geoconklin2001 / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND Forty-two years ago today Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. One can scarcely be alive without recognizing his immeasurable legacy as the leader of the 20th-Century Civil Rights Movement in the United States. He spoke with more passion and eloquence than anyone on matters of segregation,Read more
Group therapy: More than a bad cliche?
I recently took a fresh look at the online conversation around group therapy. Sadly, it was much as I’d expected. It’s not hard to see where the cliches portrayed on sketch-comedy shows and in countless movies have come from. In fact, while surfing through videos on YouTube with the tag group therapy it was genuinelyRead more
Code yellow! (Or: irritability part 2)
HD41117 / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA I got a great comment on my recent post Lessons on irritability from the dentist. Mike writes: Seriously, I think the hard part is that it requires an awareness, a mindfulness, of when we are in danger of blowing up. For myself, the times when I lash out atRead more
I don’t deserve this
drbexl / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA This is one of the few phrases I can think of that we use variably for both really good and really lousy events in our lives: Being honored by your peers. Getting laid off. Finding a great man or woman and falling in love. Discovering your partner is cheatingRead more
Lessons on irritability from the dentist
Nationaal Archief / Foter / No known copyright restrictions I spent much of last two weeks reclined in a chair at the Tribeca Dental Studio just a few blocks from my office (4 visits, actually–punishment for going too long without paying the dentist a visit). Just like you, I hate going to the dentist. I’mRead more
The resilience of weird
Martin_Heigan / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND Social scientists, after decades (centuries really) of studying what causes individuals and communities to get into trouble have begun to take an interest in individuals who, even when surrounded by dire circumstances (take your pick: poverty, abuse, trauma) manage to make it out OK. In other words, some ofRead more
Curiouser and curiouser
How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail, And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale! -Alice, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland It’s surely of little surprise that I place such tremendous value on curiosity. It’s what good therapists do: They get curious about their client’s lives. I also think it’sRead more
Group Therapy: Give up your expertise on you
Tambako the Jaguar / Foter / CC BY-ND It’s one of those beliefs so widely agreed on as to be beyond question: You are the exclusive expert on you. Being an expert tends to go along with not being so open to what other people have to say. And when it comes to ourselves, beingRead more
Compassion is not running the other way
People ask me sometimes, What do you say when..? and lay out a really horrific situation. What do you say when a friend’s mom just died? What do you say when someone’s really miserable and stuck and there doesn’t seem to be anything to do to help? What’s the compassionate thing to say? You don’tRead more
American Psychiatric Association Posts Draft Revisions to DSM Online (And why you should care)
CCAC North Library / Foter / CC BY-NC The American Psychiatric Association is a membership organization of psychiatrists and is responsible for publishing the hefty Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . It’s the go-to book for psychotherapist, psychologists, psychiatrists, etc. relative to diagnosing mental distress. The current version, the DSM-IV, was published inRead more