Description: Have you heard of E.M.D.R. therapy? It stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy. This is an unfair oversimplification, but it involves a patient thinking of a past traumatic event while guided by a therapist to engage in some form of bilateral stimulation such as following the therapist’s finger moving from side to… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Anxiety OC PTSD
Dog Ownership and Psychological Wellbeing
Description: Quick question. Is having a dog good for you psychologically? Don’t do any searching on the question, just go with what you have heard or recall. Answer? Good for you, right? Maybe you have heard that regular time with dogs extends the lives of elderly people or that dog companions help their human friend… Read more »
Which Treatment is Best for Self-Harming and Suicidal Teens?
Description: Perhaps you have heard about the alarming increases that are being observed in rates of self-harming behavior and suicidal thoughts and actions among teenagers. These stats are often discussed in relation to the question of whether they might be linked to recent generational jumps in use of social media and the attendant shifts in… Read more »
Mental Health Thermometers
Description: You drop into your doctor’s office and tell them you are not feeling well. Assuming COVID is not the issue (which would likely be picked up at the front desk of the clinic using screening questions) what is one of the first things the doctor will likely do? Take you temperature, right? (Or ask… Read more »
Perfectionism: A Growing Problem That Needs A Wider Perspective
Description: Are you aware of the consistent finding that the rates of perfectionism among adolescents and emerging adults have increased dramatically over the past 20 to 30 years? Young people driving themselves to be perfect, holding themselves to I possibly high standards, and believing that doing so is essential to moving forward positively in life… Read more »
Coping in and Anxious Uncertain World: Yes You CAN!
Description: You do not need me to tell you that we are living in uncertain times with a (hopefully) waning pandemic and an invasion of a democratic country (Ukraine). Aside from the stresses associated with these events there are also boatloads of uncertainty about what it all means, about where it is all going, about… Read more »
Adults and Play: Could Gaming Be Good For You?
Description: I am sure you are aware of discussions and perhaps research looking at the possibility that video gaming could have addictive properties, and this leads to several degrees of caution around gaming “too much” as an adult. Gaming is also generally categorized as “play” and play is only for children, right? Well, how about… Read more »
Is Microdosing (With Hallucinogens) Effective or is it a Placebo Effect?
Description: Here is a “design a study” challenge. You may have run across discussions of recent research looking at the therapeutic use of drugs that are or were considered recreational and illegal, e.g., LSD, Ecstasy, or Psilocybin (magic mushrooms). What you may not have run across yet are discussion of more recent research looking at… Read more »
The Happiness Professor and Strategic Burnout Avoidance Breaks
Description: I do not know if you notice but stories about specific areas of Psychological research seem to pop up in bunches. I take this to be a reflection of there being a particular issue or need that is emerging around that point in time and the folks writing articles are looking for things, or… Read more »
Review and Then Dig Into Social Media Use
Description: There has been a lot of discussion in the media about social media and about whether or not it is potentially harmful to young people and particularly to teenage females. I have posted a number of times regarding articles looking at this question (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5). Throughout… Read more »
Books for Success!
