New Persons and New Societies

Maggie and I have submitted a proposal for an upcoming psychology conference. Here it is: 

New Persons and New Societies: Using Social Media and Street-Level Advocacy to Teach Playful and Peaceful Compassion

Alfred Adler wrote “my psychology belongs to everyone.” Does yours? Increasingly psychology and those who practice it have responded to market pressures. Empirically supported treatments; managed care panels; utilization reviews; niche marketing strategies; publications... all important topics yet topics that distract from the possibilities of what psychology might be. Even those engaged in admirable work around issues such as war, poverty, trauma, and political asylum have lost focus. We have forgotten, as psychologist Ignacio Martin-Baró said, that “the challenge is not limited to addressing the destruction and disorders… The challenge is to construct a new person in a new society.”

Social networking platforms and street-level advocacy provide novel ways to engage new groups of people. These venues provide new possibilities in constructing new persons in new societies. This 90 minute workshop starts first with examining the effort of one psychologist and his dog in utilizing psychological principals to build community and spread a message of playful and peaceful compassion. Participants can then anticipate a highly interactive and hands-on workshop covering the following topics. Each will leave with a personal goal oriented action plan.

• Examining examples of what works and what doesn't on various social media platforms
• Understanding the potential and limitations of various social media platforms and street-level advocacy
• Building multiple platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook blogs, the street) to engage a community in dialogue
• Developing a mission statement
• Brainstorming tools to transform individuals from passive participants into engaged partners
• Developing privacy policies
• Supporting thoughtful and engaged dialogue

About the presenters:

Jason Evan Mihalko, Psy.D. is a psychologist who maintains a private practice in Cambridge Massachusetts. Magnolia Wigglesworth is a registered therapy dog. Together both work toward spreading a message of playful and peaceful compassion. You can learn more about their work at http://drjasonmihalko.com/Contact.html

A Long Way From Home: Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Some of you might find this post disturbing. If you are feeling a little vulnerable when you come across this or would rather not think about darker parts of our world, move on to another post. You might check out Maggie's blog to check out the latest in her adventures.

After months of waiting, I finally got to sit down this past Friday and take a training for forensic psychological evaluations for victims of torture. The training was held at Community Legal Services and Counseling Center where I volunteer supervising pre-licensed psychologists-in-training. Now that I've completed this training I'll be picking up a new role as a forensic evaluator for persons seeking asylum in the United States who may have been victims of torture.

A large part of my work as a psychologist involves going to places most people don't know about. On a daily basis I hear about people's deepest fears, darkest fantasies, and most damaging traumas. This training brought me into a few more of those places. What surprises me every time I enter into another experiences is how unsettling it is to realize what has been happening around me all the time without even being aware.

Here is some of what I learned in the training. According to the UNHRC, at the end of 2008 there were 12,599,900 refugees and asylum seekers.  There were 8,177,800 individuals who were warehoused in refugee camps waiting for ten or more years to be resettled into a new home.

In 2008 the United States resettled nearly 60,200 refugees. In the same year, the US granted asylum to 20,500. In 2007 there were more than 93,400 asylum seekers who had claims pending at the end of the year in the United States.

Who is a refugee? A refugee is a person who enters into the United States with legal status. They have already been processed by a UN agency and come to this country with legal status. A refugee doesn't get to pick where they are resettled: that is decided for them. What is an asylum seeker? Asylum seekers are people who somehow entered the United States and seek protection based on a well-founded fear of persecution if they were to return to their country of origin.

What's a refugee camp like? They aren't comfortable and they aren't safe. Here are a few images to give you an idea of what a refugee camp is like. As bleak as these places are, they are in many ways, an improvement from the areas refugees and asylum seekers fled.

Why flee their home countries? Some flee because of war, genocide, human rights abuses, famine, or various environmental catastrophes. The official definition is that a refugee is someone with a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, who is outside of his or her country of nationality and unable or unwilling to return.

Prior to arrival in their resettled countries, children and adults faced physical injury, assault, illness, and malnutrition; were subjected to chaos, instability, and unpredictability; witnessed death, dead bodies, and injury to others; separated from parents and other family members; were are of parents' fears, anxiety, and inability to protect and provide for them; forced prematurely into adult roles; deprived of school, health care, and social services; faced adults silence on what's happening and why; and faced multiple losses.

