HEALTH FOOD
It’s amazing that we can reach middle age and know so little about food and taking care of this thing that ferries us around and works so hard on our behalf: our body.
For the past few weeks I’ve been working with Franka Zmugg, a Newquay-based holistic nutrition and lifestyle coach—and psychotherapist—and it has been life changing.
I’ve discovered whether I run better on more carbohydrate or more protein; why I crave chocolate in the evening; what happens when I skip a meal. I’ve learned about the four white devils: sugar, salt, white flour, pasteurized milk. I’ve discovered an amazing new energy drink—maybe you’ve heard of it—it’s called water. I've experienced Yoga Nidra. The yin and the yang of energy.
You want to stay forever young? So much of looking after ourselves is common sense.
Avoid processed, packaged food, what food activist Michael Pollan calls “foodlike substances”—Pollan’s famous seven-word dictum is: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Keep moving: “We clearly know that movement over time equals health,” says Dr. David Agus, bestselling author of The End of Illness and A Short Guide to a Long Life. Engage in something: “In Okinawa, there is a social construct called ikigai,” says Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones, which looks for answers in those places around the world known for extraordinary longevity. “It’s the thing for which you wake up in the morning. People with that strong sense of purpose or ikigai live 7 or 8 years longer than people without it.”
Meditate. Rest. Love.
The longest-living people on the planet are the shepherds of Sardinia. It should be so easy to live a simple, healthy life like them. We know what to do. But life often conspires against us.
—John Barton
The growing link between nutrition and mental health + the best foods
From Yahoo Health:
It’s a no-brainer: Eating a balanced diet helps you to look and feel good. And now researchers say that eating well may even help fight depression.
A new scientific review published in the journal the Lancet Psychiatry that involved 18 researchers from around the world stresses the role that good nutrition plays in mental health.
“Evidence is steadily growing for the relation between dietary quality [and potential nutritional deficiencies] and mental health, and for the select use of nutrient-based supplements to address deficiencies,” researchers said in the review.
And we’re seeing real-life proof of the relationship between food and a better psychiatric outcome: A study published in 2013 in the journal Neurocase followed two women with bipolar disorder over two years. The women were put on a ketogenetic diet (high fat, moderate protein, low carb), and their moods stabilized better than they did with medication alone.
But the link between diet and the risk of developing depression isn’t the same for everyone. “If your diet is deficient in some nutrients, it can have many effects on the brain,” study co-author David Mischoulon, MD, PhD, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a co-author of the Lancet study, tells Yahoo Health. “It can be subtle in some people and may result in psychiatric illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and so forth in others.”
Mischoulon and his team identified specific nutrients that are particularly helpful with boosting mental health, pointing out that many are often found in the Mediterranean diet.
• Nutrition is vital for mental health (PsychCentral.com)
It’s amazing that we can reach middle age and know so little about food and taking care of this thing that ferries us around and works so hard on our behalf: our body.
For the past few weeks I’ve been working with Franka Zmugg, a Newquay-based holistic nutrition and lifestyle coach—and psychotherapist—and it has been life changing.
I’ve discovered whether I run better on more carbohydrate or more protein; why I crave chocolate in the evening; what happens when I skip a meal. I’ve learned about the four white devils: sugar, salt, white flour, pasteurized milk. I’ve discovered an amazing new energy drink—maybe you’ve heard of it—it’s called water. I've experienced Yoga Nidra. The yin and the yang of energy.
You want to stay forever young? So much of looking after ourselves is common sense.
Avoid processed, packaged food, what food activist Michael Pollan calls “foodlike substances”—Pollan’s famous seven-word dictum is: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Keep moving: “We clearly know that movement over time equals health,” says Dr. David Agus, bestselling author of The End of Illness and A Short Guide to a Long Life. Engage in something: “In Okinawa, there is a social construct called ikigai,” says Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones, which looks for answers in those places around the world known for extraordinary longevity. “It’s the thing for which you wake up in the morning. People with that strong sense of purpose or ikigai live 7 or 8 years longer than people without it.”
Meditate. Rest. Love.
