Description: It is not a big secret so you have likely heard or read references to findings that antidepressant medications do not work for somewhere around 30% of those to whom they are prescribed and that most of those for whom they DO work will find at some point that they no longer work, and… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Intervention: Identifying Key Elements of Change
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 »
We Need Citizen Therapy, But Why?
Description: We are hearing from several directions that there are not enough therapists to go around these days. Even discounting the impact of the Covid pandemic (if we can), the successful reduction of stigma associated with admitting that help is needed and increasing levels of burnout and retirement among support and therapy providers, and we… Read more »
CBT Works But Is Its Theory Wrong?
Description: You know what Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is, don’t you? It is, perhaps the most widely used approach to therapy taken by psychologists treating clients with depression, anxiety and many other symptoms of mental illness or the lack of wellbeing. I suspect you also know something of what CBT involves: The challenging of irrational,… 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 »
MDMA and Relationship Work?
Description: Imagine that a couple you know is having relationship difficulties that have been going on for a while. Imagine farther that you think that one if the things contributing to their difficulties is that seem to be having problems talking to one another about things that matter to them in their relationship (e.g., having… Read more »
Let’s Talk Talk Therapy!
Description: The Canadian cellular services company, Bell, launched the Let’s Talk campaign in 2010. It is focused on reducing/eliminating stigma associated with mental illness. Stigma, related to mental illness, is a social phenomenon involving beliefs about the nature of mental illness (e.g., that it is somehow the fault of the people who struggle with it)… Read more »
Predicting Early Onset Psychiatric Issues: How Many Factors?
Description: If you wanted to try and predict which individuals in a group of children would later develop one of a number of early onset psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety, addictions, dyslexia, bulimia, or ADHD what would you include in your list of predictors? How long would you list be? How accurately would your… Read more »
Psychology of Covid: Reasoning with Unreasonable People About Vaccination
Description: How do you deal with someone who you believe is completely unreasonable? Well, one possible answer that makes a lot of sense is simply to not deal with them at all. Who needs the stress and the headaches associated with trying to take on an unreasonable person and try to get them to BE… Read more »
Can You Out-Grow or Out-Develop ADHD?
Description: You know a little bit about ADHD, right? So, consider this question, if a child is diagnosed as meeting the diagnostic criteria for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) can or will they, over time, outgrow the disorder (or the diagnosis)? A good friend of mine used to be principal at a school for children… Read more »
Books for Success!
