Trail Mix
Quick Energy for Your Journey Through Life
Wading Through Alphabet Soup on the Way to Finding a Therapist
The easiest way to get from point A to point B is with a vehicle that runs on alphabet soup.
Jarod Kintz
Imagine for a moment that you have been feeling down for a few weeks plus a little tense at times. You’ve been to your doctor, who prescribed some medications with weird-sounding names (the topic of another article in the future). Your enlightened doctor also suggested that you seek out a therapist with whom you can talk things over. You go to your insurance company’s website to find someone who has an office nearby and takes your insurance. Suddenly, as if this was really what you needed at this time, you become faced with a laundry list of names, all having letters after their names. How can you tell who is whom? Well, let’s see if I can help.
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Wading Through Alphabet Soup on the Way to Finding a TherapistRead More »
Why a 50-Minute Hour?
“I’m afraid our time is up.”
Said at one time or other by most therapists
Why not a 15-minute hour, like a physician? Why not a 60-minute hour, like on most people’s watches? Why an hour in the first place? Good questions all. And the answers do not involve any evidence-based reasons that I know of. It’s all about the convenience of the therapist. Or it’s because that’s what insurance companies pay for. Same thing?
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A Psychotherapy of One’s Own
There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have.
Howard Thurman
I recently read a book by Thomas Moore called, “A Religion of One’s Own.” Here, Dr. Moore, a former Catholic monk and now an author, therapist, and professor, tells his story of pulling in religious and spiritual traditions from various places and developing a “religion” that works for him. He also leads the reader through a process of doing this for him- or herself. In this spirit, if you engage me as your therapist, I will guide you toward a “psychotherapy of your own,” one that works for you in every possible way.
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Welcome to Your Life Journey!
The good life is a process. It is a direction, not a destination.
Carl Rogers
With all that’s going on for you right now, it seems hard to imagine that better times lie ahead. Actually, you have taken the first step toward better times by searching out someone like me. Whatever caused you to do this search represents a call to action, or “call to adventure,” on what many describe as a hero’s Journey.* You find this Journey theme throughout stories in history, folklore, mythology, religious ritual, movies, and theories of psychological development all around the world. Believe it or not, according to those stories, your life is unfolding according to plan. That’s the good news. And, there is no bad news!
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Have You Been Read Your Therapy Miranda Rights?
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be used to help you. You have the right to bring anyone with you. If you cannot afford therapy, your therapist will work with you to address this problem. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?
Dan Metevier, PsyD
No doubt you recognize these words, or words that sound similar. If you watch any kind of “cops and robbers” TV show, then I know you’ve heard something like this coming out of the mouth of a police officer. Miranda rights were established in 1966 from the United States Supreme Court case of Miranda v. Arizona. The Miranda warning protects a suspect’s Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer self-incriminating questions. The Therapy Miranda Rights, on the other hand, help clients understand some of the “rules of the game” before engaging in the therapy process.
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The Devolution of a Diagnosis: PTSD, Part Deux
We don’t seem ready to acknowledge that the largest danger to our women and children isn’t Al-Qaeda, but the people who are supposed to love and take care of them.
Bessel van der Kolk, MD
NOTE: This is a continuation of the story started in Part One of this series about a diagnosis called Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) that would apply to many children who are or were abused. We resume our story just as the people who decide what gets into the DSM-5® (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) receive an unprecedented amount of research data and information in order to make their wise decision.
Shall we find out what happens?
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