The longest-living people on the planet are the shepherds of Sardinia. It should be so easy to live a simple, healthy life like them. We know what to do. But life often conspires against us.
—John Barton
The growing link between nutrition and mental health + the best foods
From Yahoo Health:
It’s a no-brainer: Eating a balanced diet helps you to look and feel good. And now researchers say that eating well may even help fight depression.
A new scientific review published in the journal the Lancet Psychiatry that involved 18 researchers from around the world stresses the role that good nutrition plays in mental health.
“Evidence is steadily growing for the relation between dietary quality [and potential nutritional deficiencies] and mental health, and for the select use of nutrient-based supplements to address deficiencies,” researchers said in the review.
And we’re seeing real-life proof of the relationship between food and a better psychiatric outcome: A study published in 2013 in the journal Neurocase followed two women with bipolar disorder over two years. The women were put on a ketogenetic diet (high fat, moderate protein, low carb), and their moods stabilized better than they did with medication alone.
But the link between diet and the risk of developing depression isn’t the same for everyone. “If your diet is deficient in some nutrients, it can have many effects on the brain,” study co-author David Mischoulon, MD, PhD, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a co-author of the Lancet study, tells Yahoo Health. “It can be subtle in some people and may result in psychiatric illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and so forth in others.”
Mischoulon and his team identified specific nutrients that are particularly helpful with boosting mental health, pointing out that many are often found in the Mediterranean diet.
• Nutrition is vital for mental health (PsychCentral.com)
U.K. NEWS
'Charles Kennedy was a lovely man — with an illness'
From Mirror.co.uk:
Charles Kennedy’s death shows drastic improvements are needed in mental health services, Lib Dem leadership hopeful Norman Lamb said.
He is demanding the Government makes a firm commitment to patients and people with addictions, like his friend Mr Kennedy. The Lib Dem stalwart died from a haemorrhage on Monday caused by alcohol.
Former Care Minister Mr Lamb said: “Charles was a lovely man. He had an illness.
"This is an example of how, whether it’s addiction or mental health, we must treat it like any other illness.”
Mr Lamb introduced targets for mental health treatment last autumn. But he fears the Tories will fail to meet the demand.
He said: “They’ve given no indication that they recognise the urgency of this and that worries me. “There’s a growing NHS funding crisis and mental health will lose out.”
Some A&Es 'unequipped' to cope with mental health cases, national care watchdog says
From The Independent:
People suffering a mental health crisis are being treated “without warmth and compassion” by staff at some A&Es, the national care watchdog has said.
Investigators from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that NHS and local authority services were failing to provide “round the clock” specialist support for people feeling suicidal, suffering a psychotic episode or from extreme anxiety.
This means that many must turn to A&E services. However, only 37 per cent of patients surveyed said they felt their concerns had been taken seriously by A&E staff.
• Report: Mental health care in England 'inadequate' (ITV News)
• Mental health services 'struggling to cope', Care Quality Commission says (Huffington Post UK)
Huge response to mental health taskforce survey
From NHS England:
The recently established Mental Health Taskforce has received an astonishing response to its call for the views of service users, their families and professionals who work in mental health.
As he talks at the NHS Confederation annual conference in Liverpool today, Paul Farmer, the independent chair of the mental health taskforce and Chief Executive of Mind, writes in a blog that the huge response serves to confirm the importance and urgency of the group’s ongoing work.
“Over 20,000 people have taken part in our online survey, “he writes, adding: “The huge response has shown us the strength of feeling around the need to improve services for mental health.”
Both Mr Farmer and NHS England Chief Executive, Simon Stevens, have outlined to the Confed conference the emerging themes of responses from people about changes to mental health services.
'Charles Kennedy was a lovely man — with an illness'
From Mirror.co.uk:
Charles Kennedy’s death shows drastic improvements are needed in mental health services, Lib Dem leadership hopeful Norman Lamb said.
He is demanding the Government makes a firm commitment to patients and people with addictions, like his friend Mr Kennedy. The Lib Dem stalwart died from a haemorrhage on Monday caused by alcohol.
Former Care Minister Mr Lamb said: “Charles was a lovely man. He had an illness.
