Surviving Child Sexual Abuse What is child sexual abuse?
Child sexual abuse is any sexual behavior directed toward a child by a person who has power over that child. Such behavior always involves a betrayal of the child’s trust.
Some forms ...
Occupational Therapy and Mental Health The mental health treatment journey requires a collaborative effort by many people -- the individual, his or her caregivers, support providers, doctors, ...
Where to Start and What to Ask: An Assessment Handbook Two decades ago, in January 1993, Susan Lukas released Where to Start and What to Ask: An Assessment Handbook, aimed at guiding mental health practitioners toward better psychological assessments and intake interviews.
Though the author ...
Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries “I’m a midwife to the dying – for those who want to hasten their death,” says George Exoo, a Unitarian preacher who claims to have assisted 102 people in killing themselves. He often carries a ...
Power Plays Between Brothers & Families This story shows how the troubled relationship between two brothers was a therapeutic opportunity to change maladaptive family patterns.
Drew, 19, and Steve, 20, were close brothers raised in a volatile family. When Drew started getting into trouble in college, their mom arranged for the brothers to live together in an apartment, hoping that Steve could watch out for Drew. This solution backfired; the boys acted out family-related power plays. Physical confrontation escalated along with family-related conflict and hostility. At this point, the mom sought help.
Mom and Dad’s Perspective
Kate was an immigrant from Italy who, more than anything, wanted a better life for her children. She worked tirelessly to earn money for their education.
Consistent with the old-school style of authoritarian parenting with which she was raised, Kate demanded devotion and obedience. She was very involved with her sons and, though caring, she was also high-strung, anxious and unrelenting when they didn’t perform - yelling, threatening and lecturing – reminding them of her very real sacrifice and suffering on their behalf.
Drew perpetually disappointed and upset Kate. He failed to live up to her expectations and often lied to appease her. She worried about his ability to be independent, responsible, and protect himself. Steve, on the other hand, was seen as the ideal son: high-achieving, responsible, and aggressive. She constantly compared the two of them.
Good Therapy for OCD With the help of the Internet, my son Dan correctly diagnosed himself with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) at the age of 17. After his ...
The Self Under Siege: A Therapeutic Model for Differentiation “How much of our identity or self is truly representative of our own wants and goals in life, and how much does it reflect the wants and priorities of someone else?” This is the question ...
Re-Gifting or Re-Giving? General wisdom these days declares that passing along a gift is tacky. Reasonable people get unreasonably offended when they even suspect that the puce ...
The Oxford Handbook of Sexual Conflict in Humans Is the battle of the sexes between men and women real or a social convention? It turns out that men and women compete not only for gender equality in the workplace, but also via the ...
Now What? An Insider’s Guide to Addiction and Recovery William Cope Moyers is best known as the author of Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption, the memoir chronicling his addiction and subsequent recovery. The book quickly became a New York Times bestseller upon ...
When You Can’t Afford Psychotherapy You know you’re in trouble. Maybe you’ve been depressed for what seems like ages. You can’t get motivated to do things. You ...
Siblings Don’t Have to be Rivals Siblings are the people we practice on, the people who teach us about fairness and cooperation and kindness and caring, quite ...
