclusion

When examining the various changes made in DSM-5, Gary Greenberg finds the most controversial one to be the removal of the bereavement exclusion from the major... Read more

Empowering Today's Parental Authority Figures

Ron Taffel on What Families Can't Function Without

Ron Taffel discusses how Generation X and Millennials handle authority and raising kids differently than their parents. Read more

Taking Off The Gloves

David Schnarch On How Confrontation Speeds Up Couples Therapy

Couples therapist David Schnarch shares how speed helps give relationships hope. Read more

Responding to the Critics of DSM-5

Darrel Regier On Why Diagnostic Changes Were Made

Despite the number of criticisms it has incurred, there was a method to the so-called madness of DSM-5. Read more

VIDEO: Anxiety as a GPS

Danie Beaulieu On How to Make Panic An Ally

Danie Beaulieu explains how panic can function as the voice of clients’ internal GPS, telling them when they are making a “wrong turn” in their lives. Read more

Rethinking the Autonomic Nervous System

Stephen Porges on a Popular Neuroscientific Misconception

For decades therapists have been taught that there are two sides of the autonomic nervous system complementing each other. But according to Stephen... Read more

What's The Value Of A Diagnostic Category In The DSM?

Gary Greenberg on the Role of Economic Factors in the Shaping of the DSM

Gary Greenberg deconstructs the DSM and how it affects the field and your practice. Read more

Therapist and business coach Lynn Grodzki provides an eye-opening road-map to both the shift in clients’ attitude and how we as therapists can most... Read more

You’re Never Too Old to Change

Michael Gelb On The Most Effective Methods Of Change

Michael Gelb discusses time-tested wisdom that helps people change their lives. Read more

Finding the Missing Link to Chronic Pain

Maggie Phillips On The Levels Of Unreleased Trauma

Maggie Phillips describes how attachment issues can play a big part in unreleased trauma. Read more

Editor's Note: September/October 2013

Keeping Private Practice Alive

If we wish to stay professionally alive, it’s time we recognize that the idea that we must choose between being dedicated clinicians and being smart business... Read more

Teaching Neuroscience to Our Clients

How One Client Effectively Applied Dan Siegel’s Neurobiology Lesson

Psychotherapy Networker Founder Rich Simon listens to Dan Siegel about neuron "sponges," empathy, and how it all impacts depression. Read more

Breathing To Balance The Stress Response System

Learn How To Use Breath Work To Alleviate Anxiety

Watch Richard Brown and Patricia Gerbarg demonstrate a therapeutic breathing exercise used to treat anxiety in session. Read more

Is Sexual Orientation Hardwired In Our Brain?

Louann Brizendine On How Sexual Preference Is Determined

Psychotherapy Networker Founder Rich Simon asks neurobiologist Louann Brizendine about sexual orientation and the brain Read more

Bringing Stressed Clients Into The Present Moment

Elisha Goldstein On The “Mindful Check-In”

Psychotherapy Networker Founder Rich Simon talks with Elisha Goldstein on the meditative technique he calls a "mindful check-in." Read more

Becoming a Part of the Child Client’s Story

Dan Hughes on the Effectiveness of Psychological Hand-Holding

Daniel Hughes has many techniques to suggest when working with troubled children who have put up a wall. Read more

How the Brain’s Negativity Bias Impedes Change

Rick Hanson On Understanding Why We Focus On The Negative

Psychotherapy Networker Founder Rich Simon talks to Rick Hanson about negativity bias and how it can be one of the biggest challenges to helping clients... Read more

How Addressing Nutrition Makes Talk Therapy More Effective

Leslie Korn On Nutrition’s Leading Role In Optimal Mental Health

Since psychotherapists are not routinely trained to factor in the role of nutrition, Leslie Korn’s focus on why and how to incorporate nutritional... Read more

How Attachment Issues Undermine True Intimacy

Sue Johnson On Identifying And Healing The Wounds Of Attachment

Sue Johnson shares how EFT helps couples get and stay closer. Read more

James Gordon shares a technique he uses with clients to help them get out of hopeless thought patterns. Read more

Bringing The Mental Health Benefits Of Yoga To Your Clinical Practice

Amy Weintraub Demonstrates How Easily It’s Done

Amy Weintraub shares a quick 3-minute tutorial on how to breathe to calm the stress response system. Read more

Editor's Note: July/August 2013

The In-Session Breakthrough Fantasy

As a growing body of research shows, deep change doesn’t come when clients just talk about their problems: it results from the impact of an emotionally... Read more

From the Editor: May/June 2013

When the Tough Get Therapy

There are some clients who yell at us, manipulate us, go broodingly silent on us, have uncontrollable emotional breakdowns in session, disappear for weeks at a... Read more

Symposium Highlight May 1, 2013

On With The Show

Celebrating the Craft at Symposium

This year, 3,000 practitioners came to our annual Symposium to explore the fundamental question: are we any closer to unraveling the mysteries of psychotherapy... Read more

Editor's Note: March/April 2013

What’s Wisdom Worth?