Many people who are refugees or are seeking asylum are victims of torture. Despite the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights more than sixty years ago, torture is still a frequent or even standard practice in many nations. In 2003, for example, torture was reported in over 150 countries. In over 70 countries it was widespread or persistent.

Torture is designed to destroy the victim psychologically, create an atmosphere of fear and horror, disempower the individual and community; take away control form the individual and community; and damage relationships of victims and communities. Torture might be physical (beating, falanga, hanging, sexual torture, electrocution, being forced into uncomfortable positions for long period of times; burns with acid, burns, or forced ingestion of feces or urine) or psychological (mock execution/threatened execution; threats to self and family members; forced to witness family members or others tortured or killed; being forced to participate in torture of others; food, water, sleep and bathroom facilities deprivation; solitary confinement; and constant interrogation).

So why go here? Why enter into these dark places with people seeking asylum? On reason is that I'm awfully curious. I like learning about people and their experiences: this is one way to learn about some powerful experiences that people have had that is about as far away from my own experience as possible. The other reason is something that I touched upon awhile back in a blog post about the bookmark that was given to me in my welcome packet in my doctoral program at Antioch. The quote was:

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity--Horace Mann

Community Politics

It seems that wherever dogs and people come together there is controversy. The politics have gotten a bit tense in my neck of the woods.


I'm not sure when this whole situation started. I've been aware of it since last March. From my vantage point, the current recipe for disaster involves the following ingredients: there is a group of people with well mannered dogs who like to walk their dog without a leash in an open field along our neighborhood reservoir. There are people who are not from the neighborhood who do not have well mannered (or well trained!) dogs who like to walk their dogs without a leash. Still others have well mannered dogs who walk on leashes. There is a local community action committee president that appears not to like people who walk their dogs without leashes very much (regardless of leash status). 


Combine these three ingredients, stir, and you get a whole lot of trouble.


As I talk with neighbors I hear stories of other neighbors taking pictures of people and their dogs and sending it to the police. I hear that those pictures are presented along with a citation to dog owners on their front porch by the police. I've received letters (which all neighbors have received) warning of the leash law and stating that if there are repeated violations dogs may be confiscated. Yours truly, the irreverent psychologist, nearly went off the deep end today when he noticed he was getting his picture taken while playing with his dog on a leash.


What's most sad about this whole situation is that in general, the people arguing about the people walking dogs without a leash and the people who are walking dogs without a leash are the people who spend the most time caring for the reservoir. Both groups of people spend time at the reservoir walking, clearing away litter, and building a community garden. With this controversy neighbors start to distrust neighbors. Many have started walking their dogs elsewhere. 

The results of this? At first nothing. The change was imperceptible. Many still walk their dogs. A few dedicated gardeners still work the soil and coax magnificent plants to blossom. However right under the surface, the steady march of urban decay started back up. The trash, as you can see on the right, is really starting to pile up. The images is what Maggie and I gathered on two sequential mornings while walking. 

With groups of neighbors (often with dogs) no longer gathering at the top of the reservoir to watch the sunset I started noticing larger and larger groups of teens gathering. This isn't a problem in-and-of-itself. However, without the presence of adults, the teens started feeling that the reservoir was a good place to be unsupervised. They bring blankets, beer, and condoms. I find the remains of their adventures in the morning when I'm walking Maggie. Every week I find just a little bit more garbage. 


Of course teens partied at the reservoir when there were more neighbors enjoying the park. Teens (and adults) still left behind litter. It is just that it was more controlled when the younger folks though that they might be noticed. They knew this was a community that was cared for and were likely to care for it themselves. 


With the arrival of more young people and the litter they left behind, I started noticing a steady increase of dog poop underfoot. It took me awhile to understand this. Less dog walkers should mean less dog poop. I finally figured it out a few days ago. There are less responsible dog walkers (with leashes, or without) who are picking up after their dog. Some of those people were also picking up after other dogs, but there is something even more powerful at play. With less responsible dog owners, there is less role modeling. Those that remain walking their dogs (ironically, with leashes) are the ones most likely to leave dog poop behind. 


As urban decay has marched on the problems have increased. Every day there is more litter, more dog poop, more graffiti (I've been noticing more swastikas and such), more remainders of drug deals, and more reports of crime.


I shouldn't be all that surprised. Since 1982 social scientists have spoken about the notion of the broken windows theory. The main idea, taken from the original article, is this:

• Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.
• Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.

