Psychotherapy Daily News - 1/24/13

Psychotherapy Daily News features articles about mental health, science, health, education plus more from various sources, including New York Time, Yoga Journal, the Harvard Business Review, GoodTherapy.com, Psychiatric Times as well as some of my own psychotherapy-related articles.

Here are a list of some of the articles in today's Psychotherapy Daily News:

• Interpersonal Neurobiology in the Consulting Room With Dan Siegel
• Psychiatrists With Ethics Training Less Likely to Push Brand-Name Drugs
• Managing Suicide Risk of Clients With Borderline Personality Disorder
• Emotional Demands:  The Exhaustive Effect on Technology Workers
• Sugar Addiction and Mental Health:  America Needs Rehab
• Does Religion Help You Quit Smoking?
• Find Your Authentic Self and You Just Might Find Your Next Career
• Starting Therapy--and Ending It Too
• Reasons for Substance Use Predicts Treatment Outcome in Adolescents
• EMDR Self Help Book:  Getting Past Your Past
• Feeling Lonely in a Relationship
• Can You Read the Face of Victory?
• Th 28-Day Meditation Challenge Returns on February 1
• Why You Should Emphasize Your Potential Rather Than Your Achievements on Your CV
• It's Time to Cut Back on Social Media
• What Capitalism Can't Fix
• May I Be Happy?
• Long Term Effects of Life Expectancy From Smoking
• Addiction in the Home:  Healing Lives, Families and Communities
• It's My Job and I'll Tweet If I Want To
• Tips For Managing and Preventing Stress
• Science News From Around the Web
• Krishna Das Nominated For Grammy Award
• Stop Underage Drinking - Gateway to Federal Resources
• Study Links Cognitive Deficits and Hearing Loss
• Positive Psychology News Daily

You can subscribe for free by clicking on this link:Psychotherapy Daily News and clicking on the word "subscribe" so you don't miss an issue.

I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist.

I work with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my web site:  
Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (212) 726-1006.

Visit Psychotherapy Daily News for the latest information about mental health issues.

Psychotherapy Daily News - 1/23/13

Today's Psychotherapy Daily News, which has articles from my psychotherapy blog as well stories and videos from 
other psychotherapy sources, includes the following stories and videos:

• Psychotherapy:  Healing Your Emotional Wounds
• Psychotherapy and Beginner's Mind
• Resilience:  Bouncing Back from Life's ChallengesEMDR Self Help Book:  Getting Past Your Past
• Memory Experiment
• Update on Adolescent Mood Disorders
• Planck's Law of Generations - Psychiatric Times
• Family Habits:  The Key to Controlling Childhood Obesity
• Video:  Stories of Hope and Recovery - Jordan's Story
• Video:  Hurricane Sandy - Dr. Steven Southwick (Psychiatric Times)

You can subscribe to Psychotherapy Daily News by going to the site and clicking on the "Subscribe" button.

I am a licensed NYC psychotherapy, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist.

I work with individuals adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my web site:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (212) 726-1006.

Visit:  Psychotherapy Daily News

The Dreamer and the Pragmatist

I'm reading Adam Phillips' book, Promises, Promises - Essays on Psychoanalysis and Literature. In Chapter One, "Poetry and Psychoanalysis," Phillips discusses, among other things, the difference, generally speaking, between two different types of clients, the Dreamer and the Pragmatist.

Psychotherapy Clients - The Dreamer and the Pragmatist:
According to Adam Phillips, the client who is a Dreamer wants to free associate in therapy and go wherever his thoughts lead him, and the Pragmatist is focused on resolving his problems in therapy.  Whereas the Pragmatist wants to achieve things, the Dreamer is focused on the experiential.

The Dreamer and the Pragmatist

Adam Phillips says the Dreamer wants the therapist to help her get back into her reverie, and the Pragmatist wants the therapist to help her find a solution to her problem.

The Pragmatist wants to know, in a practical way, what to do.  The Dreamer wants to discover the way and see what happens.

Of course, these are generalizations, and most clients don't fall neatly into one category or another.  People are often a combination of the two.

I've worked with both Dreamers and Pragmatists in my psychotherapy practice in NYC and both types of clients appeal to the different aspects in me that I identify with.

Psychotherapy with the Pragmatist
In many ways, I'm a Pragmatist and I like helping clients in a down-to-earth manner, especially clients who come in for brief therapy, assuming that brief therapy is the appropriate form of treatment for them.  

Brief therapy is appropriate where a client has a specific problem, with no major trauma, that lends itself to brief solution-oriented therapy.  Often, this client just needs some direction or guidance, an objective mental health professional to check in with, and they can often come up with practical solutions to their problems.  Long-term treatment isn't necessary, unless, over time, the client becomes curious and interested in exploring more about his inner world.

