Editor's Note
July/August 2021
In the therapy field, especially, we tend to view self-deception as a path to any number of bad ends, like a sense of failure when reality collides with fantasy, or making ill-begotten choices. Of course, illusions do carry these hazards, and plenty of others! But as science journalist Shankar Vedantam argues in our lead piece, perhaps we need to widen our lens beyond what’s true or not, and ask what function an illusion is serving. What are the consequences? Might there be occasions when the benefits justify the costs?
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The Lure of Self-Deception
Exploring How It Serves Our Clients
July/August 2021
To create a world that produces the best in us, we must certainly be informed by reason, rationality, and science, but we must also deploy the aspects of our minds that are prone to storytelling, symbols—and even self-deception.
The Fox and the Hedgehog
Flexibility and Focus in the Therapy Room
July/August 2021
As a therapist, is it better to adapt an eclectic approach or specialize in the one you believe in most? Perhaps the answer isn’t as simple as it seems.
You Can Do Anything
The Outsized Dreams of Adolescents
July/August 2021
What if we stopped looking to modify the unique functioning of the teenage brain—delusional though it may be at times—and did more to foster the creative and generative aspects of an adolescent’s alternative worldview?
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The Magic Dial
Reframing Cognitive Distortions
July/August 2021
Beyond identifying the distortions in negative cognitions, how can we help clients understand that negative thoughts and feelings aren’t the result of what’s wrong with them—but what’s right with them?
Dispatches from the Yellow Brick Road
A Journey Through Delusion and Back
July/August 2021
A terrifying journey shows just how much psychotic delusions are embedded in the unquestioned essence of a person’s thinking—as true as ocean, ground, and sky.
Conspiracy Theories in the Therapy Encounter
July/August 2021
Conspiracy theories might be considered a dangerous kind of delusion. So how do you address them when they show up in the therapy room?
The Myth of Infallibility
A Therapist Comes to Terms with a Client’s Suicide
July/August 2021
When it comes to coping with suicide deaths, we therapists need to let go of our superhero expectations and support one another as dedicated, fallible professionals and human beings.
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The Therapy Beat
The TikTok Therapist: Goodbye, Blank Slate
July/August 2021
For some therapists, using TikTok isn’t a marketing tactic, but a public service.
In Consultation
The Threat Response of Appease: Do You Know It When You See It?
July/August 2021
How can therapists address historical trauma and the common threat response of appeasement?
Case Study
"I'm Not That Guy": Navigating the New Couples Conversation
July/August 2021
Discovering how ghosts and global issues have permeated relationship bonds in new ways.
Point of View
The Angry Therapist: Transparency as a Therapeutic Tool
July/August 2021
John Kim believes that a therapist’s own vulnerability helps clients feel comfortable enough to bare their own souls—and he practices what he preaches.
Bookmarks
A Cacophony of Opinion: Can We Trust "Expert" Judgment?
July/August 2021
Why is it that two or more experts in a given field can look at identical case histories and data and come up with broadly differing assessments and evaluations?
Family Matters
Something Close to Warmth: A Daughter's Search for Meaning
July/August 2021
Finding solace after the death of an absent father.
Practice Tools - July/August 2021
Internal Family Systems’s 6 F’s Model from Frank Anderson’s Transcending Trauma
July/August 2021
Your FREE practice tools download to use with clients right away.
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