The theory explains itself by three main points. The urban environment (well cared for, or in disrepair) applies influence with three major factors: social norms and conformity; the presence or lack of monitoring; and social signaling and signal crime. What does this mean? The norms of the community greatly influence the behaviors of those who enter it (picking up dog poop vs. not; leaving litter behind versus collecting it and disposing it; stopping to have conversations with neighbors versus ignoring them). Having neighbors who mention "do you need a bag to pick up that poop" applies powerful influence to other neighbors demonstrating that they are being monitored--when monitored people are more likely to conform to social normals. Signal crimes are those that make people generally feel that there is a possibility they are unsafe (graffiti, vandalism, etc.). 


The irony here is that this neighborhood was once the site of an experiment conducted by researchers at Harvard and Suffolk Universities. They looked at the concept of the broken window theory and recorded if there were differences in neighborhoods that received extra attention versus those that did not. The theory was supported by the research and calls to the police dropped nearly 20 percent. 


So what is my point here? My point is this: communities are living breathing creatures that need to be cared for and nurtured. It's so sad to watch neighbors close down, turn inward, and stop relating to each other. The community suffers and the neighborhood starts marching a little closer toward urban decay. 

New Views

I've greatly enjoyed the last five years I have spent practicing in my current office. Over the last several months it has become more and more apparent that some change was needed. I've long disliked the lack of a real waiting room: patients have had to contend with a hallway that I've called a waiting room. As my colleague and office mate have expanded our practices, time has become a precious commodity for both of us: often times one of us is walking out with a patient while the other is walking in with one. Perhaps most of all, Maggie the therapy dog has discovered an enjoyable new pastime: standing in the second floor window barking at the ever changing spectacle along Massachusetts Avenue.

I will miss the familiar surroundings of the office. The old office however will never be too far away. The move Dr. Bledsoe and I are making isn't very far: our offices are moving from the second floor to the third. We each will have our own space. While I am sacrificing my beloved view of Massachusetts Avenue, I'm gaining a light drenched office nestled in the quieter back of the building. I'm also gaining an actual waiting room: patients now have a private and quiet place to wait.

Here are some images of the new waiting room and my office. Dr. Bledsoe is arranging putting the finishing touches on her office as I write this: I'll post some images of her new space in the near future.

Waiting for Superman

This looks like a docuentary that is going to over a scathing and sobering look at education:

The Techno-Psychologist

A few months back I was innocently opening a package of gum and noticed a fancy barcode that was in color and consisted of a variety of different colored triangles. I did a little research and discovered that Microsoft developed a tag system so businesses and other individuals could tag materials (places, products, etc.) with a readable barcode that could direct the individual to online information via their mobile phone. I thought that was kind of a cool idea.

I am running low on business cards and have been working on tweaking the design. I remembered the Microsoft tag and wondered about adding it to the back of the business cards. I'm still not sure about that. I however am sure that I have spent the better part of the last hour fooling around with different technologies.

This first tag, which uses Microsoft's technology, will provide you with my professional contact information. I could get carried away here and make different tags. One, for example, might direct the individual to this blog. Another could deliver a text message or email containing information that I might find helpful. 

The other service that people use are the more "standard" 3d black and white bar codes. These QR codes were invented in Japan in 1994 to assist with information being read at high speeds--particularly in the manufacturing industry. 

Here are a few examples of these codes. If you scan them they will direct your mobile phone to this blog, Maggie's blog, and Maggie's Facebook page. What do you think? Useful? Not useful? I find myself wishing that one tag or bar code could contain all this information.

Update: Greene vs. Sonoma County

Many thanks to those of you who have posted a comments or emailed me about the Greene vs. Sonoma County case. It's nice to make a connection with people who read my blog and I always appreciate when people take the time to send me links to things that they think I might find interesting.

If you are curious about the Clay Greene or the case Greene vs. Sonoma County, I'll attach some of the links that people have sent me. I'm a fan of digging deep, learning all the facts I can about a situation, and making thoughtful informed opinions. I hope you do the same, too.

Lawsuit claims county separates gay couple

Lawyer says concerns about domestic violence prompted separation of gay partners

Copy of the complaint filed in Greene vs. Sonoma County

Facebook group Justice for Clay Greene and Harold of Sonoma County CA

Greene vs. Sonoma County

In this past Friday's edition of the news roundup I wrote about the memorandum that President Obama signed directing the Department of Health and Human Services to make rules that make "clear that designated visitors, including individuals designated by legally valid advance directives (such has durable powers of attorney and health care proxies) should enjoy visitation privileges that are no more restrictive than those that immediate family members enjoy. You should also provide that participating hospitals may not deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability."

