Science & Research

Dan Siegel, author of Brainstorm: The Power and the Purpose of the Teenage Brain, knows that nobody—especially an angst-filled teenager—likes being told... Read more

For many therapists, an air of mystery surrounds the role of psychopharmacology in mental health treatment. Here's a step-by-step tour of the complexities of... Read more

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

According to Michael Gelb, a world-renowned speaker on innovative approaches to enhanced learning and author of How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven... Read more

In this brief video clip, Margaret Wehrenberg, cognitive behaviorist and author of The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques, offers some facts about the... Read more

Stephen makes it clear that hard scientific evidence now exists for what most therapists instinctively know: successful therapy depends utterly on establishing... Read more

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

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

Why do young boys tend to roughhouse while young girls lean towards relational play? According to Louann Brizendine, these and many other differences observed... Read more

Until recently, the impact of brain science on the everyday work of most therapists has been pretty limited. According to Rick Hanson, that’s because we’ve... Read more

How can therapists acquire neuroscientific knowledge without becoming brain scientists themselves? Even more pressing, what real-life practical therapeutic... Read more

In this video clip, Regier talks about how the new definition of a major depressive disorder in DSM-5 better enables clinicians to diagnose clients who exhibit... Read more

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

To get through to clients in our increasingly ADD culture, therapists must learn to evoke a deeper, more visceral engagement with them. At this year’s... Read more

It’s commonly suggested that depression results from seeing reality too clearly. Repression, denial, and humor grease the social wheels and lead us to put a... Read more

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

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

While the publication of DSM-5 came with many surprises, few were as shocking—or as controversial—as the number of changes made to diagnosis specifiers... Read more

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

Jack Klott discusses the DSM5 and why it's a triumph in the field, despite its flaws. Read more

One of the most note-worthy changes in the DSM-5 is the abundance of new diagnoses that are included in this new edition. Many DSM-5 critics worry that this is... Read more

Martha Teater discusses a huge change in the DSM-5 that many therapists are still adjusting to—diagnosis-specific severity scales. Read more

K. Anders Ericsson’s work on deliberate practice and client feedback explains studies showing that most of us grow continually in confidence over the course... Read more

Barbara Fredrickson’s research on the biology of love and positivity demystifies our ideas about the role of intimacy, connection, and resilience in our... Read more

In this clip Stephen Gilligan talks about one of the techniques he employs to help new clients be more specific in setting their therapy goals. Read more

Watch this clip to hear Bruce talk about a client unwilling to leave an abusive situation and the approach he uses to uncover the underlying reasons why. Read more

"People with avoidant attachment histories are too closed down to have access to experience their right-hemisphere processes," says Daniel Siegel, who's... Read more

Labeling behavior in fancy neurophysiological terms can make what we do sound more scientifically rigorous than the notoriously fuzzy language of... Read more

Most of us put much too much faith in the power of our conscious minds to bring about lasting change. Instead of looking up the higher branches of... Read more

If therapists are going to bring genuine insights—not just soundbites—from neuroscience into the practice of therapy, they need the nuanced, sophisticated... Read more