For many people, the idea of hypnosis conjures up the image of the old style of psychoanalyst, waving a watch in front of someone and saying, “You are getting sleepy, sleepy . . .” or an image of a stage magician , with people getting up on stage and acting like chickens. Modern hypnosis is […]
Nervous feelings are the result of a particular thought pattern, which we may shift into when we anticipate failure or rejection. A “thought pattern” is a set of feelings and images that are strongly associated with each other. One image or feeling can “call up” the entire set that it’s associated with. The more times […]
Frequently Asked Questions About Psychotherapy Do I Have To Lie On A Couch? Only if you want to. Seriously, most psychotherapy takes place sitting up. Our offices are equipped with sofas and very comfortable chairs to help our patients feel relaxed, but the old style of psychoanalysis (lying on the couch) is rarely used these […]
Virginia Satir, in her pioneering work Peoplemaking, tried to bring the concepts of family therapy to the masses so that people could understand how families shape (and unintentionally distort) their members’ feelings and behavior. Before that, a number of well-known therapists spent many years working with entire families to develop their ideas of how the family […]
Alcoholism could be referred to as “the disease that makes you think you don’t have it.” Alcoholics rarely believe that they have the disease, or they minimize it in other ways such as by comparing themselves to even heavier drinkers. They develop elaborate belief systems to defend themselves against the realization that they are not […]
The concept of Co-Dependency was developed as a way of explaining how family members of alcoholics, especially their spouses, became emotionally ill apparently as a result of living with an alcoholic for years. “Co” is a prefix that means “like” or “with” – the family member becomes sick like and with “the dependent” (the person […]
In the early 1980’s Jael Greenleaf published a pamphlet entitled Adult Children of Alcoholics, and for the first time this group was identified and characterized by the symptoms they share in common. The support group “Adult Children of Alcoholics” stated in their pamphlet: “We had come to feel isolated . . . we either became […]
Virtually no one wakes up one morning and says to himself, “What a beautiful day! I think I’ll get addicted to drugs today!” However, a huge number of people end up addicted to a variety of drugs. (Alcohol is a drug, too, but that’s another page.) How does this happen? Any substance which alters a […]
Almost everyone struggles a bit with learning, but if the struggling persists and your child starts falling farther behind, it’s probably better to be cautious and take a closer look at what could be causing the problem. Perhaps your child’s school is hinting that “attention” should be looked at. Or. maybe your child is misbehaving […]
How Medications Work The Antidepressants Anti-Anxiety Medicines Anti-Psychotic / Major Anxiety Drugs Next-Generation Psychotropics The Anticonvulsants Stimulants / ADHD Drugs Guidelines For Taking Psychiatric Meds Although we strongly believe in the value of psychotherapy and behavioral interventions, there are times when the extra help of medication is necessary in order to make the fullest adjustment, […]