A great deal of press associated with this memorandum related to a legal case brought by Janice Langbehn, who, along with her children, were denied access to her dying partner while she was in a Florida hospital. Today I've been reading a lot about Green vs. Sonoma County (see here or here for two interesting commentaries). Here is a brief description borrowed from the NCLR website:

Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place—wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health. 

One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold’s care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes. 

Ignoring Clay’s significant role in Harold’s life, the county continued to treat Harold like he had no family and went to court seeking the power to make financial decisions on his behalf. Outrageously, the county represented to the judge that Clay was merely Harold’s “roommate.” The court denied their efforts, but did grant the county limited access to one of Harold’s bank accounts to pay for his care. 

What happened next is even more chilling: without authority, without determining the value of Clay and Harold’s possessions accumulated over the course of their 20 years together or making any effort to determine which items belonged to whom, the county took everything Harold and Clay owned and auctioned off all of their belongings. Adding further insult to grave injury, the county removed Clay from his home and confined him to a nursing home against his will. The county workers then terminated Clay and Harold's lease and surrendered the home they had shared for many years to the landlord. 

Three months after he was hospitalized, Harold died in the nursing home. Because of the county’s actions, Clay missed the final months he should have had with his partner of 20 years. Compounding this tragedy, Clay has literally nothing left of the home he had shared with Harold or the life he was living up until the day that Harold fell, because he has been unable to recover any of his property. The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life. 

With the help of a dedicated and persistent court-appointed attorney, Anne Dennis of Santa Rosa, Clay was finally released from the nursing home. Ms. Dennis, along with Stephen O'Neill and Margaret Flynn of Tarkington, O'Neill, Barrack & Chong, now represent Clay in a lawsuit against the county, the auction company, and the nursing home, with technical assistance from NCLR. A trial date has been set for July 16, 2010 in the Superior Court for the County of Sonoma.

It's difficult for me to string together words to describe what I feel when reading about this. This isn't because a lack of words--or anger--but because there isn't much more in my mind beyond the horror of bearing wittiness to such unrelenting cruelty.

As I have been learning in my recent explorations into the nature of cruelty and how it has become woven nearly invisibly into the tapestry of our human experience, I think about the person and their experience. I'm thinking a lot this afternoon about Clay and how many people showed great cruelty by not thinking of his experience. I wonder what the voters of California were thinking when they voted for California Proposition 8? Where they thinking about people like Clay and Harold? Probably not as our modern public discourse has moved away from considering individual experiences and moved toward easily digestible slogans. I wonder what staff at the nursing homes, the hospitals,  or decision makers at the county level were thinking of? Where they thinking of the very real humans who were experiencing great pain and cruelty? Again, I'm guessing not.

I hope those of you who read about his story don't make that same mistake. I hope you think of the person's experience first. Always think of the person first. It can guide us toward a place of compassion and slowly help us each dismantle the cruelty we ignore or don't notice on a daily basis.

Respite

The irreverent psychologist is taking a temporary respite from blogging. A guest has come visiting in New England and all of my free time is being spent out exploring the world from the viewpoint of a teenager. Check back next week and I'll be back to regular blogging.

In the meantime, be good to yourselves and see what you might discover about your environment if you look at things from a different viewpoint.

Student Loan Hoopla

I'm so happy to see that President Obama enjoys using the world Hoopla. It's one of my favorites. I'm even more happy he used the word in context of a discussion about student loans. Many recent graduates find themselves crushed by the burden of their student loans--loans that allowed them to seek advanced education and training yet now prohibit them from enjoying life. Several years back, in fact, I read an analysis by an economist that suggested that if graduates weren't being crushed by their student loans the impact of their discretionary income would significantly drive the US economy through their purchase of homes, washing machines, cars, etc. 

Yesterday Obama said that lost in the hoopla of health insurance reform, significant changes to the student loan industry are not being noticed. 