Psychotherapy with the  Dreamer
I also have a side of me that is a Dreamer or Seeker, and I also enjoy working with clients who are more interested in discovering their inner world and more focused on the "journey" rather than the "destination."

My original training is in contemporary psychoanalysis.  I'm fascinated by the unconscious, including dreams.  When I work with dreams, I have different ways that I work, including contemporary psychodynamic dream work and Embodied Imagination dream work, which is a post-Jungian way of working developed by psychoanalyst, Robert Bosnak.  This type of psychotherapy is more open ended than brief treatment and, as in all therapy, the client decides when s/he has completed treatment.

Many Different Types of Psychotherapy - Many Choices for Psychotherapy Clients
Whether you're someone who seeks brief therapy, more open-ended psychodynamic treatment or something in between, there are so many different types of therapy today that you have many choices, including psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy, solution-focused therapy, cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT), EMDR, hypnotherapy, and Somatic Experiencing, to name just a few.

I usually recommend that people looking for a therapist trust their gut instincts when choosing a therapist.

See the link below for my article, "Psychotherapy: How to Choose a Psychotherapist" for more information.

About Me

I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist.  

I work with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my web site:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.


Psychotherapy: How to Choose a Psychotherapist

Promises, Promises - Essays on Psychoanalysis and Literature - by Adam Phillips

People Who Abuse Alcohol Often Don't Get the Help They Need

People who abuse alcohol or who are alcohol dependent frequently don't get the help they need to overcome their alcoholism for variety of reasons.  For one thing, people who abuse alcohol are often in denial about their alcoholism.  They often don't admit their problem to themselves or to others who can help them.  Shame is a major factor in their denial.  They often tell themselves, "I can stop whenever I want to," which keeps them from admitting their problem or from getting help.

People Who Abuse Alcohol Often Don't Get the Help They Need

People with Alcohol Problems Are Often Good at Hiding Their Drinking
Even when people who abuse alcohol admit to themselves that they have a problem, they're often very invested in hiding their problem from loved ones, their employers, and even their doctors.

People With Alcohol Problems Are Often Good at Hiding Their Drinking

Doctors usually don't have the time and many are not knowledgeable enough about the signs of alcoholism to ask the right questions during routine exams (see link to article below).

Families Often Collude and Enable People with Alcohol Problems
Families often, either knowingly or unknowingly collude in the problem by enabling the person who is abusing alcohol.

People Who Abuse Alcohol Often Don't Get the Help They Need:  Family Problems

More than one spouse, who was married to a husband who abused alcohol, has told me that she would rather buy him the alcohol and maintain peace in the household rather than have the husband create havoc because he's craving alcohol he doesn't have.  One person told me, "Once he has his beer, he goes in the den, drinks, and he doesn't bother anybody."  Often, this sad state of affairs can go on for many years.

Employers Often Collude and Enable People with Alcohol Problems
It's not unusual for employers, who might recognize that an employee has a drinking problem, to look the other way.  When I was a human resources manager and I asked managers why they allowed a certain employee to continue to come to work drunk, I was often told something along the lines of, "Well, Joe is a good guy.  I didn't want to get him in trouble."

Untreated Alcoholism Can Cause Serious Medical Problems
What people often don't realize, and this includes the person who is abusing alcohol and the people in his or her life, is that untreated alcoholism can cause serious medical problems.  It can even be fatal.  Late stage alcoholism can include severe memory problems and other cognitive impairments.

Alcoholism can lead to heart attack, stroke, and kidney and liver failure.  Alcoholism also often destroys families.  It is also one of the main causes of car accidents and vehicular homicide.  It costs companies millions in lost productivity.

Alcoholism is a Medical Condition--Not a Moral Issue
Even though we now know that alcoholism is a medical condition, many people, including people who abuse alcohol, still see alcoholism as a moral issue.  They think that it's a moral failure and a failure of will on the part of the person with alcohol problems.   But this couldn't be further from the truth.  We don't moralize about other medical conditions--like diabetes.  But people with alcohol problems are still blamed, and they blame themselves, for their medical condition.  This creates a great deal of shame, which keeps the person with alcohol problems from getting help.

Getting Help:  Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.)
Rather than blaming themselves and trying to "white knuckle it" through, people with alcohol problems need to talk to other people who understand what they're going through.  I am a big proponent of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.)

Sober people who attend A.A. understand the challenges involved with giving up alcohol and leading a sober life.  They're there to offer support when the person who is contemplating sobriety takes his or her first tentative steps to getting sober.  They know it's hard, but they also know that it can be done.

