Herding Dogs as Therapy Dogs After spending ten years looking for the perfect breed of dog to be a therapy dog, I decided on a McNab Shepherd. The McNab is a herding dog, which can actually make for a very good therapy dog because of their attentive and sweet nature. When we think [...]
Psychotherapy and Prolonged Grief Disorder Grief is one not only one the sadness and lowest points in a person’s life, it can also be the most disabling. In the past few decades, researchers have diligently been examining the difficulty many people have processing grief and have discovered that around 10 percent of people [...]
Overcoming Grief There’s a huge debate among mental health professional as to whether grief can actually ever be overcome. Those who argue that it cannot claim that the best that we can hope for when processing grief is that it be managed. Either way, there are things that a grieving person can do [...]
The Most Popular Kinds of Psychotherapy A psychotherapist’s approach to therapy is as unique as they are. Most professional therapists are educated in a number of approaches. This psychotherapeutic orientation combines with the therapist's personality and a style eventually develops. There are a number of recognized approaches to psychotherapy and most therapists use [...]
Genograms in Family Therapy A genogram, sometimes called a family map, is a pictorial display of a patient's family relationships and medical history. It goes beyond a traditional family tree by allowing the user to visualize hereditary patterns and psychological factors that punctuate relationships. It can be used to identify repetitive patterns of behavior [...]
Anxiety Treatment and Medication When you’re overcome by heart-stopping panic, overwhelmed by fear, or tired from numerous sleepless nights spent worrying, you may be tempted do just about anything to get relief. While there is no question that anxiety can be disabling, is medication the best answer? Is there good evidence that drugs [...]
Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development A life cycle describes the different stages that a living organism goes through during its lifetime. The duration and number of life stages differ from specie to specie. German-born American psychologist Erik Erikson developed an elaborate theory of human development with distinct stages of human development covering the [...]
Psychotherapy and Group Therapy for Smoking Cessation The United States Public Health Service published updated smoking-cessation guidelines for doctors. Their reports have consistently identified psychotherapeutic counseling and behavioral therapies as proven effective components of a smoking-cessation program. Other studies had the same findings; concluding that individual and group psychotherapy are an important component [...]
Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior Many people have heard of skin picking, but not many realize that it is a disorder that falls under the category of the term body-focused repetitive behavior. Body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) is an umbrella term for impulse control behaviors involving compulsively damaging one's physical appearance or causing physical injury. BFRBs [...]
The New Counseling Psychology Counseling psychology is a form of applied psychology that is used by psychologists and psychotherapists to help people improve their lives. In practice, counseling psychology focuses on treating individuals with a wide range of emotional, behavioral, vocational, and social problems and disorders. It is one of the most common [...]