Notable talking points of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act:

• Double funding for Pell Grants since President Obama took office, to ensure that all eligible students receive an award, and that grants keep pace with the rising cost of college
• Invest in community colleges to help an additional 5 million Americans earn degrees and certificates over the next decade
• Increase support for historically black colleges and universities and minority serving-institutions, which have been particularly hard hit by some of the challenges facing all universities, and account for nearly sixty percent of the 4.7 million minority undergraduates in our country.
• Ease loan repayment by capping student loan payments at 10 percent of a graduate's discretionary income, with any remaining balance forgiven after 20 years. And those who go into public service after graduation can have their loans forgiven after 10 years.
• End government subsidies given to financial institutions that make student loans, switching to direct loans. This saves nearly $68 billion for college affordability.

What Health Care Reform Means to You

Over the coming hours, days, weeks, and months there will no doubt be a great deal of discussion about the heath care reform legislation that was passed the the U.S. House of Representatives late last night. Here are the important points: (source)


If You Are Uninsured:

• This shouldn't affect those of us here in Massachusetts as by law, we are all already required to have health insurance. 
• Starting in 2014, those without insurance will face a penalty of $95 or 1 percent of income, whichever is greater. That penalty will rise over time, reaching $695 or 2 percent of income, whichever is greater. If you earn less that the income-tax filing threshold, you will not owe anything. If you cannot purchase a policy that is less than 8 percent of your income, you also will not owe anything. 
• More lower-income individuals under the age of 65 will be covered by Medicaid. A family of four that makes under $29, 327 would be covered.
• There will be state-run insurance exchanges. If your income is more than 133 percent of the poverty level but less than 400 percent (e.g., $29, 32 to $88,200 for a family of four) you will be eligible for health insurance subsidies through this program.
• Your premium for thee exchanges would be capped at a percentage of your income ranging from 3 percent to as much as 9.5 percent.
• If you lose lose your job, quit your job, or decide to start your own business you will be able to move between employer-related insurance to insurance from the exchange.

Those with Insurance:

• Your coverage is unlikely to change, though there will be benefits for you.
• No one will be able to be denied coverage based on pre-existing conditions on all policies after 2014.
• If you have Medicare, the "donut hole" will be eliminated by 2020. Starting immediately, those who hit the "donut hole" will get a $250 rebate. Starting in 2011, they will receive a 50% discount on brand named drugs.
• Dependent children can be covered by their parent's insurance until they reach 26 years old, regardless of their school status.
• Insurance plans that have total premiums of more than $10,200 for singles and $27,500 for families would be subject to a 40 percent tax on the excess premium. The taxes would be levied on the insurer, though that price is likely to be passed on to the consumer.

Friday News Roundup

Sleep: Are We Depriving Our Teenagers of Mental Health?

A study analyzed data taking from 15,569 U.S. students in grades 7 through 12 during a two year time period. The average teenager reported getting seven hours and 53 minutes of sleep a night. As a reference point, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests teens get nine or more hours of sleep.

Here is the take home message: adolescents who slept five or fewer hours a night were 1.71 times more likely to suffer from depression and 1.48 times more likely to to think about committing suicide than those who got eight hours of sleep a night.

Of course, one symptom of depression can be difficulty sleeping. The survey data might simply be recording that depressed teens sleep less than non-depressed teens (which would be obvious). Without closer research it would be hard to draw the conclusion that lack of sleep can cause depression.

Regardless, it's a good idea to encourage our teens (and ourselves) to get a good night sleep. It helps reduce emotional vulnerability and just might even help insulate someone from depression.  Want to know more about what is considered a health night sleep? Check out this link that discusses sleep hygiene.

Exercise Preserves Memory 

This is less news (at least to me) and more of a reminder.  According to two reports that appeared in the January issue of Archives of Neurology, moderate levels of physical activity during middle age or later appears to have a protective effect: it can reduce the risk of mild cognitive impairment which is a common condition preceding dementia. Further, six months of high-intensity aerobic exercise can improve cognitive function in individuals who already have the condition.

This makes me glad I went running this morning!

Friday News Roundup

Grocery Chain's Decision to Drop Mental Health Coverage Raises Concerns

As I feared, the loopholes in the coming requirement for health insurance plans to offer parity for mental health treatment are starting to cause problems. One Wisconsin supermarket chain has cut the mental health portion of its health care benefit "because it will be too costly due to the passage of the federal mental health parity law." Shame on them!

Could Acetaminophen Ease Psychological Pain?

