Author: admin
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Swimming Toward Healing
Jennifer Gerlach LCSW I stepped down into the pool. Cold. Nice. I had a lot on my mind. I started justI started just focusing on the motions. Up, down, side. “Am I doing this right?” “Do I care?” I thought about my worries. My hopes. People in my life. Back and forth. Thinking. Sending well wishes. Processing.…
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7 Topics Covered in Group Therapy for Substance Abuse
Rubin Khoddam Ph.D. Group therapy is a cornerstone of substance abuse treatment. Substance abuse treatment is a complex and multifaceted journey, and one of the most effective tools in this process is group therapy. Whether you or a loved one is seeking help, learning a few group therapy topics can help you know what it can do…
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Know What Makes You Valuable
Steven Stosny, Ph.D. Several decades ago, I began asking my clinical clients to describe what makes them valuable, important, and worthy of appreciation. Most conflated value with entitlement, privilege, possessions, money, or popularity, thus revealing a primary target of treatment. The secret is being “valuable” or able to value. Creating value makes us valuable, making people and things…
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Halloween Special: Why Do We Find Clowns So Creepy?
Trevor A. Foulk Ph.D. During Halloween time, we’re confronted with a lot of images and experiences meant to terrify us. Some of the things we encounter are objectively terrifying. For example, it’s not hard to understand why a man in a hockey mask holding a chainsaw evokes a feeling of fear when we see it. While many…
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How to Keep Anchored During Difficult World Events
Beth Kurland Ph.D. If you are struggling deeply with recent world events, you are certainly not alone. I have been alive on this planet for over five decades and somehow these last recent years have felt like some of the most challenging — collectively and on a global scale — that I can remember in…
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The BPD Chronicles: New Study Examines Patient Experiences
Jerold J. Kreisman M.D. “Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseasesto cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.” –Voltaire Clinicians and researchers are trained to understand, diagnose, and treat illness, but they can’t move inside patients to fully comprehend their suffering. Indeed,…
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Eliminate Fear With Creativity
Robert Evans Wilson Jr. We are often inundated by fear. Fear is doled out by politicians to influence people. Advertisers peddle fear to keep people buying their products and services. Some media outlets lead with it to build audiences and sell more ad space. Doomsayers, prognosticators, and conspiracy theorists spread it to gather followers and create…
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5 Ways to Reduce New Employees’ Anxiety
Gil Winch Ph.D. Starting a new job entails dealing with much uncertainty regarding the job itself, the people and the culture, so it’s not surprising that in a recent survey, a whopping 87% reported suffering from ‘new job jitters’. Yet, the term ‘jitters’ doesn’t really convey how anxiety-provoking, stressful, scary, and rife with challenges starting a new job actually is,…
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How to Talk to Your Children About Fentanyl
David R Patterson Ph.D., ABPP I spent a large part of my academic career at a medical school, where I developed a consulting service at a Level-I trauma center with a county mission to care for patients who are indigent, homeless, and have mental illnesses. My work often involved helping patients with serious addictions. Doing this work,Doing this work, I just…
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Navigating Parenthood With a Mental Illness
Barbara Robles-Ramamurthy MD Mental health conditions are common. One in five U.S. adults experience a mental illness and global estimates show at least 50 percent of us will experience a mental health condition in our lifetime. Decades of research have documented the relationship between parental mental health and that of their children: The mechanisms are complex…