Paradox Outta Da Box

Everybody knows CBT works .  Research indicates positive results, and it is often described as an ‘evidence based treatment’. However, the question is – Why does it work? There have been efforts to ‘deconstruct’ CBT’ and break down treatment videos in order to isolate and identify those aspect(s) that consistently influence positive change. Research tried to figure out whether the key to success w...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is still in its early stages. But by all accounts, it is already the next major phase in the ongoing technological revolution. With AI’s help, we already have driverless cars, and robots that can perform complicated surgeries, among other advances. Corporate executives are using AI programs like CHATgpt to produce detailed reports, generate company presentations, creat...

There’s a treatment called  Exposure and Response Prevention   (ERP) .  Therapists who work with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) know all about it. It’s a specialized form of CBT that is used to treat anxiety and OCD issues. Unfortunately, it has become a ‘cornerstone’ of OCD treatment. On the surface, the approach makes so much sense that nobody even bothers to question it.   The logic is sim...

So the big question is if treatment using psychedelics is here to stay or whether it’s a ‘flash in the pan’. Those who advocate for it claim that it lowers habitual defenses in a way that allows the mind the neuroplasticity to expand. This often allows for a new perspective on blockages and situations that have prevented the person from living more fully. Yet, others view the use of psychedelics a...

We don’t often hear about this topic in seminars or training. This is one of those things that most of us don’t want to think about. The hope is - If we don’t think about it, maybe we won’t ever have to deal with it. Usually if there is some kind of difficulty, we try to work with the client to come to an amicable agreement. However, if you work long enough in this field, inevitably there are situ...

Which type of therapist are you? Are you more the ‘expert’ therapist that guides your client in a ‘top down’ approach to behave in an appropriate manner, think more rational, or see things in a more realistic way. Or are you more the ‘explorer’ type who works from the ‘bottom up’ to help realign blocked emotions, ‘parts’, or thoughts to encourage internal integration and growth.   Either way the t...

Many therapists might think that Somatic therapy is new to the therapy scene. However, Fritz Perls from Gestalt Therapy incorporated many somatic type interventions in facilitating his work. Often he would tell clients, “Lose your mind, and come to your senses!” The direction of therapy would guide clients to get in touch with their body’s inner energy and sensations. In this way he would encourag...

Therapy has evolved quite a bit since the 1970’s and ‘80’s. Even at that point psycho-analysis no longer had a monopoly on therapy. While John Bowlby had already introduced his work regarding parent-child attachment, its significance was not yet recognized. Back then, behavioral therapy and CBT had come to dominate the field. The assumption was that by rewarding positive behavior or using logic an...

Everyone knows that therapy is serious business. We help people from broken families with broken dreams to put back the broken pieces of their lives. So suggesting that there is a place for ‘joking and absurdity’ in therapy may seem a bit counter-intuitive.  However, ultimately it is the client’s ability to integrate his trauma and suffering that will determine how quickly he heals. Part of this p...

The problem with teenagers is that they are neither here nor there. Sometimes they act like adults and sometimes like children. For therapists’ this can be challenging because we don’t always know who will show up. On the positive side, teens have a lot of energy, that when channeled in the right direction, can overcome difficult obstacles. On the negative side, teens often try to assert their ind...

Therapists often seek to learn about new modalities and gain innovative skills designed to improve their practice. While searching for new methods is certainly important, what often goes unaddressed is the ‘other side of the coin’. This ‘other side’, refers to the therapist’s ability to trust his personal awareness or ‘use-of-self’ in the therapeutic process. In this manner, the therapist is consc...

People often enter therapy because they experience emotional or psychological ‘suffering’ in their life. As therapists’ our goal is to relieve suffering.  However, what does ‘suffering’ actually mean? Is ‘suffering’ based more on behavior, emotions, thoughts, or trauma from childhood? Often the hope is that therapy can correct the above symptoms, merge ‘parts’, or roleplay the client toward differ...