"This is an example of how, whether it’s addiction or mental health, we must treat it like any other illness.”
Mr Lamb introduced targets for mental health treatment last autumn. But he fears the Tories will fail to meet the demand.
He said: “They’ve given no indication that they recognise the urgency of this and that worries me. “There’s a growing NHS funding crisis and mental health will lose out.”
Some A&Es 'unequipped' to cope with mental health cases, national care watchdog says
From The Independent:
People suffering a mental health crisis are being treated “without warmth and compassion” by staff at some A&Es, the national care watchdog has said.
Investigators from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that NHS and local authority services were failing to provide “round the clock” specialist support for people feeling suicidal, suffering a psychotic episode or from extreme anxiety.
This means that many must turn to A&E services. However, only 37 per cent of patients surveyed said they felt their concerns had been taken seriously by A&E staff.
• Report: Mental health care in England 'inadequate' (ITV News)
• Mental health services 'struggling to cope', Care Quality Commission says (Huffington Post UK)
Huge response to mental health taskforce survey
From NHS England:
The recently established Mental Health Taskforce has received an astonishing response to its call for the views of service users, their families and professionals who work in mental health.
As he talks at the NHS Confederation annual conference in Liverpool today, Paul Farmer, the independent chair of the mental health taskforce and Chief Executive of Mind, writes in a blog that the huge response serves to confirm the importance and urgency of the group’s ongoing work.
“Over 20,000 people have taken part in our online survey, “he writes, adding: “The huge response has shown us the strength of feeling around the need to improve services for mental health.”
Both Mr Farmer and NHS England Chief Executive, Simon Stevens, have outlined to the Confed conference the emerging themes of responses from people about changes to mental health services.
How 'Hellblade' explores real-life mental health issues
From Wired.co.uk:
At a glance, the upcoming Hellblade has everything you'd expect from a new video game looking to make a mainstream splash -- lush visuals, a dollop of violence, and a trailer promising a grim and gritty story.
Look closer though, and you'll discover that the title, following Celtic warrior Senua in the wake of the Viking invasion circa 9th century CE, is attempting to do something deeper. It wants to use its hero's journey as a way to explore real life mental illness. The particular focus will be on psychosis, with Senua suffering hallucinations that splinter her perception of reality.
While several games have experimented with mental health themes, larger-budget titles have not always treated it with much nuance, preferring to depend on the catch-all term "insanity". In its efforts to create a game that could deliver on the action players crave -- and present these deeper themes in a non-exploitative manner -- developer Ninja Theory partnered with Paul Fletcher, psychiatrist and Professor of Health Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, and the Wellcome Trust.
U.S.A. NEWS
Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act
From American Psychiatric Association:
Bipartisan legislation introduced in Congress by Representatives Tim Murphy, PhD (R-PA) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) titled the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act (H.R. 2646) will address these challenges by promoting evidence-based psychiatric care and research activities, ensuring better coordination of federal mental health resources, addressing the critical psychiatric workforce shortage, and improving enforcement of mental health parity, among other notable provisions. The new bill builds on the version they introduced during the last Congressional session, and it includes helpful new language on enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act as well provisions that would address psychiatric workforce shortages, among other changes.
Hispanic youth and the struggle for assessment and treatment
From Latin Post:
Whether it's behavioral, anxiety, mood, personality or psychiatric, mental health disorders manifest in many forms. However, non-white youth often face damning obstacles when seeking access, assessment and treatment.
Barriers that negatively affect mental health access include cultural barriers (e.g., stigma, causal beliefs), culturally unresponsive services (language and ethnic discordance, poor cross-cultural understanding), limited access to care (cost, lack of insurance coverage) and unawareness or misunderstanding of services. Stigmatization of mental illness within the Latino community, particularly among immigrants, can drive asylum-seeking mentally debilitated individuals away from psychological assistance; and a lack of mental health education in multicultural communities likely feeds mental health disparities.
