Cultural competence and Groundhog Day
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
If you ever need a demonstration of the importance of cultural competence, just imagine yourself in psychotherapy in a country that doesn’t celebrate Groundhog Day. You are spending your first winter in a tropical country in Asia and, in the waning days of January, your thoughts turn to friends and family back home. You think of your snowbound grandmother and how important it is for her to get to Savannah for the country’s biggest Saint Patrick’s Day parade on March 17. With an early spring, she will have just enough time to crank up her Model A Ford and make [More]
Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle
By Paul Efthim PhD
Book examines children of sexual minority parents (February 2011 Issue) “Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Research on the Family Life Cycle” By Abbie E. Goldberg American Psychological Association Washington, D.C., 2010 By Paul Efthim, Ph.D. “The Kids Are All Right” is the name of a superb motion picture starring Annette Benning and Julianne Moore about a lesbian couple and their two teenaged children, but it could also serve nicely as the unofficial subtitle of this excellent book on the same subject. The implied question, of course, is: What is it like for children to grow up with gay [More]
Saving our lives one step at a time
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
Just one month into the new year, some of our resolutions for self-improvement may have already started to split along the fault lines of old comfortable habits and resistance to change. It happens every year and, according to one source I consulted, it began with the Babylonians who were the very first to make new years’ resolutions. They probably weren’t much better at it than we are. But that’s okay because, for most of us, the price of failure isn’t terribly high. There are some, however, for whom the ability to change is a matter of life and death every [More]
Common Dilemmas in Couple Therapy
By Paul Efthim PhD
Author guides readers through menu of techniques (February 2011 Issue) “Common Dilemmas in Couple Therapy” By Judith P. Leavitt Routledge New York, N.Y., 2010 By Paul Efthim, Ph.D. This intriguing text takes a different approach than most books on couple therapy. Rather than presenting a model of couple treatment linked to one particular theoretical viewpoint, this new book by Judith Leavitt offers a technically eclectic overview of strategies for working with specific issues in relationship therapy. Leavitt, a psychologist and certified sex therapist who maintains a private practice in Wayland, Mass., teaches couple therapy and human sexuality at the Massachusetts [More]
Earning a Living Outside of Managed Mental Health Care: 50 Ways to Expand Your Practice
By James K Luiselli EdD ABPP BCBA-D
Unique resource is fun, worthwhile read (January 2011 Issue) “Earning a Living Outside of Managed Mental Health Care: 50 Ways to Expand Your Practice” By Steven Walfish American Psychological Association Washington, D.C., 2010 By James K. Luiselli, Ed.D., ABPP, BCBA-D Many books are available to mental health professionals (MHPs) that offer advice and direction for building and maintaining a private practice. I’ve read most of them. This book, edited by psychologist Steven Walfish has a single purpose: educating MHPs about surviving and prospering financially in the era of managed care. Walfish’s formula for the book is creative. He solicited contributions [More]
More than a few good interns
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
By the time this column appears in January, the interview phase of the annual internship sweepstakes will be in full swing. But as I write in December, I have just finished reviewing my share of the mountain of applications that come every year to our hospital’s training program. Reading applications for internships always makes me think that I have been transported to Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor’s fictional Midwestern city where “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are above average.” I don’t know about strength or looks and those qualities aren’t relevant [More]
Ebenezer Scrooge and the Season of Second Chances
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
What I love most about the dark cold days of December is the opportunity they give us to notice and enjoy glimpses of contrasting light and warmth. Outdoors the cold makes everything sharp and clear and paradoxically we are more aware of the sun glinting off crystalline expanses of blinding white snow. Indoors we light fires, celebrate holidays and remind ourselves that anything is possible. True or not, this is something we need to believe because we see too much distress and suffering and know too well the importance of second chances. This is the season of second chances and [More]