8 Reasons to Cheer for Psychotherapy and to Broaden Its Availability (Psychology Today)

psychotherapy:

via Psychology Today:

According to a new large-scale review of therapy effectiveness research studies conducted by the American Psychological Association, the effectiveness of psychotherapy is very real.  The impacts of psychotherapy are positive both on the psyche and on the body.  In addition to easing emotional distress,  psychotherapy helps reduce the need for physical health services and produces long-term physical as well as emotional health improvements…

…As a result of their effectiveness review project, the APA’s Council of Representatives last week adopted a resolution on psychotherapy effectiveness. The resolution cites more than 50 peer-reviewed studies on psychotherapy and its effectiveness in treating a spectrum of health issues and with a variety of populations, including children, members of minority groups and the elderly. 

The resolution reports the following findings, all reasons to cheer for psychotherapy and to make these services more broadly available.

1. Research demonstrates that psychotherapy is effective for a variety of mental and behavioral health issues and across a spectrum of population groups.

2. The average effects of psychotherapy are larger than the effects produced by medications for reducing negative emotional states like anxiety, anger, and depression.

3. Grouping together many studies to a analyze their overall findings, the large overview study found that psychotherapy reduces physical and emotional disability, death rates and psychiatric hospitalizations.

4. Psychotherapy also leads to improved functioning at work.

5: Psychotherapy teaches life skills that last far beyond the course of treatment. Individual psychotherapy can teach skills ways of thinking that reduce vulnerability to depression, anger, fears and anxiety. Couples therapy teaches skills for better communication, conflict resolution and anger management—skills that significantly improve the quality of marriages and prevent divorces.  Family therapy teaches skills for becoming a better parent, in turn helping children to grow into happier and healthier adults.

6. The results of psychotherapy tend to last longer than drug treatments.

7. Unlike drug treatments, psychotherapy rarely produces harmful side effects such as the weight gain, lowered sex drive, emotional agitation, fuzzy-headedness or other potential side effects of psychological medications.

8. While medication is appropriate in some instances, research shows that in general the effects produced by psychotherapy are comparable or better than the effects produced by drug treatments for the same disorders.

 “As Americans grapple with the ever-increasing cost of health care, it is important that consumers and those who make decisions about health care access understand the potential value in both improved outcomes and cost-saving of psychotherapies,” Vasquez said. “APA applauds and continues to support collaboration of psychologists with other health care providers as part of integrated health care teams. Psychotherapies are highly effective, but only when consumers have access to them.”

Manhattanhenge

Something unusual and spectacular is happening in NYC tonight. It’s called Manhattanhenge. It happens four nights a year, starting tonight!  Basically, the sun is positioned in the sky so that it sets directly within the grids of the streets of Manhattan.  How cool is that!?  So get up, get out and check it out tonight! Want to know more? Click here on the American Museum of Natural History website. 

       

Halloween!

In the mood for some creepy Halloween photos? Check out some photos dating between 1875 and 1955 from this book called Haunted Air, here.  See one of the photos and the book cover below. They are mostly older, black and white photos from the personal collection of Ossian Brown and I have to say, quite a creep-fest!  Enjoy! 

       
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How Your Greatest Insecurities Reveal Your Deepest Gifts

via psychotherapy an article from Psychology Today:

“In my decades of practice as a psychotherapist, this is the insight that has inspired me most:

Our deepest wounds surround our greatest gifts.

I’ve found that the very qualities we’re most ashamed of, the ones we keep trying to reshape or hide, are in fact the key to finding real love. I call them core gifts.

It’s so easy to get lost in the quest for self-improvement. Every billboard seduces us with the vision of a happier, more successful life. I’m suggesting an opposite road to happiness. If we can name our own awkward, ardent gifts, and extricate them from the shame and wounds that keep them buried, we’ll find ourselves on a bullet train to deep, surprising, life-changing intimacy.

Over the years, I realized that the characteristics of my clients which I found most inspiring, most essentially them, were the ones which frequently caused them the most suffering. 

Read More

In an increasingly inhumane world, I often find myself pleasantly surprised by the gentleness and kindness of humanity. This simple project called tweenbots by Kacie Kinzer illustrates that tenderness for me. The tweenbot basically looks like a small lost object trying to get somewhere. I think that people responded positively to it’s vulnerability and neediness. Sometimes you can get what you want, if you just ask for it! In this case, the tweenbot needed help getting to it’s destination and it got it! I also love that this project took place in New York City, my home town! From the tweenbots website: Given their extreme vulnerability, the vastness of city space, the dangers posed by traffic, suspicion of terrorism, and the possibility that no one would be interested in helping a lost little robot, I initially conceived the Tweenbots as disposable creatures which were more likely to struggle and die in the city than to reach their destination. Because I built them with minimal technology, I had no way of tracking the Tweenbot’s progress, and so I set out on the first test with a video camera hidden in my purse. I placed the Tweenbot down on the sidewalk, and walked far enough away that I would not be observed as the Tweenbot––a smiling 10-inch tall cardboard missionary––bumped along towards his inevitable fate. The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.” Read more about this project here. 
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In an increasingly inhumane world, I often find myself pleasantly surprised by the gentleness and kindness of humanity. This simple project called tweenbots by Kacie Kinzer illustrates that tenderness for me. The tweenbot basically looks like a small lost object trying to get somewhere. I think that people responded positively to it’s vulnerability and neediness. Sometimes you can get what you want, if you just ask for it! In this case, the tweenbot needed help getting to it’s destination and it got it! I also love that this project took place in New York City, my home town!

