Clinical Skills & Experience

The Tribal Classroom

Applying attachment theory in schools

Lou Cozolino believes that attachment theory and neuroscience may offer the key to transforming our troubled educational system. Read more

Side By Side

No creative artist is an island

An investigation of some of history’s most famous creative teams leads to the conclusion that no artist is an island. Read more

The Rise of the Two-Dimensional Parent

Are Therapists Seeing a New Kind of Attachment?

We used to think that disordered attachment was the result of early parental neglect or abuse. But today, has a paradoxical mix of parental overinvolvement and... Read more

Getting Unhooked

Connecting with Traumatized Kids Who Push Your Buttons

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

The Power of the Pen in Therapy

Some Journaling Exercises to Enhance Your Work

Some guidelines for bringing the creative power of therapeutic journaling into your work. Read more

The Crush

Challenging Our Culture of Avoidance

A therapist shares about handling a client when attraction pushes the boundaries. Read more

What Makes Fanatics Tick?

Exploring the Psyches of People on the Fringe

A new book investigates the worldview of a range of fanatics who’ve dedicated their lives to holding onto to their antiscientific and antihistorical claims. Read more

Falling in Love Again

A Brief History of Psychoactive Drugs

Over the last 150 years, we’ve seen waves of mass infatuations with psychotropic drugs—antidepressants being the latest. While all these drugs are... Read more

Beyond Chemistry

Exploring Our Relationship with Our Meds

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

The Meds of the Future

Waiting for the Next Magic Pill

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

SSRIs in Perspective

Have They Lived up to Their Promise?

After wading through the controversies and contradictions in the research literature on SSRIs, a critic of Big Pharma explains why he thinks these drugs may... Read more

Letting Go of Hate

How to help clients change unconscious responses

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

When Talk Isn’t Enough

Easing Trauma’s Lingering Shock

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

Neuroplasticity Isn’t Always for the Best

Why Therapists Should Know about the Plastic Paradox

Psychiatrist and author Norman Doidge believes that while the brain has an astonishing capacity for change, brain plasticity doesn’t always work out for the... Read more

VIDEO: Assessing the Unintegrated Brain

How to Change the Brain in Therapy

It’s one thing to throw around the scientific-sounding language of brain science, it’s another to actually develop concrete clinical procedures based on... Read more

Putting the Pieces Together

25 Years of Learning Trauma Treatment

Twenty-five years ago, we believed that helping trauma survivors dig into dark and unspeakable horrors would set them free. But in this new age of trauma... Read more

The Case for Neurofeedback

Rewiring the brain in the consulting room

The increasing popularity of neurofeedback is based on the growing evidence that a wide variety of psychological disorders can be understood as firing mistakes... Read more

Rush to Judgment

Beware of the ADHD diagnosis

Part of the epidemic of misdiagnosed ADHD in young children today results from a failure to understand how trauma often leads to difficulty learning in school. Read more

12 Missteps?

The evidence that AA works is many steps behind

The authors of a provocative new book argue that, despite its sterling reputation, alcoholics anonymous has one of the worst success rates in all of medicine. Read more

Editor's Note - May/June 2014

Trauma, the alluring diagnosis of the therapy profession.

No other single condition tests the therapeutic relationship quite so stringently, demands so much from the clinician, or combines so many disparate treatment... Read more

Outside the Box

Bringing Families into Trauma Treatment

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

When Victims Victimize Others

Some Clients Challenge our Capacity for Compassion

Most therapists find it relatively easy to feel empathy for the usual hyperaroused, vulnerable trauma client. But it can be a lot tougher to remain... Read more

VIDEO: Creating Antidote Experiences in Therapy

How to Turn Positive Mental States into Enduring Traits

In this video clip, Rick talks about how to activate positive mental states and help clients embody them so that they become permanent resources. Read more

Understanding the Dangers of Diagnostic Epidemics

The Most Powerful Psychiatrist in America on Why DSM-5 Is a Step Backward

Allen Frances learned first-hand how, even when motivated by the best of intentions, changes in the “bible of psychiatry” can have large-scale negative... Read more

VIDEO: Like It or Not, DSM-5 Will Affect Your Practice

Martha Teater on One of the Major Changes in DSM-5

Whether you’re a critic or a proponent of DSM-5, that fact that it exists and will affect your practice is undeniable. Between several new diagnoses, the... Read more

VIDEO: Letting the Body Lead

Ann Randolph on Truly Embodied Emotion

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

Clarifying Boundary Issues to Strengthen Therapy

Why the Therapy Process Needs to be Free of Boundary Issues to be Successful

We all know that the collaboration between therapist and client is the keystone of therapy. What many therapists may not realize is how much clarifying... Read more

VIDEO: Psychotherapy as Experiential Drama

Jeffrey Zeig on Bridging the Gap between Knowing and Realizing

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

Making Creativity in the Consulting Room Productive

Steve Andreas on the Clinical Mastery of Virginia Satir

What does inventive therapy look like? We often overlook that for all skilled therapists, there are well-established patterns and techniques underlying even... Read more

Defiance vs. Compliance—Two Faces Of The Reactant Client

John Norcross on Different Approaches that Work with Each Extreme

John Norcross gives us a clear and compassionate take on reactance—what it is, how it’s different from resistance, and how to begin with each extreme. Read more