Monday, March 27, 2023

Music Therapy Interventions Reduce Depression Symptoms in Dementia

1
Therapists can use music to meet the emotional and social needs of individuals with dementia.

A Suicide Therapist’s Secret Past

2
In this piece for The New York Times, suicidologist and psychotherapist Stacey Freedenthal tells her story of having struggled with suicidality and discusses the importance...

Study Highlights Importance of Social Interactions in Psychosis Recovery

0
Study finds frequency of social interactions predicts long-term remission in first-episode psychosis.
process work tabasco

Process Oriented Approaches to Altered and Extreme States of Consciousness

21
When John Herold went to see a Process Work counselor, they talked about how his experience of extreme states had been disruptive in his life, but how these states also had value. The counselor compared John's experience with drinking an entire bottle of Tabasco sauce all at once. Why not instead, the counselor suggested, "try being just a little psychotic all the time?"

Fantasy Video Game Zaps Depression in Adolescents

1
SPARX, an interactive video game in which significantly depressed adolescents shoot down "GNATs" (Gloomy Negative Automatic Thoughts) in a quest to restore the balance...

What Happens When Therapists Reveal Their Own Inner Struggles?

7
-Counselor and artist Sara Nash asks whether its good that she rarely shares her own experiences of inner pain when she talks to college students about suicidal ideation.

New Collaborative and Feedback-Informed Family Therapy Approach

6
Attempts to bridge the gap between research and practice result in a family therapy approach which employs clients as co-researchers.

Therapy Effective and Efficient Long-Term For Depression

7
There is robust evidence for the long-term effectiveness of psychotherapy, and it also provides good value-for-money, according to a large randomized control trial published open-access this month in The Lancet. The researchers recommend that clinicians refer all patients with treatment-resistant depression to therapy.

What is Contributory Injustice in Psychiatry?

30
An article on contributory injustice describes the clinical and ethical imperative that clinicians listen to service users experiences.

Data Challenges Superiority of Manualized Psychotherapy

6
New data fails to support the promotion of manualized psychotherapy as superior to non-manualized forms of psychotherapy.

New Study on a Non-Toxic Intervention for Those at High Risk of Psychosis

1
A new multi-centered study was released about using cognitive therapy for young people who were seen as being at high risk of psychosis. The article reporting the study is on the British Medical Journal website, available in full – http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e2233. It’s curious to see how it is being reported in the press.

Psychosocially Oriented Psychologists Struggle Against the Medical Model

31
Interviews with psychosocially oriented psychologists demonstrate their experiences of discomfort with the hegemony of the medical model in their place of work and the conflicts that arise when they attempt to provide alternatives.

Family Oriented, Home-Based Treatment Best for Youth with Symptoms of Psychosis

14
A pathbreaking new study out of Finland suggests that early intervention programs for youth experiencing psychotic-like symptoms may see the greatest improvement when treatment works within the home rather than in a hospital setting. The research, to be published in next month’s issue of Psychiatry Research, found greater improvement in functioning, depression, and hopelessness among teens in a new need-adapted Family and Community oriented Integrative Treatment Model (FCTM) program.

Meditation and Exercise Reduce Depression Symptoms 40%

28
A combination of exercise and meditation done twice a week over two months may reduce depression symptoms by 40 percent, according to a new study published open-access this month in Translational Psychiatry. Following the eight-week intervention, the student participants that had previously been diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) reported significantly less symptoms and ruminative thoughts and students without any such diagnoses also showed remarkable improvements.

“Persuasive” Evidence for Peer Support

4
The Journal of Psychosocial Nursing reviews the evidence for peer support, finding "outcomes across a range of measures no different than when services had...

Therapy More Effective than Medications for Anxiety — Placebos Also Effective

3
One-on-one Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is better than psychiatric medications or other common psychotherapeutic interventions for severe anxiety disorders in adults, according to a large...

Personal Narrative Mediates the Impact of Social Deficits in Schizophrenia

0
"Although negative symptoms are a barrier to recovery," says a study in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, "little is understood about the...

Sense of Purpose Reduces Negative Effects of Social Media Use

2
New research shows that having a strong sense of personal meaning and purpose can reduce the negative effects of social media use.

Beyond Critique: Psychologists Discuss Diagnostic Alternatives

2
The Journal of Humanistic Psychology compiles diverse research offering diagnostic alternatives toward a paradigm shift in mental health care.

Professionals Push Back on Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual, Propose Alternatives

30
Criticisms of the DSM-5 spark alternative proposals and calls to reform diagnostic systems in the mental health field.

Study Explores Professional Help-seeking Among Persons with Depression

2
A large review of studies finds that men, young and elderly adults, ethnic minorities, and individuals with lower education status are most at risk for not seeking help.

Bullying & its Long-Term Effects on Wellness

2
Psychologist William Copeland writes for Mental Health Recovery that “bullying can occur at any age and the effects of which remain harmful long after the behavior has been endured.” “We, as a society, are just beginning to understand and come to terms with the havoc that bullying wreaks on the emotional lives of its victims.

England’s Mental Health Experiment: No-Cost Talk Therapy

2
From The New York Times: England is in the midst of a unique national experiment, an initiative that provides open-ended talk therapy free of charge...
multi-lens

Introducing Multi-Lens Therapy

13
How can we restore something as essential to the healing and helping process as knowing what is going on? If your client has an actual biological problem, he needs one sort of help. If he hates his job, he needs another sort of help. It is absurd (and not okay) that a helper would look only at putative “symptoms” and not at what’s going on.

A New Model of Service

16
What should the relational and emotional stance of the therapist be? Just who exactly is the therapist in relationship to the person coming to see the therapist? What is the therapist's job, exactly? What should the therapist's disposition be toward the person sitting across from them? What kinds of assumptions or presumed power come with the label therapist and are those assumptions harmful or helpful?