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Depression doesn't cause plane wrecks: Reality testing from a therapist
It doesn't take a depression therapist to see:. Depression doesn't cause plane wrecks. You don't need to be a depression therapist to know that. More precisely, depression doesn't cause people to fly airplanes into the side of mountains. Even if you haven't particularly stopped to think about this, I challenge you to slow down for a moment and not admit that as a reasonable person who's taken a…
Apr 01, 2015
Family therapy: For New Yorkers an unconsidered psychotherapy option
New York family therapists love family therapy. Therapists who offer family counseling love family counseling. And often, those who aren't family therapists find the idea of family counseling terrifying. Ironically this is often for the same reasons. Families are tough. If you've spent time in one, it's like that you get that very well.New York's family identity: A different conception of family…
Mar 23, 2015
More on drug and alcohol counseling and criticism of AA
The Atlantic takes a turn at criticizing the approach drug and alcohol counseling of Alcoholics Anonymous. Last week I wrote about a Salon.com piece on drug and alcohol counseling and the ineffectiveness of AA (the article cited a 5-10% effectiveness rate for AA drug and alcohol counseling). This week the Atlantic weighs in with its own critique of the drug and alcohol counseling…
Mar 18, 2015
Sexual abuse and rape: Still in denial
All therapists work with sexual abuse (though some are in denial). I work with survivors of sexual abuse in therapy in my NYC practice. A short while ago a request for came across my inbox via a networking group for NYC therapists I subscribe to (often reluctantly). "Looking for psychotherapist in Manhattan specializing in sexual abuse to see woman in early 20's," and a comment "I don't work…
Mar 17, 2015
Drug and alcohol counseling: Salon on the success of AA
Salon.com lands a harsh critique of Alcoholics Anonymous as the prevailing model of drug and alcohol counseling, referring to the 80-year old, peer-led program as a "monopoly" that has "made it impossible to have real debate about addiction." The article, which is worth a read, is long on empirics: Salon points out that "Peer-reviewed studies peg the success rate of AA somewhere between 5 and 10…
Mar 11, 2015
That it could be other: The therapy of possibilities
Therapy at its best is about expanding the edges if what we see as possible, from our therapy and from our lives. In a sense, my concern when I encounter a new therapy patient in my NYC office is less with what they're asking for and more with what they aren't asking for--what they refrain from wanting from their therapy (and their lives) by virtue of having given up (or failed to ever consider)…
Feb 25, 2015
Less tolerance for tolerance in therapy
Tolerance is a word that comes up most often in two related forms of usage. In psychology and psychotherapy, following the term's use in medicine (pain tolerance, drug tolerance), tolerance is constructed as a skill in need of development, as in "increasing one's frustration tolerance" or "tolerating disappointment." In the context of multiculturalism, as in "New York city needs make further…
Feb 19, 2015
What's the therapy for emotional allergies?
What's the therapy for emotional allergies?. I'm not thrilled to add even more medical language to the lexicon of diagnoses flooding psychotherapy, but I've come to find a useful analog in a medical experience many of us are familiar with that lends a new understanding to experiences that present themselves in therapy like anxiety and depression.When I moved to NYC I had a fantasy that living in…
Feb 17, 2015
Lexapro is not a lotion, Geodon is not a hand sanitizer
I had dinner a few months ago at the home of a friend who's wife is a psychologist at a New York City psychiatric hospital. Outside of my NYC therapy office, where I could have made the connection more quickly, I had one of those out-of-context moments when I went to wash my hands in their bathroom. As I reached for the soap I noticed, "Huh, Lexapro lotion?" and a moment later, noticing the hand…
Feb 12, 2015
The anti-vacination movement doesn't have a science problem, it has a people problem
My social media feeds have lit up the last few weeks in the wake of the measles outbreak tied to Disneyland, with rage directed at the anti-vaccination crown. As a parent and a thinking person, I'm concerned about the health implications of so many choosing not to vaccinate their children. Claims linking vaccines with autism have been so thoroughly debunked, and the historic health advantages of…
Feb 10, 2015
What are you? (Therapy patient? Client?)
If you're like most people I talk to about this topic, you couldn't care less about how we refer to the folks we work with in our NYC therapy office. In fact, the odds are slim that you'd ever be referred to by anything but your first name by your therapist. And so it may surprise you that this is a matter of great controversy and that it is one of great significance to anyone who engages in…
Jan 20, 2015
Tribeca Businesses circa 1986
Just for fun, passing along this map of Tribeca Businesses from 1986 that was dug up by Tribeca Citizen. What jumps out first, of course, is a reminder of the prominence of the World Trade Center, it's buildings looming over the neighborhood in the foreground. In looking at the addresses of the Tribeca businesses that paid to advertise on the map, you see how many businesses that served the…
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