Healthcanc

Note: The following comments have nothing to do with any particular religious code or belief system, are not officially endorsed by a minister, priest, shaman, rabbi, witch, or any other clergy person (so far as the author is aware) . On occasion, a therapist will let an expletive slip, immediately regretting it. After hearing her apology, the patient will say, No problem, don't be silly.  The therapist might ask, What would be a better word? There's always a laugh and a consensus: There is no better word. We're taught that the emotion should come from the patient, although people like to see signs of life from their therapist. It feels intuitively correct, this protocol, that if anyone should emote strongly, abandon control over words, it should be the patient. The therapist should control it; it is not his therapy. Therapy is an empathetic process, however, and in that process of validating the patient's right to strong feeling and expressing it, a therapist might fal...

First, Baton Rouge . Three police officers, shot down. One, just vacuuming his car. I saw the video, the reenactment. The shooter, an ex-Marine, hides behind the corner of a convenience store at a gas station, peeks out, eyes his target, an expert marksman, takes them down. What is this? At first you think, Oh, another reverse racism thing, Race in America, the unsolved puzzle, the ultimate in displacement, the psychological defense, placing one's negativity, anger, on someone, something else. If I come home angry and slam a door, or kick the dog, my anger is now in the door, it is the dog's problem. I feel better, momentarily An immature defense, and too simple an explanation for recent murders in Dallas, five policemen were killed, nine injured, and now . . . more dead in Baton Rouge. But this massacre is different; one of the policemen, one of the victims is not white, his skin tone is closer to black, so there must be some mistake. The perpetrator, Gavin Eugene Long, reache...

When I told one of my friends that there's no way I would remember the most important, the most salient details of a therapy visit if I didn't take notes right then and there, she said, "Well, you wouldn't be my therapist. I need someone totally looking me in the eye." I didn't tell her that I could type ninety words a minute and never have to look at the screen. I'm not exactly sure how they teach note-taking in graduate schools anymore, hopefully the importance of a good genogram (family tree diagram that indicates alliances), among other things. In some Masters programs, surely, the old process recording is still taught. A process recording is what is done in the courtroom. You write down, verbatim, word for word, what the client said, although he's not on the stand. It is useful in many ways, not the least of which is that when there's a need for clarification, nothing's more powerful than telling the patient, "Let me see what we talke...

When I told FD that I wanted to go to Washington DC for the annual National Association of Social Workers (NASW) conference , he surprised me and said, "I haven't been to DC." So let's go. NASW annual conference 2016 in DC (1)   Going it Alone  Many of us don't like  attending conferences by ourselves, and being one of this population, I dreaded walking into the enormous conference auditorium (the Marriott Wardman Park ballroom) alone. FD, a medical doctor, not a social worker, would be roaming the Holocaust Museum by now, fearless, yet shaken.   Considering the space between workshop participants in the auditorium, three to four seats apart, it seemed that hundreds attended alone, like me.  And we have to do what we have to do, most of us armed with a truckload of CBT exercises to power through that test.   A few deep breaths, a critical eye at faces for signs of friendliness, and one can and will survive. (2) Opening Remarks Darrell Wheeler , the preside...

Last week  TCM , Turner Classic Movies, showed Funny Girl ,  a sixties throwback musical. (There will be spoilers.) The Broadway smash/film is a   fictional take on the life of Fanny Brice, the Ziegfield Follies star. The film and Broadway musical are highly romanticized. In reality, the Brice (Borach) family owned a string of saloons in Newark, NJ, and lived in Manhattan. They did okay. They didn't buy fruit at the stands in crowded Brooklyn, weren't a part of the lower class, colorful Jewish neighborhood on Henry Street. Also, in real life, Nicky Arnstein, Fanny's true love, courted her for her money and cheated on her. He was a far cry from the handsome, proud, and elegant man in a tux, played by Omar Sharif, who would rather divorce Fanny than depend financially upon her. Barbra Streisand, the ultimate funny girl Who cares? Funny Girl ,  is so politically incorrect by now. Zeigfield, the man Ms. Brice most admires and wants as her boss, is the ultimate...

The following prayer is recited by many observant Jews, soon after waking. May it be Your will, Hashem, my God and the God of my forefathers, that You rescue me today and every day from brazen men and from brazenness, from an evil man, a bad companion, an evil neighbor or event. . . whether he is a member of the covenant (a Jew) or someone who is not a member of the covenant . Maybe it could become a national, no better, a universal prayer. Maybe we should all start saying it. Leave out all the Jewish stuff, assuming that doesn't apply. Choose your own higher power. Here we go. Sitora Yusufia, Omar Mateen's ex-wife The gunman authorities say massacred 49 people at an Orlando nightclub had proclaimed he wanted to be a martyr, traveled to Saudi Arabia and alarmed co-workers with claims of links to extremists . . . analysis of Mateen's electronic devices showed searches for jihadist propaganda, including ISIS beheading videos."He consumed a hell of a lot of jihadist propa...

Three stories 1. Modest Clothing A Jewish woman wearing a stylish wig, long sleeves, and a long skirt, stands in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles. She is behind of a group of Muslim women who are also wearing long skirts and long-sleeved blouses. But their hair is hidden in headscarves. Farther back in line are two nuns in habits. We're used to all of types of dress, different costumes serving similar functions. The skin, the hair, exude female sexuality. Covering it is modesty personified. I had to wonder. Might any of these women really care, at a pit stop, would they be truly offended and upset, if a trans woman , a biological male in female clothing, walked in? My guess is the cross-dresser would attract attention and curiosity from this crowd, but probably not fear. Because they're all, almost always, fully dressed. 2.  Caitlyn Jenner   Caitlyn Jenner Time Magazine's 2nd Runner Up Person of the Year In April, 2015, Bruce Jenner, 65 years old, an Olympic gold me...