As part of therapy it is common to hear therapists looking for ways to get the client to ‘buy in’ to the treatment process. Some try to convince the client that it to their benefit, some offer rewards, and some will warn of the negative consequences. But essentially the hope is to figure out how to get the client to cooperate and accept our therapy agenda… And of course, once the client ‘buys in’,...

Many therapists get overwhelmed even just thinking about doing couple or family therapy. Offhand it seems much easier to do individual therapy where the therapist can focus all his attention - without distraction - on the client. However, the problem with individual therapy is that we are hearing only one side of the story. When doing individual therapy we do not have access to the dynamic interch...

Bed wetting and Encopresis are common problems in childhood. Many times a child may just grow out of it. However, sometimes parents become concerned depending on the age of the child, or how long the issue persists. Some parents resort to medication, and some try behavioral techniques. There are also sleeping mats that are designed to wake the child up using alarms if he starts to wet the bed. How...

Therapists must be very sensitive in handling suicidal ideation and threats. The main and primary factor in working with such ideation is taking away the person's underlying experience of being alone. In order to help people with suicidal ideation, it is important to quickly convey a personal connection. Our approach toward the person should be non-threatening and avoid any kind of power struggle....

DeCarte said, “I think, therefore I am”. As a result, many people have tried using their internal process of thinking through ‘self-affirmations’ to think differently. Some work very hard to convince their mind to change negative beliefs and thought patterns. Inevitably such affirmations don’t work because their underlying sense of isolation and aloneness remains the same. However in pdxi, the goa...

Many therapists get overwhelmed even just thinking about doing couple or family therapy. Offhand it seems much easier to do individual therapy where the therapist can focus all his attention - without distraction - on the client. However, the problem with individual therapy is that we are hearing only one side of the story. When doing individual therapy we do not have access to the dynamic interch...

As therapists, we all want to be 'competent'. But it sometimes our very desire to be competent that gets in the way of allowing the client to grow and discover their own solutions.  At times the direction the client needs to go is obvious to us. However by giving the client OUR answer, we take away the clients' ability to search and discover solutions that work for them. When the client is able to...

In 1965, Gloria (a patient) met for a half-hour session with 3 well known therapists of that time; Carl Rogers (Client Centered Therapy), Fritz Perls (Gestalt Therapy), and Albert Ellis (Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy – REBT). In this podcast we get to explore a shortened video version of these 3 meetings. We explore and comment how the originator of each of these therapies demonstrates their...

t is important to be aware of transference and counter-transference. Transference is when the client projects on to the therapist emotions and perceptions they may have experienced earlier in life. Often a client may see the therapist as having similar qualities to that of a parent. At the same time, the client may also bring up feelings and emotions in the therapist that is related to his persona...

Here we explore a direction in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is being used to advance therapy. A brief video showed how a computer avatar could be used to help people diagnosed with schizophrenia, and who had been previously paralyzed by critical and debilitating voices in their head. By using the computer to generate an avatar voice with face image, the client could finally have a...

In this podcast I do a 20 minute roleplay with a regular participant to the podcast. Although he tries a few attempts to get me ‘off track’, I remain in the ‘here & now’ and coach him how to better avoid ‘being responsible’. After the roleplay, I and the participant review the ‘session’ and discuss what he learned from it. He noted that it helped him discover that he was working harder to get...

The Grand Illusion refers to the fact that while we each experience our ‘reality’ as being a separate individual, in truth we are all included as part of the greater unified universe. So in essence our existence in the world is to overcome the Grand Illusion that we are separate and alone. This means that the work of therapy is not so much to change the finite limits of behavior, thinking, or emot...

Many of us have gone for various training and learned techniques designed to move the client forward. However if the focus of the therapy gets wrapped up in perfecting the technique, then we can often get stuck in the skill or tool and lose sight of the person in front of us. In this podcast we offer that the therapist should try to address the client from a position of caring and empathy. We shou...