The Therapy Beat

The word psychopath distinguishes hard-bitten predators. Research shows a treatment center—run by shrinks, not wardens—has reduced new violent offenses by... Read more

An alarming number of children and adolescents who walk into a psychiatrist’s office in the United States each year walk out with prescriptions for powerful... Read more

Wonder if Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man ever needed couples therapy? What might a family therapist say about the sibling rivalry of the Super Mario Bros? It’s time... Read more

You’ve probably worked with men who’ve been dragged, kicking and screaming, into therapy by their partners. But how do you work with a client who doesn’t... Read more

This issue of the Networker is about what coaches like Andrew can teach psychotherapists, and the role that challenge and incorruptible truth-telling can play... Read more

A new breed of therapist believes that it’s disrespectful not to say to clients displaying obnoxious, selfish, or self-defeating behaviors what... Read more

A therapist from a working-class background finds himself on a surprising mid-career journey into the belly of 21st-century capitalism as an executive coach. Read more

Tens of thousands of miles away from his practice, a therapist accidentally discovers a new sense of purpose, unable to distinguish the act of giving from the... Read more

The American Psychiatric Association is scheduled to publish the much-delayed fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) by May 2013. With... Read more

Do childhood trauma and a chaotic family environment cause adult borderline personality disorder (BPD)? Common clinical wisdom says yes, but new results are... Read more

With nearly eight million Americans affected by the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and tens of thousands of troops returning from military... Read more

Psychologist Philip Zimbardo knows a thing or two about tough guys. In 1971, his notorious Stanford prison experiment, originally planned for two weeks, had to... Read more

Even though talking and listening to people may come naturally to most therapists (if not, we’re in the wrong profession), as the writers in this issue make... Read more

In this era of medical necessity, it’s easy to lose sight of a basic truth: We heal not through prescriptions and procedures, but through talking and... Read more

When we trust in ourselves to follow the signals of life that the patient emits in seemingly casual conversation, we increase chances of stepping outside the... Read more

It’s probably fair to say that most teens loathe the very idea of therapy. Yet, with confused and troubled adolescents needing our help more than ever, the... Read more

We live in a culture of denial, especially about the grim reality of climate change. Sure, we want to savor the occasional shrimp cocktail without having to... Read more

In a world where differences between people have become increasingly demonized, more than ever, the therapist's job is to help people expand their circle of... Read more

The hallmark of the therapeutic encounter is that the therapist is an expert, trained in a particular skill-set to conduct a rather odd, rarified conversation... Read more

As the status of therapist has shifted from an oversized figure with Svengali-like powers to an overworked and underpaid service provider at the mercy of the... Read more

The revolution in communication technology has created a new set of ethical dilemmas, which are invading our sessions, whether we know it or not. Read more

The ways we disclose, read cues from our clients, and dialogue about what’s been divulged are the keys to whether therapist self-disclosure helps clients’... Read more

A therapist–lawyer on what most often gets clinicians in trouble with the law and everything you need to know about the duty to report, to warn—and more. Read more

When something is coming at you that may cause pain or self-doubt, it’s natural to want to duck. Read more

This issue maps out not only what the latest science tells us about how emotion works, but also how therapists can more fully acknowledge within themselves the... Read more

Resonating with clients’ inner experience is key to working effectively with emotion in therapy. With traumatized and shutdown clients, however, it is easy... Read more

Our understanding of what happens when we weep hasn't progressed much beyond Freud's theory of catharsis. However, knowing how our nervous systems work can... Read more

Too many therapists today confuse the healing release of tears with the helpless despair triggered by reliving traumatizing memories in therapy. Read more

What do we know today about the effectiveness of psychotherapy that we didn’t know 30 years ago? Even more important, how do we improve our treatments? Read more

All therapy is about stories—the stories clients tell therapists and the (we hope) more truthful and helpful stories therapists and clients construct... Read more