September/October 2016
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Courage in Everyday Life
An Interview with Brené Brown
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Editor's Note
Clearly, therapists must always respond with empathy, understanding, and attuned clinical expertise to clients’ suffering. But the theme of this issue is that in their urgency to relieve pain, therapists must not overlook the rich possibilities for health and growth within every person, without which even the most skilled clinician in the world can do nothing. In the end, all clients must, to some extent, be their own healers.
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 talents as a speaker, teacher, and writer, why is she such a runaway hit? Haven’t therapists been writing about her professional specialty—the malign impact of shame—for decades? Perhaps her vast appeal has to do with how she’s turned the concepts of shame and vulnerability on their heads. Read More
Transcending Trauma
Learning How to Guide Devastated Clients Toward Growth
In the early days of the trauma field, clients were seen as one-dimensional bundles of dysfunction and pain, who needed to relive their trauma before progress could be made. But an increased interest in post-traumatic growth has allowed many therapists to see that insight and healing can occur not only in the midst of devastating experiences, but even because of them. Read More
Hiding in Plain Sight
Clients' Symptoms Offer Clues to Their Strengths
As therapists, we’re taught to be master detectives who methodically investigate our clients’ symptoms in search of a “culprit”—the source of their pain. But if we spend too much time preoccupied with symptoms, we’re likely to miss important clues to hidden strengths, which can transform the experience of psychotherapy. Read More
Extra Feature
The Bonds of War
PTSD Reconsidered
“In addition to all the destruction and loss of life, war also inspires ancient human virtues of courage, loyalty, and selflessness that can be utterly intoxicating to the people who experience them,” writes war correspondent Sebastian Junger. He believes understanding that experience and the alienation that can accompany a soldier’s return to civilian life is the key to understanding the persistence of PTSD in so many war vets today. Read More
