New England Psychologist
Koko Used GPT-3 AI Without Informed Consent from Users
By John Grohol, Psy.D.
When you’re on the cutting edge of trying to help people with mental health issues, sometimes it’s easy to let the technology and good intentions get ahead of ethics. That seems to be the case, for the second time, for Robert Morris, PhD, and his technology service, Koko. Artificial intelligence (AI) has garnered much attention and headlines lately due to the advances it’s made in art, and more recently, with text (via services like ChatGPT which utilizes an AI language… Read more »
Leading Stories
Residential schools: Still riding the pandemic wave
Report outlines ways to expand, diversify Massachusetts’ workforce
Proposed legislation allows for student mental health sick days
Vermont group home for adolescent boys in limbo
Chamberlain School’s aviation program offers unique opportunities for students
Study shows increase in admissions, Emergency Department (ED) visits among children, adolescents
Vaping on the rise in teens
Gravestone restoration project honors memory of Home for Destitute Children residents
Study: Established outpatient care preceding acute psychiatric services improves incidents of follow up
New May Center School for Autism opens in Chicopee
Practical Practice
The potential dangers of `career creep’
By Ellen Anderson, Ph.D
My younger colleague regards me with confusion. She is responding to my observation that she seems overwhelmed. “I don’t want to say no and risk limiting my opportunities in the future,” she says. She is simultaneously writing a manuscript, putting together a conference presentation, seeing clients, and supervising trainees. She juggles these tasks with apparent ease, while also parenting two young children. I wince, remembering how I had felt similarly over the course of my career. The psychology doctoral degree… Read more »
The Nature of Change
By Maria Mouratidis, Psy.D.
We are not that different from a tree. As an analogy, trees breathe, have branches that resemble the branches of our lungs, and have tree rings much like a “fingerprint.” The seasons provide a recurring opportunity for nature to teach us. Changes in the wind often seem to usher in the change of seasons. Do you notice how some branches break and fall to the ground, yet others remain? Join me for a few moments of anthropomorphism, will you? I… Read more »
License mobility allows greater public access
By Ellen Anderson, Ph.D
Several NE states participate in PsyPact As a psychologist in New England, I recently learned that I have the option of applying for an EPassport and Authority to Practice Interjurisdictional Telepsychology (APIT), authorizations accepted in PsyPact participating states. PsyPact is an interstate compact that allows psychologists to practice telepsychology with clients living in PsyPact participating states. Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut have enacted legislation and Rhode Island has recently joined, with laws that become effective in January 2023. Massachusetts has… Read more »
Older Practical Practice Columns...
Interview of the Month
Wellspring co-founder reflects on healing nature of farm setting
By Catherine Robertson Souter
Human beings evolved to be more in tune with the natural world and are built for more physical labor, than what most of us experience today. Could an increase in exercise and exposure to plants, animals, and green space, help us to be more aligned with our most basic humanity and more physically and mentally healthy? Working from this premise in 1977, young, married psychologists Richard and Phyllis Beauvais, developed a residential program on a small, bucolic farm in northwest… Read more »
Older Interviews...
Publisher's Note by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
A focus on residential schools and post-pandemic challenges
In our annual residential schools special issue and directory, I’m pleased to see these important treatment resources are recovering from the challenging times of the pandemic. The pandemic created an increased demand for the services offered by these facilities, and they are still adapting to the new normal. This year, the special Residential Schools Directory is included within the middle of this issue. You can easily pull it out and keep it as a year-long resource for your clinical needs.… Read more »
Likely Pedal Confusion Leads to Tragic Death in Byfield, MA
In late May, Marblehead resident Janet Bach, 70, was backing up to pick up some flowers at a greenhouse and garden center in Byfield, MA. But instead of gently backing up the few yards she intended, she accelerated to 18 MPH in reverse, killing mother Susan Sfoza Nico and injuring others. The Honda CRV utility vehicle that Bach was driving had no apparent mechanical problems. Its computer collected data of the incident and showed the police that the vehicle’s accelerator… Read more »
Older Publisher's Notes...
In Person with Alan Bodnar, Ph.D.
Remembering the Gaebler Children’s Center
When our editor asked if I might have something to say about residential schools for this special edition of NEPSY, I thought I was too far removed from any real-life experience of treating children in residential settings to make a relevant contribution. Then I remembered a nine-month period when I worked at the William C. Gaebler Children’s Unit of Metropolitan State Hospital in Waltham, Massachusetts and the valuable lessons I learned in that short period of time. The hospital had… Read more »
Bridging the divide: Walking the talk
Last month, my reflections on the passing of a friend on the other side of the culture wars divide led me to the importance of common ground and common sense in bridging the widening gap between progressives and conservatives. In recent years, the gap has become a chasm that increasingly blocks honest and respectful conversation between people on opposite sides of hot button social and economic issues not just in the United States but throughout the world. It is easy… Read more »