In The Therapy Room

The case of a young man hearing voices shows how even problems that first appear to be extreme can be resolved by empowering clients to alter subtle aspects of... Read more

What’s the true nature of your feelings for your lover? An honest answer to that question is what a therapist needs in order to help a couple decide how to... Read more

Evidence continues to accumulate that many people with depression suffer bouts of it all their lives, even after a good response to therapy. So what if we give... Read more

Relapse prevention begins in the first session, when we tell clients that we want to help them become their own therapists. Read more

One of the most useful ways of understanding depression is the stress generation model, based on the idea that depressed people need better skills and... Read more

Enduring recovery from obsessive compulsive disorder means riding out the demands of an inner bully. Read more

Helping families heal cutoffs is painstakingly delicate work, with a high risk for stumbling over buried land mines. Read more

Most parents “loan” children their adult regulatory system beginning at birth. But developmentally traumatized teens have missed out on this opportunity... Read more

In this brief video clip, Peter demonstrates a body awareness technique that includes loud, vibrating deep breaths to help clients minimize anxiety and... Read more

The chemical effect of psychoactive meds is only part of their impact. In fact, people often develop complex relationships with the pills they take. Read more

Does our growing understanding of the brain and the prospect of further scientific discoveries mean there’s a new generation of magical pills on the horizon? Read more

Many well-intentioned therapists have suggested that their clients just “let go” of hate, as if it were a heavy load that they could simply drop to the... Read more

Pioneering trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk shares his thoughts on the differences between public and private trauma. Read more

When it comes to understanding your clients’ inner world, words can only go so far. Clients can use words to tell you what they’re conscious of (“My... Read more

Most therapists assume that, just as any rational person with a broken arm would be an eager customer for medical care, surely a person suffering from severe... Read more

If we don’t open up the one-on-one therapeutic cloister, trauma sufferers may never learn how to engage in the give and take of real-life relationships. By... Read more

Bill talks about a proactive approach that can lead to positive developments when therapy starts to stall. Read more

Ann explains how imbuing body parts with feelings can lead clients to more embodied and clarifying emotional experiences than talk alone can provide. Read more

Jeff explains the tools he uses to make therapy a true experience—including trance, novelty, and precision in his use of language, and resonant gestures that... Read more

How can a therapist cut through a couples’ intellectualizations, defensiveness, and ritualized use of language? The key is to bypass the language and explore... Read more

Using humor to help clients reconstruct their problems, even to the point of making parodies of their own dilemmas, can help some them get distance from their... Read more

Watch this clip to hear Courtney Armstrong talk about a specific client she saw who needed guidance more than she needed understanding. Read more

Part of the healing process is seeing and understanding how clients operate in their day-to-day existence, so a client who's being dishonest in their life... Read more

In this clip Janina Fisher talks about how years of experience do not guarantee easy clients and how she reacts when faced with a challenging case. Read more

To help depressed clients figure out what they need to heal, mindfulness specialist Elisha Goldstein has developed several effective self-compassion practices... Read more

Diane Poole Heller talks about one of her therapy techniques: Corrective experiences. Read more

Ann Randolph talks about one acting technique in particular that can easily be incorporated into therapy sessions to help clients express their emotions. Read more

Margaret Wehrenberg identified specific types of anxious/depressed clients and has honed different treatment techniques that are effective. Read more

Zin Segal discusses how clients can achieve mindful awareness of their emotional states in just three minutes. Read more

Diana Fosha uses an example from her own practice of how therapists can begin to catch incongruity Read more