Spitting in the Client's Soup
Don’t Overthink Your InterventionsIn our profession, it’s often more alluring to explore new gimmicks than to acknowledge that our success largely hinges on simple, commonsense factors. Read more
Larger than Life
Marianne Walters Was Family Therapy's Foremost FeministMarianne Walters didn't invent a brilliant new therapeutic paradigm, publish a large and magisterial body of research, or establish her own unique school of... Read more
Stronger Medicine
Anti-Depressants Haven't Made Therapy ObsoleteAmericans have a history of valuing quick-fix solutions to difficult problems. But the simplistic psychopharmacological approach to depressive disorders... Read more
The Mindfulness Explosion
The Perils of Mainstream AcceptanceBy replacing the exotic aura of spirituality with the language of science and a down-to-earth self-help approach, mindfulness has brought practices once... Read more
The Many Faces of Domestic Violence
The Ray Rice case evokes a discussion of the many faces of domestic violence. Read more
The Power of Small Changes
A Step-by-Step Approach to Treating Depression: An Interview with Judith BeckRelapse prevention begins in the first session, when we tell clients that we want to help them become their own therapists. Read more
The CBT Path Out of Depression
Two Perspectives on How It WorksWhile widely acknowledged to be the most empirically supported therapy ever invented, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is often criticized for being too... Read more
The Power of Paying Attention
What Jon Kabat-Zinn Has Against SpiritualityJon Kabat-Zinn, one of the pioneers in mind-body medicine, prefers calling himself a student of Buddhist meditation to a Buddhist, and believes anything can be... Read more
The Downside of Happiness
Beware of What You Wish ForAlthough happiness is widely beneficial, organizing one’s life around it can lead to a great deal of effort and time being spent unwisely. Trying too hard to... Read more
Psychotherapy in the Media Spotlight
Bessel van der Kolk, a leading trauma therapist, takes on the New York Times. Read more
Side By Side
No creative artist is an islandAn investigation of some of history’s most famous creative teams leads to the conclusion that no artist is an island. Read more
The Rise of the Two-Dimensional Parent
Are Therapists Seeing a New Kind of Attachment?We used to think that disordered attachment was the result of early parental neglect or abuse. But today, has a paradoxical mix of parental overinvolvement and... Read more
The Politics of PTSD
How a Diagnosis Battled Its Way into the DSMDuring Vietnam, there were proportionately far fewer reported cases of trauma on the actual battlefield than there'd been in previous wars. The primary reason... Read more
The Anatomy of a Psychiatric Consult
Solving the PuzzleFor many therapists, an air of mystery surrounds the role of psychopharmacology in mental health treatment. Here's a step-by-step tour of the complexities of... Read more
Editor's Note - July/August 2014
An adequate substitution for psychotherapy? Our Love Affair with PsychotropicsIn 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
Falling in Love Again
A Brief History of Psychoactive DrugsOver the last 150 years, we’ve seen waves of mass infatuations with psychotropic drugs—antidepressants being the latest. While all these drugs are... Read more
12 Missteps?
The evidence that AA works is many steps behindThe authors of a provocative new book argue that, despite its sterling reputation, alcoholics anonymous has one of the worst success rates in all of medicine. 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
Rush to Judgment
Beware of the ADHD diagnosisPart of the epidemic of misdiagnosed ADHD in young children today results from a failure to understand how trauma often leads to difficulty learning in school. Read more
Putting the Pieces Together
25 Years of Learning Trauma TreatmentTwenty-five years ago, we believed that helping trauma survivors dig into dark and unspeakable horrors would set them free. But in this new age of trauma... Read more
Improving Therapeutic Effectiveness: Moving Beyond Reliable Performance
How Can We Make Progress in Our Therapeutic Effectiveness?K. Anders Ericsson’s work on deliberate practice and client feedback explains studies showing that most of us grow continually in confidence over the course... Read more
Mad as Hell
The End of the Era of Male EntitlementThe era of unchallenged male entitlement has come to an end, and many men are mad as hell. A new book provides context to help us deal with this anger in the... Read more
The Little Things
Love in the Consulting RoomBarbara Fredrickson’s research on the biology of love and positivity demystifies our ideas about the role of intimacy, connection, and resilience in our... Read more
The Cult of DSM
Ending Our Allegiance to the Great GazooLabeling clients with DSM diagnoses is a ritual most of us perform to get reimbursed and pay our mortgages, but few of us actually believe in. Has the time... Read more
Shedding Light on DSM-5
The View from the TrenchesWhile the polemical debates over the new DSM have received widespread coverage, the reactions of ordinary clinicians have yet to receive much scrutiny. Read more
The Book We Love to Hate
Why DSM-5 Makes Nobody HappyFrom small insignificant beginnings in 1952, when almost nobody read it, DSM has become a kind of sacred literary monster. Today, it’s the most detested and... Read more
The Debate Over DSM-5: A Step Backward
A Step Backward: An Interview with Allen FrancesAs 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
The ACE Studies: Calculating the Effects of Child Abuse
How the Effects of Child Abuse Have Become the Biggest Public Health Issue in AmericaSince the publication of DSM-IV in 1994, a massive body of neurobiological research has accumulated, revealing how protracted childhood abuse and neglect can... Read more
Psychotherapy and the Affordable Care Act
Ecstasy in the Consulting RoomThroughout the fall, news about the landmark Affordable Care Act (ACA), designed to extend healthcare coverage to millions of the country’s currently... Read more
Sizing Up Goliath
The Upside of Being UnderestimatedWith his enormous success, Malcolm Gladwell has morphed from a darling underdog to a publishing juggernaut at whom it’s now trendy to sling insults. Read more