How to Get Clients to Do Their Homework
Step 1: Don't Call It "Homework"The best way to ensure clients' cooperation is to make the assignments relevant for them. Task assignments are designed to bring about changes in the... Read more
Three Myths About Old Age
...And What We Can Learn from Our Older Peers About Aging SuccessfullyBy examining how older members of our society actually live and looking at what we can learn from people who age successfully, one study shifts the focus away... Read more
VIDEO: Why Anticipating Relapse Is Our Best Defense Against It
How to Mobilize the Client’s Support SystemIt’s always cause for celebration when depressed clients nears the finish line of treatment, feeling energized, empowered, and more content with their life... Read more
Breaking Through Therapeutic Gridlock
How to Respond When Clients Resist Your AdviceAs therapists, we need to be open to feedback, even criticism, as a means of deepening the therapeutic relationship. Establishing trust by moving beyond the... Read more
When Less Is More
The Art of Minimalizing Our StuffEven as many of us are drowning in material possessions, a new minimalist movement is sweeping across popular culture. Read more
From Weight to Well-Being
The Challenges of Treating Binge Eating DisorderAlthough binge eating disorder is more prevalent than anorexia and bulimia, many people still don’t get the help they need for it. Read more
Consensual Nonmonogamy
When Is It Right for Your Clients?In past decades, the only alternatives to involuntary celibacy in a relationship were affairs or divorce. But more and more therapists are recognizing... Read more
Did England's Ambitious Mental Health Care Experiment Deliver?
Nearly a decade ago, England embarked on one of the largest expansions of mental health care in modern history. What can be said of the outcome of this bold... Read more
Kinship without Connection
Family Means More than Shared DNADoes sharing DNA with a total stranger automatically make him family? Read more
Therapy and Transformation
What Are We Promising Our Clients?Decades ago, trainees in our field were imbued with the notion that therapy was about transformation: big, dramatic changes in the direction of... Read more
Tuning into Attunement
How to Harness Your Social Engagement SystemWe all know people who have the magic touch when it comes to relating to others. They can instantly connect with strangers and put people at ease without even... Read more
Who's Steering the Boat?
Navigating Therapy with Today's ClientsToday’s clients are shifting out of their customary position of mannerly deference and asserting far more specifically what they want—and don’t... Read more
Measuring Mercy
Uncovering the Link between Cruelty and CompassionThere’s a surprisingly strong link between altruism and psychopathy. Read more
Keeping Couples Therapy Upbeat
How to Bring a Positive Spirit Into the Consulting RoomKeeping the difficult work of couples therapy positive and upbeat might be easier, and more effective, than you think. Read more
Editor's Note - January/February 2018
Three decades ago, doing therapy was a relatively uncomplicated affair. After graduate school, you set up shop as a family therapist, a psychodynamic healer... Read more
Remembering Salvador Minuchin
A Networker TributeTo be a young, intellectually curious therapist in the 1960s and ’70s was to fall under the spell of the new systems practitioners, who were redefining what... Read more
The Silver Lining in Failure
Not Every Teachable Moment Has to Be a Successful OneThe problem with a failure is that one doesn't really understand why one failed. If one did, it wouldn't have been a failure. But I'm not giving up on my... Read more
VIDEO: What's the Difference Between Brain and Mind? Dan Siegel Explains
The Distinctions between Neuroscience and PsychotherapyWith all the buzz about brain science, is it possible to lose sight of the mind? Dan Siegel, a pioneer in the applications of brain science to psychotherapy... Read more
Learning to Look at Anxiety in a New Way
The Two Truths About the Nature of Anxiety DisordersAnxiety disorders are a means of keeping the external world at bay. Anxiety keeps new ideas and information out of a person's awareness. It saves overloaded... Read more