Clinical Skills & Experience

The Sadness Ghost

A 6-year-old discovers the power of his imagination

It’s not necessarily that sadness must always be avoided, but maybe we need to find a way to give it its place. Read more

The Stories We Live

In therapy—as in Fiction—There’s Always Possibility

Both doing psychotherapy and the writing of fiction are about stories. The essence of the art of both pursuits is the openness to the possibility that, no... Read more

The Attuned Therapist

Does Attachment Theory Really Matter?

In recent years, attachment theory, with its emphasis on early bonding, connection and relationship, has exerted as much influence over the field of... Read more

The Nightgown

In Search of the Answerman

A determined patient searches for therapeutic insight from an unlikely source. Read more

The www.Addiction

Few of Us Can Resist the Seduction of the Internet

Have you ever noticed how often you surf the net or check e-mail when you feel bored or restless or depressed, as if relief is just a click away? The Internet... Read more

Beyond the Diet Mentality

Empowering Clients Through Attuned Eating

Attuned eating can take people beyond the dead end of the diet mentality. Read more

Honoring the Mission

Don’t Be too Quick to Ease the Caregiver’s Burden

Without the emphasis at the outset on identifying, honoring, and sustaining the caregiver's mission, you're unlikely to ever progress. Read more

Between Gay and Straight

Honoring a Client's Multiple Identities
Jeff Levy & Jean Malpas

A middle-aged man facing the challenge of coming out explores the uncharted territory of a "mixed-orientation marriage" Read more

Shame-O-Phobia

Why Men Fear Therapy

Shame is the least understood dimension of men's inner experience—by both men themselves and the people who live with them. This lack of understanding may be... Read more

Lions Without a Cause

Men's Animal Instincts Don't Fit the Modern World

Let's face it: love means something quite different to men and women. A look at other species of social mammals offers some remarkable insights into the... Read more

Women Treating Men

Therapy across the Gender Divide

Gender shapes relationship from the very first moment therapist meets client, especially when the client is male and the therapist is female. Read more

Game On!

Bringing the locker room into the consulting room

Although therapy is often considered a profession dominated by the female sensibility, a lifelong gym rat, much practiced in the arts of masculine aggression... Read more

Holding Your Ground with Narcissistic Clients

What to do when your hot buttons get pushed

Some practical guidelines for handling confrontive and critical clients. Read more

Addicted to Sex

There are no shortcuts in treating SA
Alexandra Katehakis

Effective work with sex addicts must address deep-seated attachment wounds. Commentary by Joe Kort. Read more

Swept Away

Discovering the world of the senses

A young woman discovers the world of the senses. Read more

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

Higher Ground

What Clinicians Should Know about the "Vertical Dimension"

Modern therapy has given scant attention to morally elevated emotions like awe, gratitude, and admiration, resulting in a skewed picture of how people actually... Read more

Erickson's Legacy

Strategic therapy rests on skillful information-gathering

Strategic therapy is less about technique than a search for the information that'll illuminate the solution to your client's problem. Read more

Autism's 5 Core Deficits Defined

Building Social and Emotional Skills

By redefining Autism's five core deficits as opportunities to practice and develop skills, you can help your child make their own choices, coregulate, and... Read more

The Missing Piece

Helping Asperger's Clients Find Connection

To go through life with Asperger's as an adult is like walking onto a stage and being the only actor who doesn't know the lines or plot. But as the condition... 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

Ultimate Questions

A Therapist Confronts Her Own Magical Thinking
Barbara Stock

A client's unexpected announcement makes a therapist confront her illusions of invulnerability. Read more

Working with Alcoholics

AA as a Crucial Adjunct to Therapy
Mark Schenker

Therapists need to get beyond the common misconception about Alcoholics Anonymous. Read more

The Big Moment

Inspiration Vs. Perpiration in the Therapy Room

We need Big Moments to move clients out of their ruts, their numbness, and their stuck places. But the Big Moment needs many little moments to make it stick. Read more

In a memorable scene in Fiddler on the Roof, the main character, Tevye, pretends to have been awakened by a nightmare that he concocts to convince his wife to... Read more

Alone without Loneliness

Discovering the satisfactions of single-womanhood
Florence Falk

A young woman who's on her own for the first time discovers the difference between being alone and being lonely. Read more

The Tao of Improv

Embracing Life on the Edge

Improvisational theater offers a unique way of approaching relationships—and psychotherapy—that's generous rather than closed, support rather than... Read more

Breaking Through

Poet David Whyte Invites Us to the Edge of Discovery

Poet David Whyte offers an idiosyncratic fusion of verse, myth, story, and personal charisma, demonstrating to audiences all over the world that psychology... Read more

Enlisting the ODD Child

How to move beyond the power struggle
James Levine

Helping kids with ODD begins with getting past the many myths surrounding the disorder. Read more

Practice Makes Perfect

There's No Shortcut to Lasting Change
Carolyn Daitch

Many clients believe that the therapy process all by itself will magically improve their lives and relationships. We must help them recognize that without... Read more