I usually recommend that people who are new to A.A. attend a beginner's meeting.  There are often people there who volunteer to be interim sponsors to people who are new to the program because they know that it's hard for newcomers to ask for help.  They can help new people to work the 12 Steps, starting with the first step, often the hardest for many people, to admit powerlessness over alcohol.

Sometimes, A.A. isn't enough and the person who wants to get sober might need to go to either an intensive outpatient program or an inpatient program.  In NYC, I've found, over the years, that both the Parallax Center, which also does outpatient detox, and Inter-Care are both very good outpatient programs.  Both of them offer intensive treatment.

If you have an alcohol problem, don't wait until you've "hit bottom" and you've lost everything.  Get the help that you need.  I've included resources below that you might find helpful.

Resources:
Alcoholics Anonymous:  http://aa.org

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist.  

I work with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Your Workplace Could Feel Like a Dysfunctional Family

Workplace dynamics often mimic dysfunctional family dynamics.  It's no wonder that employees are often emotionally triggered by what goes on at work.

At Work:  Feeling Powerless and Like a Child Again
Over the years, I've heard many psychotherapy clients complain that the dynamics at work, especially  with difficult supervisors, often make them feel that they're back home again when they were children being chastised by their parents.

Your Workplace Could Feel Like a Dysfunctional Family

In many ways, workplace relationships can feel like familial relationships in both positive and negative ways.  When workplace relationships are positive, they can be a source of mutual support in much the same way that siblings support each other.

But when workplace relationships are negative, they can be as competitive and contentious as dysfunctional family members.

When employees come from family backgrounds where there was emotional or physical abuse, they can get emotionally triggered when they work for a difficult supervisor, especially a supervisor who is verbally abusive, demeaning or a bully.

Getting Emotionally Triggered at Work:  Re-Experiencing Childhood Trauma
Most of the time, people who get emotionally triggered at work don't realize it because this is often an unconscious process.

When they get emotionally triggered, they're not only dealing with the current situation but, without realizing it, they're also re-experiencing the emotions from the past.  If these feelings are especially overwhelming, they might realize that they're overreacting to the present situation, but they might not understand why or what's happening to them.

Some employees, who are emotionally triggered by the dysfunctional dynamics at work, might feel anxious or panicky.  They might feel powerless to deal with the situation at work in much the same way that they might have felt powerless when they were children.  If the situation goes on long enough, they might feel depressed.

If it's possible to get out of a dysfunctional work setting, it might be the best recourse.  But it's not always possible to leave.  And there's no guarantee that the next place won't have its own dysfunctional dynamics.

Getting Help in Therapy:  EMDR and Somatic Experiencing
Psychotherapy, like EMDR or Somatic Experiencing, can often help people to overcome the original trauma that is being triggered by the situation at work.

Both EMDR and Somatic Experiencing also help clients to develop emotional resources to deal with the stressors they're experiencing in the here-and-now and differentiate these stressors from the past.

Rather than getting triggered over and over again, if you're in a workplace environment that mimics a dysfunctional family, you could benefit from working with an EMDR or Somatic Experiencing therapist to help you overcome the trauma in your history as well as developing the emotional resources you need for your life now.

About Me

I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my web site:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Living Fully in the Present Moment

Why is living fully in the present moment so hard?  Everyone has different ideas about this.  I believe that most of us tend to focus our thoughts mostly in the past or in the future and relatively little time living in the here and now.

Living Fully in the Present Moment

Living Mostly in the Past or in the Future
For people who live in the past, they often dwell on how life was for them during particular times in their lives.  They might focus on times when they thought life was better.  There's often a yearning to get back to that time, if it was a special time in their lives.  Or, especially when there's been emotional trauma, they might focus on emotional upsets from the past and dwell on them.  Trauma often keeps people stuck in the past if the trauma hasn't been worked through in therapy.

For people who live in the future, they often dwell on thoughts of how they would like to live their lives.  They might spend a lot of time fantasizing about a new relationship, a better job and, overall, living a happier life.  Conversely, they might spend most of their time worrying about the future.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with thinking about your past or your hopes for the future.  It's important to learn from the past and to plan for the future.  But the problem is that when you tend to dwell on these thoughts most of the time, you're not living fully in the present moment and you're missing out on what's going on around you right now, including  your relationships and your environment.  And, by dwelling mostly on the past or the future, you're probably not in touch with your inner emotional world as it is right now.  And dwelling on the past or the future can be a way of escaping from the here and now.

Precious Moments - Even During Difficult Times
I believe that even during difficult times, there can be precious moments that we can miss if we're not attuned to what's happening in the here and now.  It's very easy (and understandable) that when times are tough, we tend to focus on our worries.  Our thoughts might run wild about all the things that could go wrong.  We can get distracted and disorganized, which creates its own problems.  Then, we miss out on what might be precious gems of moments even during an otherwise turbulent time.

