Category: misc

  • Gratitude Science

    From the NYT, Gratitude Really is Good for You. Here’s What the Science Shows. Most useful to you and your clients, the 100 gratitude prompts Google Doc linked here: Imagine that your partner is thanking you for cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. Which statement would you rather hear? “Thank you!” Or: “I am grateful…

  • What Therapists Are Thinking

    An illustrated survey from NYT, What Your Therapist Isn’t Telling You. A few samples: “ ‘I need to pee so bad.’ Clients don’t realize that we have five minutes between sessions and sometimes making it to the bathroom is not possible.”— Jessa White, L.M.H.C.A. “ ‘What is her husband’s name again?’ I’m terrible at remembering…

  • How to help a suicidal teen

    The NYT digs in–part of a New York Times Magazine Therapy issue. There is evidence that less intensive and less expensive therapeutic interventions against suicide might help children, at least those at the highest risk and, by extension, put less pressure on the medical system. For a study published in 2001, more than 800 patients in…

  • The Trump Effect

    Politico headline: America’s Therapists Are Worried About Trump’s Effect on Your Mental Health. Last month, to put some research heft behind his concerns, Doherty commissioned a national poll of 1,000 voting-age Americans and found that 43 percent of the respondents—not limited to people in therapy—reported experiencing emotional distress related to Trump and his campaign. Twenty-eight…

  • Therapy + Politics

    Why a therapist should talk politics (NYT): If the patient describes a nearly unbearable work situation, the therapist will tend to focus on the nature of the patient’s response to the situation, implicitly treating the situation itself as unchangeable, a fact of life. But an untenable or unjust environment is not always just a fact…

  • In the Shadow of Freud’s Couch

    What Your Shrink’s Office Says About You…or under what circumstances would you let a fellow therapist photograph you in your office? (Daily Beast): Thanks to his unique combination of being both a practicing psychoanalyst with nearly 30 years of experience and also a trained professional photographer, Dr. Mark Gerald has been able to throw open a…

  • Sharing Notes with Clients

    It’s being tried (NYT): Mental health patients do not have the ready access to office visit notes that, increasingly, other patients enjoy. But Mr. Baldwin is among about 700 patients at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who are participating in a novel experiment. Within days of a session, they can read their therapists’ notes on their…

  • DSM-5 Arrives

    The psych bible gets a rewrite.

  • What’s in a Chair?

    Therapy chairs and what’s around them.

  • CAQH Questions and Answers

    Tips for working with the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare.