Posted in FAQ about psychology, consumer interest, psychotherapy on July 18, 2008 | No Comments »
Many books have been written in hope of defining psychotherapy. Here’s a very short attempt (has appeared as part 1, part 2, on the ‘psychotherapy?’ page):
Psychotherapy is a conversation between two people — where one person predominantly talks and the other predominantly listens. The goal of the conversation that develops is to foster insight into [...]
Posted in FAQ about psychology on May 30, 2008 | No Comments »
Great post by John Grohol at PsychCentral. Each challenge is accompanied by some thoughtful and pertinent commentary. Here are the first two challenges:
1. It can take awhile to find the “right” therapist and you shouldn’t stop at Therapist #1. Finding the right therapist can be a frustrating hit-or-miss proposition. But it’s also imperative…
2. Therapy is [...]
Posted in FAQ about psychology, anxiety, blogging, panic attacks on May 22, 2008 | No Comments »
Well, at PANIC!, there’s an excellent first-person account titled: “My first panic attack”. The piece does a nice job of describing how a mundane moment is exploded by total panic. In fact, if you’re interested in the subjective experience of panic disorder, you’ll find post after post of well written descriptions of and musings on [...]
Posted in FAQ about psychology, psychology in the media, psychotherapy, what psychologists do on April 10, 2008 | No Comments »
An authentic emotional connection.
Purely intellectual understanding is very limited. There has to be an authentic emotional connection in connection to our understanding of past events in order to effect meaningful change. A therapist will help you to hone in on, rather than gloss over aspects of your life which seem to be potentially loaded with [...]
Posted in FAQ about psychology, analytic psychotherapy, psychodynamic therapy, psychology in the media, psychotherapy on April 9, 2008 | No Comments »
Not a blame game.
Psychotherapy is not about complaining endlessly about past injuries. It is not about painting family members as cause of all our problems. It can be about understanding one’s perceptions of past and present events and how those perceptions color our views of our daily life. Some misunderstand psychotherapy as playing a blame [...]
Posted in FAQ about psychology, analytic psychotherapy on April 8, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Making meaning.
Human beings are meaning-making creatures. Faced with confusion, we will attempt to find meaning, even where there is none. Psychotherapy is about uncovering and addressing those meanings. Meanings that may even be obscure to ourselves. A good therapist will gently challenge us to examine inconsistencies in our perceptions and beliefs about ourselves and our [...]
Posted in FAQ about psychology, consumer interest, psychology on the internet, public interest, questions, research on December 12, 2007 | No Comments »
Guest post.
Here’s an article written by Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D. on the question of whether therapy works. Dr. Mattiuzzi was kind enough to allow me to quote the article in full. His website, the psychological resource information system, can be found here.
Does Therapy Work?
Yes.
Countless studies have shown that psychotherapeutic treatment works.
The effects have been measured [...]
Posted in FAQ about psychology, anxiety, diagnosis, panic attacks on November 29, 2007 | No Comments »
Like a heart attack.
When someone comes into an emergency room complaining of a heart attack, they are treated as though they are having one. But they may be having a panic attack. The symptoms — difficulty breathing, cold sweat, chest pain, rapid heart beat — are identical. Panic attacks occur unpredictably, and are not associated [...]
Posted in FAQ about psychology, consumer interest, primary care, professional issues, psychological domains, public interest, questions, social psychology, what psychologists do on September 28, 2007 | No Comments »
Getting up-to-date on psychology.
I chanced upon an interesting blog by someone who’s very much up on some of the happenings in clinical psychology. If you’ curious about what clinical psychology is — how it differs from psychiatry, this is a solid resource. I recommend it.
Interdisciplinary psychology - health psychology.
There are some very interesting things going [...]
Posted in FAQ about psychology, parenting on July 13, 2007 | No Comments »
My child has lost it. I’m about to lose it.
This is related to how to praise a child. Here’s a typical scenario: The child, being a 3-and-a-half-year old is extremely frustrated because it can’t have what it wants. Your last nerve was worn out an hour ago, and truth be told, you are starting to [...]
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