From the tweenbots website:

Given their extreme vulnerability, the vastness of city space, the dangers posed by traffic, suspicion of terrorism, and the possibility that no one would be interested in helping a lost little robot, I initially conceived the Tweenbots as disposable creatures which were more likely to struggle and die in the city than to reach their destination. Because I built them with minimal technology, I had no way of tracking the Tweenbot’s progress, and so I set out on the first test with a video camera hidden in my purse. I placed the Tweenbot down on the sidewalk, and walked far enough away that I would not be observed as the Tweenbot––a smiling 10-inch tall cardboard missionary––bumped along towards his inevitable fate.

The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”

Read more about this project here. 

(via drkathleenyoung)

“Why not think about something you have always wanted to try, and give it a shot!?” Watch this short, inspiring video by Matt Cutts, an engineer from Google.  He (and I) encourage you to try something new for 30 days! 

4th of July fireworks over Manhattan, 2011 as seen from Brooklyn. What a view!
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4th of July fireworks over Manhattan, 2011 as seen from Brooklyn. What a view!

5 Beliefs You Have That Are Holding You Back

the game of life

Every day we carry around ideas about the world and our place in it. These ideas influence the decisions we make, how we live our lives and what we do on a day to day basis. Most of us have acquired these ideas through exposure to our families, our culture, and the images we see on TV and the internet. Some of the messages we receive are so pervasive it’s hard to even know that we make a choice to believe them. But I do think it’s important to understand and recognize these beliefs. It’s important to understand these beliefs because they influence the way you live and some of these beliefs may have faulty logic. If we are living our lives based on faulty logic, then we are not setting ourselves up for success. Instead we are setting ourselves up for failure. This is why I have put together a list of beliefs I think have faulty logic. Do you have any of these beliefs? Do you think they holding you back?

  • Vulnerability is a weakness – most of us are taught from a very young age that being vulnerable is a problem. This is something our culture transmits to us every day. And, it’s especially true for men. However, I believe that within a trusting environment, being vulnerable is an absolute strength. Vulnerability is an essential component of love. In order to truly be in a loving relationship you need to be able to show who you are to the other person. How can you do this if you are hiding the parts of you that are scared or fearful? Love requires being able to show yourself fully, to another and have them show themselves to you. Therefore I believe that being vulnerable is an important and essential part of life because it allows us to love and be loved. Without love, where would we be?
  • Perfection is achievable – holding onto the idea that it is possible to be perfect can be very damaging. It is an unreal and unattainable standard to hold yourself to and therefore very destructive. There is no such thing as perfect, it just does not exist. The sooner you can recognize this and let go of the expectation that you can achieve perfection, the less suffering you will experience. I think so many of us experience and prolong our suffering because we somehow believe that we can achieve perfection. This is just not true.
  • It’s bad to be angry – there are so many messages sent to us about being angry, such as anger should be feared, or that we should run away from our anger. Anger is just an emotion, no more dangerous than sadness or joy. All of our emotions should be recognized and honored. They are messages sent to us by our minds and our bodies, letting us know if something is working for us or not working for us. Feeling angry is not dangerous. It’s not the feelings that can get you into trouble, it’s what you do with the feeling that can. Be careful and mindful when you want act on those emotions of anger. You cannot necessarily control your feelings, but you can control your responses to your feelings. You can read more about being angry here.
  • Real change can happen quickly – it is almost impossible to make any real change in yourself or another person quickly. For most of us, change takes time and a tremendous amount of effort. I think this is sometimes hard to understand because you may want things to be different. Maybe, you have tried a new behavior once or twice, but it doesn’t feel like change is happening fast enough. So you may abandon all your efforts at change because you don’t think anything is happening. But the reality is change happens very slowly and takes a lot of time, and this is normal! So when you are trying to live your life differently keep this in mind. If you remember this, it will help prevent you from feeling discouraged and also help you have more realistic expectations. The more realistic your expectations are, the more likely you are to follow through on your goals.
  • It’s better to feel nothing than to feel bad – some people try to numb out when they are feeling sad or down about something. I’ve heard many people say “I’d rather feel nothing than feel this bad”. But there is a danger when we numb out the “bad” feelings! We end up numbing out all the good feelings too. And then you are left with emotional numbness, which can feel very isolating and distressing. In these moments, remember feelings can change. You will not feel sad forever. Feelings do come and go. So instead of trying to numb them out, just ride them out and remind yourself, they will go away. You can read more on emotional numbness here.

It can be difficult to recognize when we have beliefs that get in our way. One way to notice when you may have a belief that gets in your way is to look at the moments in life when you get stuck. Do you see any patterns? Do you get stuck every time you are trying to start a new job? Maybe you have a hard time meeting new people and part of that stems from your ideas about perfection? Who knows what may be getting in your way. Be curious about yourself, not critical. Try to examine why you believe certain things. Know that you can create meaning and new beliefs from your life experiences. You don’t need other people to tell you how the world is - trust yourself and your experiences to create meaning for you. And ultimately be kind to yourself. The more kindness you can give to yourself, the greater joy and meaning you will find in life.

Written by Victoria Marano, LCSW

       

Foggy Night

Photo from the streets of the city that never sleeps.