Frequently, many in the Latino community are not aware of indicators associated with depression, disorders or organic mental illnesses; and when Latinos, in fact, come into contact with this information it's often delivered in a culturally inadequate fashion. Also, unfortunately, when culturally-focused mental health education and services are available, clients are often uninformed about where to find these services. Likely, the three greatest structural barriers that multicultural communities face (perhaps more burdensome and damning than unfamiliarity with facilities) are health insurance costs, misdiagnosed/underdiagnosed and difficulties with assessment.
"We need to have improvement in the area of assessment and treatment," Dr. Luis Vargas, child psychologist and treasurer of the National Latino Behavioral Health Association, told Latin Post. "I'm a psychologist, and psychologists tend to use different tools and techniques considered to be more empirical, yet I think that's an area that we really need to focus on. We need to ask, are these instruments culturally appropriate? Culturally, in terms of how and what we typically think of culture, but also linguistically. Are we training people to deliver these assessments in Spanish? Are they translated? Are they normed? What population are they normed on?”
WORLD NEWS
Singapore: Helpline and counselling manual to counter threat from Islamic State recruiters
From International Business Times UK:
A voluntary group formed in 2003 to counsel terror detainees in Singapore, plans to launch a helpline and counselling manual to help members of the public on questions of extremism and religious matters.
The Religious Rehabilitation Group is now extending its outreach efforts to derail radical propaganda spread by terrorist group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis) as it continues to lure foreign fighters, the Straits Times reports. The helpline will be operational from early next month.
The group's counsellors will be given clear guidelines to refer to with the launch of a third counsellor's manual which focuses on refuting Isis extremism and making clear that they are not relevant to Singapore Muslims.
Canada: Experimental PTSD therapy gets traumatized soldiers walking toward relief
From CBC.ca:
The virtual reality lab at the Ottawa Hospital looks like the bridge of a spaceship or the world's biggest video game.
A treadmill sits on a platform in the middle of a darkened room in front of a huge wraparound video screen. Patients are tethered in a harness to the treadmill as they walk through a series of computer-generated virtual environments, all controlled by a technician at a nearby command station.
The high-tech machine called CAREN, short for Computer-Assisted Rehabilitation Environment, is normally used to help patients with severe physical injuries learn to walk again. But in the next few weeks, the Canadian Forces hopes to use this technology to test an experimental form of psychotherapy to treat soldiers suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
"I think this can be a game changer," says Col. Rakesh Jetly, chief psychiatrist for the Canadian Forces.
Jetly has high hopes for a new system known as Motion-Assisted, Multi-Modal Memory Desensitization and Reconsolidation, or 3MDR.
Patients step into the CAREN unit, where they listen to music and view photographs on the big screen. The sound and images, chosen by the patient, are meant to remind them of the events that brought on their traumatic memories. For a soldier, it could be images of combat or songs they listened to during their deployment.
With their therapist present to guide and direct them, the patient is asked a series of questions as they walk on the treadmill, steadily and continuously toward the images that bring back their trauma, forcing them to confront their painful memories.
Australia: Mental health sufferers urged to better prepare for old age
From ABC Online:
One of Australia's top mental health charities is warning Australians with a mental illness to plan better for their old age.
SANE Australia says many people cope well with their illness throughout their lives but that declining physical health, insecure housing and isolation can pose particular challenges.
The organisation's research found that as people were growing older, they were often not well prepared for the impact of their illness on their lives, and did not understand that they could make choices themselves over important issues such as housing and finances.
"What we found was that about two-thirds of people that are living with a mental illness haven't even started a conversation with someone about what's going to happen as they get older," SANE chief executive Jake Heath said.SANE Australia says many people cope well with their illness throughout their lives but that declining physical health, insecure housing and isolation can pose particular challenges.
The organisation's research found that as people were growing older, they were often not well prepared for the impact of their illness on their lives, and did not understand that they could make choices themselves over important issues such as housing and finances.
"What we found was that about two-thirds of people that are living with a mental illness haven't even started a conversation with someone about what's going to happen as they get older," SANE chief executive Jake Heath said.
Liberia: Experts to assess mental health impact of Ebola
Regional Office for Africa - World Health Organization
The Ebola outbreak that began in Guinea in March 2014 not only caused more than 27 000 cases and over 11 000 deaths in West Africa, it also left thousands of survivors, orphans, family members, health care workers and other support workers who require mental health and psychosocial support.
