Depression can rob people of their sense of aliveness and vitality, interfere with job performance, disrupt relationships, and increase the likelihood of self-harm. So are there tools we can use to help clients reduce and even prevent suffering from depression? My friend, Elisha Goldstein, PhD has identified 5 natural ways to create an anti-depressant brain. […]
A Better Night’s Sleep with Mindfulness?
One of the problems with antidepressants is their side effects, such as fatigue, anxiety, loss of libido, and sleep disturbance. Dr. Willoughby Britton and her research team at the University of Arizona wanted to find out whether mindfulness could help with sleep disturbance – one of the most common side effects of antidepressants. Researchers randomly […]
Polyvagal Theory in Action – How Heart Rate Figures Into Trauma Treatments
How can the body become a resource for a patient who’s experienced trauma? Polyvagal Theory helps us answer this question by explaining how people process their environment and how the body regulates itself in the face of stress and trauma. Watch the video below as Stephen Porges, PhD shares one way to apply Polyvagal Theory […]
Can Mindfulness Change the Anxious Brain?
What helps with anxiety? Anxiety disorders represent the most common mental disorders experienced by Americans. These can range from PTSD to common phobias, and they wreak havoc in a person’s day-to-day life. A team of researchers led by David Creswell, PhD at Carnegie Mellon University recently wanted to find out what impact mindfulness practice could […]
Can Mindfulness Change How the Brain Processes Emotion?
We’d like to think it can, but what does the evidence show?A working definition of mindfulness is that it attentively and non-judgmentally focuses on present experiences. But does this actually affect anything in the brain? To find out, Jacqueline Lutz, from the psychiatry department at the University Hospital of Zurich, led a study investigating whether […]
3 Ways Undiagnosed Trauma Disrupts Lives
When people have trouble paying attention, when they’re too emotional, or reactionary, or downright aggressive, what can we do to help them turn it around? Perhaps too often, these behaviors are addressed with medication for ADHD or bipolar disorder. But according to Bessel van der Kolk, MD, the problem (and the solution) may lie in […]
Why a Fresh Perspective Can Be As Precious As a Diamond
My good friend Judith, who is a psychologist in private practice, once told me, “If you can give me a new perspective on a patient’s problem, you’ve given me something of incredible value.” When you have a patient who’s just not making progress, it can be terribly frustrating for both practitioner and patient. But a […]
On The Shoulders of Giants
Carl Rogers. Milton Erikson. Fritz Perls. Albert Ellis. Virginia Satir. These are some of the experts who shaped the interventions we use with patients today. And these experts stood on the shoulders of the giants who came before them. I’m thinking about people like Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, and Pierre Genet. […]
How Can We Expand the Circle of Healing?
Why does a particular treatment approach work with some patients but not with others? When I was in grad school, they used to say that in therapy, about a third of people get better, a third stay the same, and a third get worse. And from what I can tell, while we’ve improved some, we […]
Why The Most Popular New Year’s Resolution May Be More Important than You Think
If I was a betting person I’d be willing to wager that, if you asked around at your New Year’s party last night, you found at least one person whose resolution was to hit the gym more in the coming year.And I’d bet that if you asked them why, they’d mentioned the extra pounds they’ve […]