Body

Complexity Choir

The Eight Domains of Self-Integration

As unlikely as it may sound, the mathematics of complexity theory could offer us the key to the elusive secrets of mental health and personal well-being. Read more

Educating Theresa

Sometimes therapy means total commitment

Treating depression requires a commitment to working with mind, body, and spirit. Read more

A Warm Bath for the Brain

Understanding oxytocin's role in therapeutic change

How to get through to clients caught in fight-flight-freeze mode. Read more

EMDR helps a young Iraq War vet and his wife emerge from the nightmare of his war experience. Read more

Reversing Chronic Pain

Ten Steps to Reduce Suffering
Maggie Phillips

More and more chronic pain patients are being referred to therapists after their physicians conclude that they show every appearance of being healed. Read more

1. Ride the Rhythms of Rest Fine-tune your circadian rhythms with exposure to morning light. Regularly engage in rest breaks and practices. Consider daily... Read more

Brain to Brain

Applying the Wisdom of Neuroscience in Your Practice

This article first appeared in the September/October 2008 issue. Anyone who’s ever worked with trauma survivors knows the therapeutic challenge of... Read more

It's a Jungle in There

We're Not as Evolved as We Think

The human brain is an anachronistic menagerie that confronts the psychotherapist with the challenge of treating a human, a horse, and a crocodile, all... Read more

The Art of Self-justification

We're all at the mercy of cognitive dissonance

Far from being a relic of Psych 101, the theory of cognitive dissonance may have more relevance in understanding today's world than ever. Read more

The Soul of Relationship

Where Self and Other Meet

Making "contact" with our partner means first recognizing a subtle inner substrate where we encounter everything from boredom to anxiety to sexual interest to... Read more

Any Day Above Ground

After Recovery, What Then?

Letting go of our childlike fascination with the promise of the future is one of the hardest challenges of truly being in the moment. Read more

Run with It!

Redefining the Comfort Zone After Cancer

A woman recovering from cancer develops a new sense of her body and her comfort zone. Read more

How Clients 'Do' Their Problems

NLP Can Help You Do the "Briefest" Therapy

Careful attention to body language and nonverbal cues can dramatically streamline the process of therapeutic change. Read more

Three Tenets of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Discovering Our Values by Confronting Our Fears

Learning to accept our fears as guideposts to who we really want to be. Read more

Defining Psychotherapy

The Last 25 Years Have Taught Us That It's Neither Art nor Science

At last count, therapists could choose from among 500 different treatment techniques. But after all these years, there's still no evidence that the overall... Read more

Creating a Culture of Healing

Recovering from Trauma in War-Ravaged Gaza

A psychiatrist who's worked in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Israel leads a team of healthcare professionals into war-ravaged Gaza to see if Western healing methods can... Read more

Avoiding Clinical Drift

Using the CARE Toolbox with Clients
David Bricker, Mark Glat, and Sherri Stover

CBT offers a clinical toolbox that ensures that treatment never becomes merely unfocused chitchat. Read more

Facing Our Worst Fears

Finding the Courage to Stay in the Moment

A therapist helps his anxious clients discover that be not resisting what the present moment offers, they can find a way out of their suffering. Read more

The Precarious Present

Why is it So Hard to Stay in the Moment?

All of us ruminate, bringing up the cud of old, unresolved problems. But far from being idle mind chatter, most of these mental distractions are actually the... Read more

Appointments With Yourself

Don't Mistake Your Schedule for your Life

The search for the elusive experience of being "in the moment" isn't as complicated as you think. All it takes is a cup of tea, a walk, a question, a blessing... Read more

A Week of Silence

Quieting the Mind and Liberating the Self

How would it feel to sit completely still for a week, not communicating with anyone, just tuning in to the seemingly chaotic jumble of your own thoughts? A... Read more

Being There

The Dalai Lama Gets Buddhism and Neuroscience to Go Face to Face

In Washington, D.C., this fall, the Dalai Lama brought together a distinguished group of contemplatives and world-class scientists to explore the links between... Read more

Alice in Neuroland

Can Machines Teach Us to Be More Human?

As neuroscience was becoming the topic du jour of the therapy field, we sent Senior Editor Katy Butler to MIT on a mission. The result was, literally, a... Read more

Bringing Mindfulness to Your Practice

When meditation helps . . . and when it doesn't

I'm interested in integrating meditation into my psychotherapy practice. What's the best way of doing this, and are there situations in which meditation can be? Read more

Mirror Mirror

Emotion in the Consulting Room is More Contagious Than We Thought

Empathy may be the life's blood of good therapy, but scientifically, it's remained a rather fuzzy concept. Now a serendipitous lab discovery is showing how... Read more

Altered States

Why Insight by Itself Isn't Enough For Lasting Change

Increasingly, neuroscience is making it clear that therapists rely too much on the consulting room drama of insight and not enough on good, old-fashioned... Read more

Riding the Waves

Neurofeedback: A Breakthrough with Learning Disabilities?

Neurofeedback is one of a group of new technologies that promises not only to treat the symptoms of mood, attention, and learning disorders, but to address the... Read more

A Different Kind of Presence

Bringing Body-Centered Experience into Your Work

Therapy can too easily become reduced to two talking heads, spinning out tales. But treatment can be intensified and enlivened by tapping into our immediate... Read more

Enlightenment Reframed

When East Meets West in the Consulting Room
Walter Truett Anderson

Until recently, our understanding of "enlightenment" has been shrouded in spiritual hero worship. But we're beginning to see it as a thoroughly natural... Read more

The Larger Self

Discovering the Core Within Our Multiplicity

The practice of therapy, for both therapist and client, is transformed when we connect with our fundamental core, a process that involves learning to listen... Read more