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are looking to build and improve mental health services and psychosocial support after Ebola. Experts from the affected countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) are meeting in Monrovia, Liberia, this week to see what lessons have been learned and to draw a map for how to develop and recover these systems. Experts and partners will create a response framework for mental health and psychosocial support, based on recent experiences in West Africa.
The consultation will include case studies and lessons learned from the affected countries, said Dr Mark van Ommeren, who leads WHO’s mental health efforts in emergencies. Participants include staff from Ministries of Health and Social Welfare, national and international NGOs, donor agencies and staff from the three WHO country offices, Regional Office for Africa and headquarters.
From Wired.co.uk:
At a glance, the upcoming Hellblade has everything you'd expect from a new video game looking to make a mainstream splash -- lush visuals, a dollop of violence, and a trailer promising a grim and gritty story.
Look closer though, and you'll discover that the title, following Celtic warrior Senua in the wake of the Viking invasion circa 9th century CE, is attempting to do something deeper. It wants to use its hero's journey as a way to explore real life mental illness. The particular focus will be on psychosis, with Senua suffering hallucinations that splinter her perception of reality.
While several games have experimented with mental health themes, larger-budget titles have not always treated it with much nuance, preferring to depend on the catch-all term "insanity". In its efforts to create a game that could deliver on the action players crave -- and present these deeper themes in a non-exploitative manner -- developer Ninja Theory partnered with Paul Fletcher, psychiatrist and Professor of Health Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, and the Wellcome Trust.
U.S.A. NEWS
Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act
From American Psychiatric Association:
Bipartisan legislation introduced in Congress by Representatives Tim Murphy, PhD (R-PA) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) titled the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act (H.R. 2646) will address these challenges by promoting evidence-based psychiatric care and research activities, ensuring better coordination of federal mental health resources, addressing the critical psychiatric workforce shortage, and improving enforcement of mental health parity, among other notable provisions. The new bill builds on the version they introduced during the last Congressional session, and it includes helpful new language on enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act as well provisions that would address psychiatric workforce shortages, among other changes.
Hispanic youth and the struggle for assessment and treatment
From Latin Post:
Whether it's behavioral, anxiety, mood, personality or psychiatric, mental health disorders manifest in many forms. However, non-white youth often face damning obstacles when seeking access, assessment and treatment.
Barriers that negatively affect mental health access include cultural barriers (e.g., stigma, causal beliefs), culturally unresponsive services (language and ethnic discordance, poor cross-cultural understanding), limited access to care (cost, lack of insurance coverage) and unawareness or misunderstanding of services. Stigmatization of mental illness within the Latino community, particularly among immigrants, can drive asylum-seeking mentally debilitated individuals away from psychological assistance; and a lack of mental health education in multicultural communities likely feeds mental health disparities.
Frequently, many in the Latino community are not aware of indicators associated with depression, disorders or organic mental illnesses; and when Latinos, in fact, come into contact with this information it's often delivered in a culturally inadequate fashion. Also, unfortunately, when culturally-focused mental health education and services are available, clients are often uninformed about where to find these services. Likely, the three greatest structural barriers that multicultural communities face (perhaps more burdensome and damning than unfamiliarity with facilities) are health insurance costs, misdiagnosed/underdiagnosed and difficulties with assessment.
"We need to have improvement in the area of assessment and treatment," Dr. Luis Vargas, child psychologist and treasurer of the National Latino Behavioral Health Association, told Latin Post. "I'm a psychologist, and psychologists tend to use different tools and techniques considered to be more empirical, yet I think that's an area that we really need to focus on. We need to ask, are these instruments culturally appropriate? Culturally, in terms of how and what we typically think of culture, but also linguistically. Are we training people to deliver these assessments in Spanish? Are they translated? Are they normed? What population are they normed on?”
WORLD NEWS
Singapore: Helpline and counselling manual to counter threat from Islamic State recruiters
From International Business Times UK:
A voluntary group formed in 2003 to counsel terror detainees in Singapore, plans to launch a helpline and counselling manual to help members of the public on questions of extremism and religious matters.
