(1533 words – 7 1/2 minute read)

This therapy thing is not a complicated deal once you get the hang of it. It’s probably because over the years most of the ‘technique’ has become internalized, a natural thing – like knowing your name.

A client was referred to me by Dr. Thompson, our prescribing psychologist at the Behavioral Health Center at our local hospital.

He was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I forget if he was taking meds for it or had refused the drugs. Clients who had refused medication therapy were often referred to me. I like to know what the real situation is. I have enough confidence in my ability to help them not to want what is going on with them obscured by dulling medications. Otherwise I’m only as skilled as the social workers in the clinic: checking on how the ‘meds’ are working, and dispensing encouraging advice.

I once had a client who had to hold onto the walls to stay upright and couldn’t form words easily. Time to ease up on the meds!

Anyway, let’s call our client John, in his 30’s and single. He couldn’t leave his house in the morning to go to work without checking the locks so many times he was frequently late for work and worried all day that the house was open or his dog would get out of the yard.

In the first session I addressed his situation as a memory problem. I figured that if John had a way of knowing he had locked his door, then he would be relieved of one aspect of his anxiety.

Continue reading Asleep at the Wheel & Out of Focus →

(164 words – 1  minute read)

In the usual therapy seen on TV, touching is absolutely forbidden. Like really not OK. The idea being about “transference” blah blah.

But some of us go for days, weeks maybe, touching no one. Not a hug in sight. Nada, fuckall. So we buy a massage or touch ourselves. Sad, yes?!

Exercise is one way of feeling the body, but the word is an instant turn off for me…like
“work”.
Who ‘wants” to ‘exercise’? No one. But if we FEEL good running, then that’s not exercise for its own sake, that’s joy. Anything Physical that feels good IS good.
And therapeutic.

We practice T’ai Chi because it connects the mind and the body and it FEELS good…so-
therapeutic, right?
Therapies come in all shapes and sizes as do therapists. We never know who or what is going to enlighten us or bring a new idea to life for us.
Stay awake and be open to the influences around us is all.

(585 words – 3 minute read)

Trauma resolution, stress management, pain management. These are some of the things we do. They all have certain things in common which we will try to describe here. And because a client is not a passive recipient but rather an active participant, he or she needs to know what is going on for therapy to work.

What we dealing with in a session are troubling incidents or feelings, something you have but don’t want. A troubling incident or mood is something that persists when it should be moving on.

Continue reading What we do and what we don’t do →