Plumbing the Depths of Power

I prefer to see therapy not as a method or a technique, but as the shared pursuit of power, power that paradoxically results from penetrating and excavating, like an archaeologist, the places within which powerlessness resides, which are usually the very places that most of us abhor and attempt to escape from. 24 year old […]

Tell Me a Story: The Power of Storytelling

“Information brings knowledge, but stories bring wisdom.” These words guide my clinical work more than any others, for I have learned that it is the power of the patient’s story, rather than that of the patient’s dogged data, that defines and informs psychotherapy’s curative properties. Or, as Mark Twain once put it, “Never let the […]

Cultivating Emotional Mindfulness: What, Why, and How…

The ability to mindfully experience, regulate, and respond to one’s feelings is essential to mental health and well-being.  Yet problems managing emotion abound and play a central role in most psychiatric disorders.  Regardless of diagnosis, many people seeking treatment have some degree of difficulty being present with and making good use of their emotional experience. […]

Interesting Study of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy vs CBT in the Treatment of Bulimia

An interesting study has been published recently that compares psychoanalytic psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of bulimia (abstract of the study). I thought it worth noting here.

Use-Oriented Thinking

There is a type of thinking that is so deeply ingrained within Western culture that it seems the only way to think. In science-based education we are taught to advance toward defined outcomes by means of goal-oriented thinking.  This type of thinking is a skill that enables us to improve our circumstances by setting goals, […]

Cultural Differences and Cognitive Therapy

The question of how cultural differences impact the practice of CBT has been highlighted by a special series on cultural considerations in using acceptance and mindfulness-based treatments in Cognitive and Behavioral Practice (February, 2013) and a special series on cultural competence in the Behavior Therapist (June, 2013). Back in the old days, many Americans were […]

The Therapeutic Relationship in CBT

In a recent online discussion, a colleague wrote “Perhaps psychodynamic therapists have relied too heavily on the relationship at the expense of client skill-building, while the opposite tends to be true for CBT therapists.”  This is a common criticism of CBT, but is there reason to believe that CBT therapists emphasize client skill-building at the […]

Alfred Adler’s “The Science of Living” Available Online

At a lecture in Vienna on February 4th, 1930, when Alfred Adler was asked about the best beginning book to read on Individual Psychology, he recommended “The Science of Living.” An online version, in PDF format, with a bookmarked table of contents, is now available at the Classical Adlerian Depth Psychotherapy Subscription Site at www.Adlerian.us/subscription.htm. […]

A Conversation with Henry Stein

BOL: Alfred Adler’s name is better known to today’s therapists than are his ideas and methods. Your dedication to this body of work must be based on the belief that contemporary practice is diminished because Adler’s contributions are not fully enough understood or used currently. What are the key elements of the Adlerian contribution to […]

Online Therapy Here to Stay

Those are difficult words for me to write. While I do provide services directly to clients over the Internet, I have taken great pains to distinguish what I do from therapy. Not everybody does the same. Martha Ainsworth’s Internet Mental Health Services site lists many different mental health providers currently providing services. The site Concerned Counseling alone claims to have 150 […]