The Religious Rehabilitation Group is now extending its outreach efforts to derail radical propaganda spread by terrorist group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis) as it continues to lure foreign fighters, the Straits Times reports. The helpline will be operational from early next month.
The group's counsellors will be given clear guidelines to refer to with the launch of a third counsellor's manual which focuses on refuting Isis extremism and making clear that they are not relevant to Singapore Muslims.
Canada: Experimental PTSD therapy gets traumatized soldiers walking toward relief
From CBC.ca:
The virtual reality lab at the Ottawa Hospital looks like the bridge of a spaceship or the world's biggest video game.
A treadmill sits on a platform in the middle of a darkened room in front of a huge wraparound video screen. Patients are tethered in a harness to the treadmill as they walk through a series of computer-generated virtual environments, all controlled by a technician at a nearby command station.
The high-tech machine called CAREN, short for Computer-Assisted Rehabilitation Environment, is normally used to help patients with severe physical injuries learn to walk again. But in the next few weeks, the Canadian Forces hopes to use this technology to test an experimental form of psychotherapy to treat soldiers suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
"I think this can be a game changer," says Col. Rakesh Jetly, chief psychiatrist for the Canadian Forces.
Jetly has high hopes for a new system known as Motion-Assisted, Multi-Modal Memory Desensitization and Reconsolidation, or 3MDR.
Patients step into the CAREN unit, where they listen to music and view photographs on the big screen. The sound and images, chosen by the patient, are meant to remind them of the events that brought on their traumatic memories. For a soldier, it could be images of combat or songs they listened to during their deployment.
With their therapist present to guide and direct them, the patient is asked a series of questions as they walk on the treadmill, steadily and continuously toward the images that bring back their trauma, forcing them to confront their painful memories.
Australia: Mental health sufferers urged to better prepare for old age
From ABC Online:
One of Australia's top mental health charities is warning Australians with a mental illness to plan better for their old age.
SANE Australia says many people cope well with their illness throughout their lives but that declining physical health, insecure housing and isolation can pose particular challenges.
The organisation's research found that as people were growing older, they were often not well prepared for the impact of their illness on their lives, and did not understand that they could make choices themselves over important issues such as housing and finances.
"What we found was that about two-thirds of people that are living with a mental illness haven't even started a conversation with someone about what's going to happen as they get older," SANE chief executive Jake Heath said.SANE Australia says many people cope well with their illness throughout their lives but that declining physical health, insecure housing and isolation can pose particular challenges.
The organisation's research found that as people were growing older, they were often not well prepared for the impact of their illness on their lives, and did not understand that they could make choices themselves over important issues such as housing and finances.
"What we found was that about two-thirds of people that are living with a mental illness haven't even started a conversation with someone about what's going to happen as they get older," SANE chief executive Jake Heath said.
Liberia: Experts to assess mental health impact of Ebola
Regional Office for Africa - World Health Organization
The Ebola outbreak that began in Guinea in March 2014 not only caused more than 27 000 cases and over 11 000 deaths in West Africa, it also left thousands of survivors, orphans, family members, health care workers and other support workers who require mental health and psychosocial support.
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are looking to build and improve mental health services and psychosocial support after Ebola. Experts from the affected countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) are meeting in Monrovia, Liberia, this week to see what lessons have been learned and to draw a map for how to develop and recover these systems. Experts and partners will create a response framework for mental health and psychosocial support, based on recent experiences in West Africa.
The consultation will include case studies and lessons learned from the affected countries, said Dr Mark van Ommeren, who leads WHO’s mental health efforts in emergencies. Participants include staff from Ministries of Health and Social Welfare, national and international NGOs, donor agencies and staff from the three WHO country offices, Regional Office for Africa and headquarters.
VIEWPOINTS
Pets and your mental health
From PsychCentral.com:
There are a lot of variables that go into the question of how an animal can impact a person’s mental health. Are you the owner or do you just see the animal once in a while? If you do own the animal, what kind of a relationship do you have with it? Obviously some people are more attached to their animals than others are. It varies from person to person and pet to pet. The internet loves to attach stereotypes to cats and their seemingly standoffish personalities, but really it’s because we love our cats and like to laugh at the funny things they do. We also like to dote on our dogs because they are adorable. What kind of an effect does that have psychologically? It’s because of all of these variables and attitudes that studying the impact of animals and mental health is incredibly difficult.
