Healthcanc

It is no secret that when a therapist goes to a conference and learns something new, or merely signs up for a continuing education course online and actually applies herself, learns the material before taking the test, she'll probably talk about the new intervention or theory for at least a week or two. All patients are unknowing guinea pigs. Beware. But sometimes we come upon something on our own, a random strategy that helps us with our depression or anxiety, and having successfully applied it, we know that it works for at least one case study. If it lifts our dopamine or serotonin, changes the way we feel, why wouldn't it help at least a few others? Not to tell all, but I had a bad day, and I felt really badly, and I couldn't shake it, obsessed about what had happened far too long. This can happen to anyone and probably does, but knowing that time heals (most of the time) didn't help at all. Neither did any of my tried and true CBT interventions. Talking to FD and my...

May is Mental Health Awareness Month , and what better way to promote that than to discuss a successful therapy. Thanks to the American Psychological Association's Annual Mental Health Blog Day   (today, May 20 )  for keeping us current. APA Mental Health Day APA Mental Health Day Onto the case study. This is about Ziv Koren , who at the age of six became the sexual obsession and conquest of her uncle, remained an extension of him for ten years. As in the case of many pedofiles, entirely possessive, the abuse blocked Ziv's social and psychological development. Her identity remained in no-man's land as did her sense of self, even after the abuse had stopped. She had six years of unsuccessful therapy (Ziv suffered addictions and a plethora of disorders), until she met Dr. Rachel Lev-Wiesel , a professor and childhood sexual assault specialist at the University of Haifa, in Israel. Dr. Lev-Wiesel is director of the Graduate School of Creative Arts Therapies. (For another syno...

Light spoilers, sorry. But as we like to say around here, Never lose an opportunity for a teaching moment. If you haven't seen it, have no intention to see it, assume you'll never see it, reconsider. To enjoy this last of the Mad Men season, the AMC Mad Men Series Finale ,  you really don't need to know very much about what happened previously. You probably should know that Don Draper ( Jon Hamm ) is the mind behind several brilliant television ad campaigns in the sixties and seventies, that he does it all effortlessly, usually under the influence of bottle after bottle of Scotch, and yes, he suffered a dysfunctional upbringing and has secrets, other identities. You might need to know that his ex-wife Betty ( January Jones ) is a survivor of an era that objectified women and defined the parameters of their success. Not that this era is over, or that she has ever been a warm and fuzzy stereotypic mother. All of the women in this show, for all seven seasons, are the second-cl...

Over St. Louis 1. Mother's Day This will be a big weekend for many of us. I'm invited to a picnic for Mother's Day, and since it is likely to rain in Chicago, it will probably be take-out indoors. I'm not working, have always loved this particular excuse to take off the whole weekend. But let's move on, take a look at a water snake at Lake Kinkaid. It doesn't get any more interesting than that. No, I didn't take the picture. Water snake 2. Vulnerability   FD took off earlier in the week to go fishing in southern Illinois with his brother and a couple of his brother's friends. As a pri-care, he really needed it, needed to be out of cell phone range. The first night he was gone I had a home invader dream, haven't had one in ages. So disturbing. But the dream clarified my subconscious appreciation that he's around most of the time, reinforcing my belief that we don't consciously know what people really mean to us. 3. Men Pack, Women Pack When he...

Monopoly We've talked about looking for the big personal or family theme, a generalization that feeds a person's history and worldview, a belief that might hold the patient, maybe the whole family, back.  A well-placed reframe, usually with a metaphor, teases away the old way of thinking. No turning back.  Board games are making a comeback, but Monopoly never did go away. I stopped playing for a third of a century, but on a visit to hang out with my grandkids (their parents trusted us to take care of them while they took a work vacation) revisited the game again. Is there anything worse than losing at this?  Losing fair and square? To a six-year old? Early in the game there is a sinking feeling that the outcome is obvious, the game is over. For the very first time you learn the true meaning of Connecticut Avenue. You never valued it before. Now, landing on a hotel, you are shelling out six hundred Monopoly dollars. He has shattered your world view about how to win (buy ev...