Editor's Note
September/October 2016
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.
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Living Brave
From Vulnerability to Daring
September/October 2016
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.
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Transcending Trauma
Learning How to Guide Devastated Clients Toward Growth
September/October 2016
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.
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Hiding in Plain Sight
Clients' Symptoms Offer Clues to Their Strengths
September/October 2016
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.
The Bonds of War
PTSD Reconsidered
September/October 2016
“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.
Clinician's Digest
The 2016 Election Is Raising Ethical Questions for Therapists
September/October 2016
It used to be an axiom for clinicians that therapeutic conversation and politics don’t mix. But in this high-stakes presidential election, some therapists aren’t so sure.
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In Consultation
Teaching Couples to Tap
September/October 2016
Could eliminating blocks in couples therapy be as simple as learning where to tap?
Case Study
High-Stakes Therapy
September/October 2016
When it comes to eating disorders, therapy can be a matter of life and death.
Point of View
Creatures of Habit
September/October 2016
Discover the key to becoming less of a creature of habit.
Bookmarks
Mistaken Identity? A Daughter Reflects on Her Father's Decision to Change Gender
September/October 2016
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Susan Faludi explores the story of how the despotic father who’d once ruled her terrified family underwent sex reassignment surgery late in life.
Family Matters
The Unassignables: What Really Gets Handed Down in a Family?
September/October 2016
A son’s decision to get married is a rite of passage for the entire family.
