Clinical Skills & Experience

Nature, Pixelated

How the Virtual World Is Rewiring Our Senses

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 Anatomy of Procrastination

Helping the ADHD Client Make Changes Stick

Clients with ADHD often know the coping skills that can improve their lives—the problem is applying them in daily life. Read more

Voices of Reason

Empowering clients to alter their internal experiences

The case of a young man hearing voices shows how even problems that first appear to be extreme can be resolved by empowering clients to alter subtle aspects of... Read more

A Little Wiggle Room

It's Never too Late to Change Your Story

It’s never too late to change your story 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

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

The Depression Epidemic

Can Mood Science Save Us?

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

A Brief History of Anxiety

The Invention of a Modern Malaise

Life today is, in many ways, easier than it used to be. Therefore, shouldn’t we be less anxious than we once were? Read more

Escaping the Trance of Depression

Three Techniques of Acknowledgement and Possibility

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

Cure or Control?

Depression as a Chronic Condition

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

The CBT Path Out of Depression

Two Perspectives on How It Works

While 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 Small Changes

A Step-by-Step Approach to Treating Depression: An Interview with Judith Beck

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

The Power of How

Helping Depressed Clients Make Better Choices: An Interview with Michael Yapko

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

Enduring recovery from obsessive compulsive disorder means riding out the demands of an inner bully. Read more

Get Out of My Life!

Working with Cut-off Family Members in the Consulting Room

Helping families heal cutoffs is painstakingly delicate work, with a high risk for stumbling over buried land mines. Read more

Rocking On!

From grief to rebirth

A daughter marvels as her mother goes from grief to an exuberant rebirth. Read more

The Tribal Classroom

Applying attachment theory in schools

Lou Cozolino believes that attachment theory and neuroscience may offer the key to transforming our troubled educational system. Read more

Side By Side

No creative artist is an island

An 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

Getting Unhooked

Connecting with Traumatized Kids Who Push Your Buttons

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

The Power of the Pen in Therapy

Some Journaling Exercises to Enhance Your Work

Some guidelines for bringing the creative power of therapeutic journaling into your work. Read more

The Crush

Challenging Our Culture of Avoidance

A therapist shares about handling a client when attraction pushes the boundaries. Read more

What Makes Fanatics Tick?

Exploring the Psyches of People on the Fringe

A new book investigates the worldview of a range of fanatics who’ve dedicated their lives to holding onto to their antiscientific and antihistorical claims. Read more

Falling in Love Again

A Brief History of Psychoactive Drugs

Over 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

Beyond Chemistry

Exploring Our Relationship with Our Meds

The chemical effect of psychoactive meds is only part of their impact. In fact, people often develop complex relationships with the pills they take. Read more

The Meds of the Future

Waiting for the Next Magic Pill

Does our growing understanding of the brain and the prospect of further scientific discoveries mean there’s a new generation of magical pills on the horizon? Read more

SSRIs in Perspective

Have They Lived up to Their Promise?

After wading through the controversies and contradictions in the research literature on SSRIs, a critic of Big Pharma explains why he thinks these drugs may... Read more

Letting Go of Hate

How to help clients change unconscious responses

Many well-intentioned therapists have suggested that their clients just “let go” of hate, as if it were a heavy load that they could simply drop to the... Read more

When Talk Isn’t Enough

Easing Trauma’s Lingering Shock

Pioneering trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk shares his thoughts on the differences between public and private trauma. Read more

Neuroplasticity Isn’t Always for the Best

Why Therapists Should Know about the Plastic Paradox

Psychiatrist and author Norman Doidge believes that while the brain has an astonishing capacity for change, brain plasticity doesn’t always work out for the... Read more