A team of researchers at the University of Kentucky uncovered evidence indicating that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, may blunt social pain. On a self-report measure of hurt feelings, participants taking the medicine reported lower levels of social pain than those who were not taking the medication. Watch out for side effects: too much acetaminophen can be toxic!

How Psychotherapy Works

Bruce Wampold, Ph.D. is the author of the recent book, "The Great Psychotherapy Debates." In that book he puts together empirical research on psychotherapy using rather sophisticated methods. He even places that research in an historical and anthropological context. In this article, he answers questions about how psychotherapy helps people. He notes the differences between different treatments in terms of benefit to patients are small if not negligible as long as the treatments are intended to be therapeutic, are delivered by competent therapists, have a cogent psychological rational, and contain therapeutic actions that lead to health and helpful changes in a patient's life.

Brain Music Therapy

Now here is an interesting article. The Department of Homeland Security is examining an existing biofeedback technology to help with sleep. They are investigating the use of brain music therapy which has been in use since the early 1990s to treat medication conditions such as insomnia. Apparently brain waves are recorded and run through algorithms that analyze the waves and translate them into a music composition. According to the company Human Bionics, which sells this technology, these musical compositions are effective and scientifically proven treatments for stress, insomnia, anxiety, and depression. The technology has also been "found to increase productivity and concentration, and help reduce headaches."

I've not done the background research to see if these claims are reasonably true. The sample clip, however, makes for pretty music (though a bit repetitive).

Psychotherapy Training in Psychiatrists

Ever wonder what kind of psychotherapy training psychiatrists get in medical school? Apparently it isn't a lot. If I wasn't sitting down when I read this article I very well might have fallen out of my chair.


I was recently forward an article from The Psychiatric Times. I'm just going to bullet point the things that shocked me:

• residents must have an equivalent of 12 months of full-time, organized, continuous, supervised clinical experience in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of outpatients in both short-term and long-term care
• forty medical schools in the US and Canada report some limited instruction in psychotherapy as part of the curriculum 
• the instruction occurred at varying times throughout the four years of medical school and was often part of a one hour session

I'm beyond shocked and am going to have to phone a psychiatrist friend or two. While I'm sure the article is true, I'm feeling the need to do my own fact checking. I know many talented psychiatrists that I would comfortably refer a loved one to for psychotherapy. Surely they must have had more than the minimum training.


As a comparison, they average psychologist has had at least 1,200 hours of training while in school, a 2,000 hour internship, and an additional 2000 hours of training after earning their doctoral degree. That's just work experience, not classroom instruction.


My no means am I posting this to suggest that psychologists are better than psychiatrists. I've not personally done a comparison of how the two different fields train students to do psychotherapy.
I am posting this because I am shocked. I am reminded how important it is to be an informed client. 


Don't be afraid to ask your therapist about their training. In light of this information, I think it's important to know if a psychiatrist has done the minimum training or if they have sought additional education and experience.


Want to read the article?

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1491210?verify=0

Tucker, P.M., Garton, T.S., Foote, A.L., and Candler, C. (December 1, 2009). In Support of Early Psychotherapy Training. Psychiatric Times, 12. 

Napping Improves Learning

Well here is an interesting research article. Taking a brief nap after learning can help consolidate learning when sound cues are introduced while sleeping. Northwestern researchers conducted a study in which subjects were shown objects on a computer screen in a specific location. Those images were associated with a sound (e.g., an image of a cat and the sound of a cat meowing). Subjects were then instructed to take a nap. While sleeping the sounds of some of those images were played. Subjects were more likely to remember the positions of images if they had heard the sound in their sleep. Additionally, the subjects reporting having not heard anything while napping.

The researchers concluded that consolidation of learning occurs during sleep and can be influenced by auditory stimulation.

Apparently the learning has to happen before the sleeping part. This is evidenced by my inability to remember anything from morning classes in high school. Then again, it could just be because that was a long time ago.

Can Counseling Change Your Brain?

I recently was tweeted about an interesting study about the effects of psychotherapy. In a study authored by Jakob Koch of Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, it was suggested that psychotherapy with depressed patients is associated with chemical changes in the brain.

This is pretty exciting stuff. I've seen many studies that associate psychotherapy with behavior change or change in self-report of moods. I've never seen a study that has associated psychotherapy with actual biological change in brain chemistry. This study does that. The research found that psychotherapy, in-and-of-itself, was demonstrated to be associated with positive changes in brain chemistry.