The Therapy Beat

If we engage in meditation long enough, we discover that our sense of being a separate, coherent, enduring self is actually a delusion maintained by our... Read more

For the first time in history, we’re mainly experiencing nature through intermediary technology that paradoxically provides more detail while flattening our... Read more

The mental health professions are now being forced to address the debate over marijuana legalization. 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

 A few decades ago, when young therapists like myself watched Salvador Minuchin, Virginia Satir, Carl Whitaker, or other leading lights, it was like... Read more

While widely acknowledged to be the most empirically supported therapy ever invented, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is often criticized for being too... Read more

Relapse prevention begins in the first session, when we tell clients that we want to help them become their own therapists. Read more

One of the most useful ways of understanding depression is the stress generation model, based on the idea that depressed people need better skills and... Read more

The Ray Rice case evokes a discussion of the many faces of domestic violence. Read more

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

It’s time to get beyond simplistic notions about “chemical imbalances” and finally reckon with how deeply rooted depression is in the uncertainties and... Read more

Because depressed clients repeat the same thoughts, feelings, and experiences over and over again, successful treatment breaks clients out of this trance. Read more

Evidence continues to accumulate that many people with depression suffer bouts of it all their lives, even after a good response to therapy. So what if we give... Read more

Many therapists define the type of therapy they practice by taking a head count: if one person is present, they're practicing individual therapy; if two or... Read more

How couples behave in bed is a remarkablv authentic expression of their emotional connection-or lack of it. Read more

Rarely is someone always depressed, or always empty, or always without energy, or always suicidal. If you (or the person you’re helping) explores exceptions... Read more

Sometimes psychoactive medication can work wonders with agitated young clients in the throes of a psychological emergency. But psychiatrist Robert Hedaya, an... Read more

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

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

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

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

The answers to some of the age-old questions about the trajectory of passion and the links between sex and love are being discovered in the research laboratory. Read more

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

As we move slowly beyond the great recession, today’s young people are the first American generation in a long while expected to be less well off than their... 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

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

We've become so focused on keeping children safe that we exaggerate the dangers they face despite the fact that they’ve never been safer. Still, no amount of... Read more

Most parents “loan” children their adult regulatory system beginning at birth. But developmentally traumatized teens have missed out on this opportunity... Read more

Bessel van der Kolk, a leading trauma therapist, takes on the New York Times. Read more