Living Fully in the Present Moment

Recently, a close relative was rushed to the emergency room because he was having a heart attack.  Like most people, as I was rushing to the hospital, my first thoughts went to the worst case scenario.  I hailed a cab and told him how to get to the hospital, which was about 30 minutes away from my home.  Instead of following my directions, the cab driver told me he knew of a faster route, so I agreed to go his way.  But, instead of being a faster route, he got lost and, worse still, we were going in the wrong direction.  Then, we got caught in a lot of traffic.

It took all the self discipline that I could muster to stay calm and not lose it with this taxi driver.  All the while, I was worried about getting to the hospital too late.   I had to continually bring my mind back to the present and remember to breathe.  I knew that getting upset wasn't going to help me or the cab driver.

Finally, he was able to turn around and follow my original suggestion for getting to the hospital and we were soon there.  As I reached into my wallet to pay the driver, he looked back at me with kind eyes.  He apologized for getting us lost and told me that he wouldn't charge me for the ride.  In that brief moment, when we made eye contact, I could see that he had a lot of compassion and I sensed from his few words that he understood what I was going through.  It was just a moment in an otherwise chaotic situation, but it was meaningful to me, and I was grateful for it.

During the days when my relative was in the cardiac care unit (CCU), there were other special moments in an otherwise distressful situation, including the care and kindness of the nurses and doctors on staff.  Most of them had worked together as a team on CCU for many years and they seemed to have such a camaraderie among them, which I was very grateful for.  They were very compassionate and skilled in their work.  They also took the time to explain things carefully and in simple terms.  Each night I left the CCU when visiting hours were over, I was able to console myself with the thought that my relative was getting the best of care from people who were concerned about his well being.

There were other moments where friends and a relative that I hadn't seen in many years visited the CCU and brought poignant moments of laughter and comfort.  Getting caught up and feeling rooted in a strong emotional support system gave comfort to my relative who had the heart attack and to me.  It reminded me that, even during very difficult times, there can be precious moments that we could miss if we remain distracted in our thoughts and not living in the present moment.

Fortunately, my relative is on the road to recovery, and he has a very good medical team in place for after care.  His medical emergency was another reminder of how precious life and our relationships with our loved ones are, and how easily we can forget this when we're stuck in our particular default mode of going through life.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 or email me.

Letting Go of Unhealthy Relationships: Unrequited Love

One of the most difficult things to do is to let go of an unhealthy relationship where there is unrequited love.  When you're in a relationship with someone that you love, but who doesn't love you, it's emotionally painful and eroding to your sense of self.  The other person might have his or her own reasons for remaining in the relationship with you but, for you, the focus becomes hoping and doing whatever you can to try to get your partner to love you.  

Letting Go of Unhealthy Relationships:  Unrequited Love

For many people, being part of a relationship where their love is unrequited is an unconscious repetition  of a childhood dynamic with either emotionally absent or narcissistic parents.  The unspoken message from childhood as well as in adult relationships in this dynamic where you love, but the other person doesn't love you, is "You're not good enough."

Achieving clarity about the unhealthy nature of this type of adult relationship is hard because the person who wants to be loved is often completely focused on how to get the other person to love him or her.  Rather than putting him or herself first, this person places the other person's emotional needs first, to his or her own detriment.

A person can become so locked in this dynamic that he or she doesn't see it.  Friends and family often see it before he or she does.

Knowing this, the person whose love is unrequited not only feels the shame of not being loved by the person s/he loves but also feels ashamed that others are making judgments about it, even if loved ones never say anything about it.

When someone, who is involved in a relationship where his or her love isn't returned, comes to therapy to deal with the pain of this dynamic, it's the therapist's job to help this person become aware of the dynamic without being in denial about it.

With awareness comes the ability to make a choice about what to do.  Whether you make a choice to stay or leave, you're no longer a victim because you're consciously making a choice.

An article in yesterday's New York Times, in the Modern Love section, by Hannah Selinger, reminds me of this dynamic (see link below).

Getting Help in Therapy
There are few things sadder than looking back towards the end of your life and regretting that you wasted time with someone who doesn't love you or who doesn't treat you well.  You might realize, at that point, that if you had let go of that relationship earlier, you might have found someone who would have loved you.  But life is short and there aren't any "do overs," so this realization often doesn't help you.

If you're in a relationship where you're the one who is in love, but you know your partner doesn't love you, you know how much this hurts.  If you can get to the point where you can admit to yourself that this has become too painful, you could benefit from seeing a licensed mental health professional, someone who can be objective and nonjudgmental about your situation.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, you can visit my web site:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

New York Times: Modern Love - "Friends Without Benefits" - by Hannah Selinger