• Could owning a CAT be detrimental to your mental health? (Daily Mail)
How do we choose our guides?
From the Financial Times (free registration required):
A reader wonders how to “tell a professional psychotherapist from a lousy one”. This is a very good question, with several layers to unpack — for example, what exactly makes a psychotherapist professional or lousy? It’s unclear that psychotherapy is a profession anyway: more of a higgledy-piggledy huddle of different supporting theories and practices, all judged by different standards.
Perhaps this diversity is misunderstood. Many may judge psychotherapy by ancient stereotypes — such as lying on a couch, free-associating while a psychoanalyst sits silently behind you. Or it may be that current stereotypes prevail: a short sharp set of six sessions aimed at turning your beliefs on their head — all evidence-based, of course.
At any rate it’s worth doing your homework, finding out about different kinds of therapies, how they’re supposed to function and what they’re aiming to achieve. Questions include whether they tend to be long-term or short-term, and whether they focus on the past or the present, the problem or the solution. From this point of view, there is no such thing as “a good psychotherapist”: what is good and acceptable in one therapy is hopelessly misguided in another.
Opinionator | The Architecture of Psychotherapy
From The New York Times:
If you listen to psychotherapists when they talk to one another, you will often hear them speak of something called the “therapeutic frame.” This term, coined by the psychoanalyst Marion Milner, refers to the set of conventions and ground rules that structure the therapeutic experience. Just as the frame of a painting defines the borders of a work of art, the therapeutic frame is the “container” in which the therapy takes place.
As an architect, I find myself curious about this frame. What are its dimensions? Where does it start and where does it end?
Pets and your mental health
From PsychCentral.com:
There are a lot of variables that go into the question of how an animal can impact a person’s mental health. Are you the owner or do you just see the animal once in a while? If you do own the animal, what kind of a relationship do you have with it? Obviously some people are more attached to their animals than others are. It varies from person to person and pet to pet. The internet loves to attach stereotypes to cats and their seemingly standoffish personalities, but really it’s because we love our cats and like to laugh at the funny things they do. We also like to dote on our dogs because they are adorable. What kind of an effect does that have psychologically? It’s because of all of these variables and attitudes that studying the impact of animals and mental health is incredibly difficult.
• Could owning a CAT be detrimental to your mental health? (Daily Mail)
How do we choose our guides?
From the Financial Times (free registration required):
A reader wonders how to “tell a professional psychotherapist from a lousy one”. This is a very good question, with several layers to unpack — for example, what exactly makes a psychotherapist professional or lousy? It’s unclear that psychotherapy is a profession anyway: more of a higgledy-piggledy huddle of different supporting theories and practices, all judged by different standards.
Perhaps this diversity is misunderstood. Many may judge psychotherapy by ancient stereotypes — such as lying on a couch, free-associating while a psychoanalyst sits silently behind you. Or it may be that current stereotypes prevail: a short sharp set of six sessions aimed at turning your beliefs on their head — all evidence-based, of course.
At any rate it’s worth doing your homework, finding out about different kinds of therapies, how they’re supposed to function and what they’re aiming to achieve. Questions include whether they tend to be long-term or short-term, and whether they focus on the past or the present, the problem or the solution. From this point of view, there is no such thing as “a good psychotherapist”: what is good and acceptable in one therapy is hopelessly misguided in another.
Opinionator | The Architecture of Psychotherapy
From The New York Times:
If you listen to psychotherapists when they talk to one another, you will often hear them speak of something called the “therapeutic frame.” This term, coined by the psychoanalyst Marion Milner, refers to the set of conventions and ground rules that structure the therapeutic experience. Just as the frame of a painting defines the borders of a work of art, the therapeutic frame is the “container” in which the therapy takes place.
As an architect, I find myself curious about this frame. What are its dimensions? Where does it start and where does it end?