The pioneers in our field—Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls, Salvador Minuchin, and others—all recognized that they were providing... Read more

VIDEO: Our Bottom Line Responsibility as Therapists

Rick Hanson on Working with the Brain for Lasting Change

People seek us out because they want change. Some want to be less anxious or less depressed, some want to be better able to control themselves in interactions... Read more

Editor's Note: January/February 2013

Fretting Over the Anxious

Through our lives, most of us develop what can only be called a deeply personal relationship with our anxiety. There’s a good reason for this. A predilection... Read more

Motivating the Resistant Male Client

Terry Real On Why Leverage Is Key With Men

You’ve probably worked with men who’ve been dragged, kicking and screaming, into therapy by their partners. But how do you work with a client who doesn’t... Read more

Editor's Note: November/December 2012

Pushing Past Our Limits

This issue of the Networker is about what coaches like Andrew can teach psychotherapists, and the role that challenge and incorruptible truth-telling can play... Read more

At the Heart of Intimacy

Susan Johnson on Helping Couples Heal from the Inside Out

When a couple enters therapy to address sexual problems, are their fundamental issues confined to the bedroom? Read more

Editor's Note: September/October 2012

Playing the Conversational Instrument

Even though talking and listening to people may come naturally to most therapists (if not, we’re in the wrong profession), as the writers in this issue make... Read more

Editor's Note: July/August 2012

Ethics and Boundaries

The hallmark of the therapeutic encounter is that the therapist is an expert, trained in a particular skill-set to conduct a rather odd, rarified conversation... Read more

Editor's Note: May/June 2012

Our Emotions: Unruly, Unnerving, Invaluable

This issue maps out not only what the latest science tells us about how emotion works, but also how therapists can more fully acknowledge within themselves the... Read more

Editor's Note: March/April 2012

Looking Back on Therapy’s Unfolding Story

All therapy is about stories—the stories clients tell therapists and the (we hope) more truthful and helpful stories therapists and clients construct... Read more

Still Crazy After All These Years?

A Look at 30 Years of the Networker

Remember mimeograph machines, the Milan Group, the False Memory Foundation, DSM–III, the Family Therapy Networker, and private practice before managed care... Read more

The old compact between family and society—each doing its part to protect and promote the whole—seems to be badly strained, if not flat-out broken. Thus... Read more

Editor's Note: November/December 2011

The Gritty, Hot-Blooded Work of Couples Therapy

This issue’s contributors aren’t just convinced that therapists should do more couples therapy, but that risk-taking and turning up the heat in the therapy... Read more

Editor's Note: September/October 2011

The Mindfulness Binge/Minding Mindfulness

I first became aware that there was such a thing as meditation as part of my immersion in the cascade of mind-body-spirit esoterica unleashed by the human... Read more

Editor's Note: July/August 2011

Extended Life, Elongated Grief

As the writers in this issue powerfully demonstrate, medical science has made extended dying and its impact on relatives and loved ones—what psychologist... Read more

Editor's Note: May/June 2011

A Community of Practice

The Networker has always been a community affair. From our first issue, every glimmer of an idea for an article or theme of this magazine has been a group... Read more

Editor's Note: March/April 2011

Creating a 21st-Century Learning Community

This issue is noteworthy not only for its subject—tracking the influence of attachment research on psychotherapy theory and practice—but also because it... Read more

Editor's Note: January/February 2011

Eating To Live, Not Living To Eat

The old maxim "You should eat to live, not live to eat" may sound wise, but it's based on a profound misreading of the fundamental facts of human biology. Read more

Cyberspaced

Sherry Turkle Sees e-Life at the Crossroads

MIT professor Sherry Turkle has spent the last 30 years studying what our machines have come to mean to us, and how they're altering—sometimes... Read more

This issue examines whether our increasing knowledge of all those multisyllabic brain processes has really made us more effective practitioners. Read more

Point of View September 1, 2009

From Revolution to Evolution

Salvador Minuchin Reflects On His Therapeutic Legacy

Although Salvador Minuchin is arguably the most influential clinician of the last half-century, his work is light-years away from the routinized approaches... Read more

Why Is This Man Smiling?

A Self-Described Grouch is Trying to Turn Happiness into a Science

Self-Described grouch Martin Seligman, the father of the positive psychology movement, is trying to turn happiness into a science. Read more

The Untold Story: An Interview with Carol Gilligan

Carol Gilligan on recapturing the lost voice of pleasure

In her new book, The Birth of Pleasure, Carol Gilligan has tried to probe the root of what makes intimate partnership between men and women so difficult. What... Read more

Discoveries from the Black Box

How the Neuroscience Revolution Can Change Your Practice

Increasingly, therapists are trying to make sense of the cavalcade of neuroscientific discoveries regularly trumpeted in the research literature and the... Read more

Cloe Madanes

Behind the One-Way Kaleidoscope

At the Family Therapy Institute of Washington, DC they don't believe self-knowledge fires the engine of change and insist instead that therapy is really just a... Read more

Behind the One-Way Mirror

An Interview with Jay Haley

Jay Haley has been so successful in setting the terms for how we think about therapy and change (whether one agrees with him or not) that it may be hard to... Read more

Rich Simon

Richard Simon, PhD, founded Psychotherapy Networker and served as the editor for more than 40 years. He received every major magazine industry honor, including the National Magazine Award. Rich passed away November 2020, and we honor his memory and contributions to the field every day.