Learn to distinguish 3 types of what we somewhat imprecisely might call "depression."

Milton Erickson brought a storytelling approach to therapy. This video tells a bit of his story and the story of his approach to hypnosis and therapy.

Also see my episode where I interview Jeffrey Zeig, founder of the Milton Erickson Foundation.

An argument in favor of maintaining strong purpose in therapy, and against the notion that “everyone should be in therapy all the time.”

It is customary in therapy to have a 24-hour cancellation policy but is this really the best policy from either a business perspective OR a therapeutic perspective? I suggest perhaps not and relay my own experience with not having a cancellation policy.

Alfred Adler, the progenitor of Cognitive Therapy, had a non superficial concept of self-esteem. He saw the human being as having a need for a realistic sense of efficacy (the human “striving for ‘superiority’” - a better translation of which might have been “striving for mastery”), and that to the degree this was deficient humans could approach the deficiency in realistic or non-realistic ways. In line with this view his therapeutic approach had a lot to do with encouraging clients. (In this video I also discuss, critically, the work of Albert Ellis.)

David Bakan’s “Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition” noted that Freud’s work developed in the context of Jewish culture and resonated with themes from that culture and from its mystical book the Kabbalah. Bakan did not notice, however, that the symptoms and syndromes Freud dealt with could be correlated with the Sephiroth, the basic elements of being, or alternatively, elements of human character, laid out in the Kabbalah’s symbolic glyph The Tree of Life. In this video I explain that correlation, which can facilitate insight both for those interested in psychology and those interested in Kabbalah.

My own introduction to Kabbalistic lore was through Dion Fortune’s “The Mystical Qabalah.” For an excellent and humanistic (read: non-reductionistic) introduction to the classic syndromes of clinical psychology, I recommend Nancy McWilliams’s “Psychoanalytic Diagnosis.”

Awe (or Wonder) and Dread (or Horror) are the emotional means by which we process the mysteries of spiritual life and death. They are signposts to pay attention to, guiding us in the direction of more and more life (spiritual life), and less and less death (spiritual death). Seek to cultivate awe or wonder, and seek to understand the meaning of dread or horror. (This video also touches on Darwin, religion, and the literary horror genre.)

Otto Rank, the forefather of Existential Psychotherapy, was a significant influence on Carl Rogers, who developed an indirectly existential technique. I also offer here an existential exercise to help with blocked decision-making. It amplifies the perspective of limited time by enhancing visceral awareness of aging and death. In the process I refer to Ernest Becker, also influenced by Rank, and his 1970s book The Denial of Death.

Here I discuss three forms of anxiety (separation anxiety or panic, threat anxiety or paranoia, and “void” anxiety which relates to Winnicott’s “fear of breakdown” or Didier Houzel’s “precipitation anxiety”) and offer some impressionistic thoughts on what may be relevant to addressing them. For more on Jaak Panskepp’s work in affective neuroscience: https://www.amazon.com/Affective-Neuroscience-Foundations-Emotions-Science/dp/019517805X

A brief look at Carl Jung, Roberto Assagioli, and an exercise that encapsulates the practical wisdom of the psychosynthetic or Jungian tradition: subpersonality dialogue (a form of active imagination).

Learn a way to address obsessive self-doubt, aka “overthinking” or “analysis paralysis.”

Learn about the origins of the use of art in therapy and an essential technique for developing the capacity for play: Florence Cane’s scribble technique.

Wilhelm Reich founded body psychotherapy and in this video I offer a technique that encapsulates body psychotherapeutic work.

One of the problems with negativity (resentment, bitterness, envy, self-loathing, or what in the technical literature goes by "masochism") is that it tries to connect with others in ineffective ways, often through ineffective complaining. Here I offer a story that I’ve found can unlock relational capacity from negativity’s grip by shedding light on its possible origins.

How to treat a broken heart? Might insight from C. S. Lewis in his book The Four Loves, examining various Greek concepts of love, shed light on this important issue? Might the experience of awe, a subject of interest in the field of positive psychology, and related to the Greek concept of agape (or charity), be relevant to the treatment of a broken heart? In this episode I offer my preliminary thoughts.

A way to understand symptoms in terms of levels of being and correlated character strengths.

How to recognize, understand, and deal with toxic guilt.

Self-inadequacy, associated in the clinical literature with narcissism, is addressable when we understand what the symptom is asking for.

To understand religion we must understand its function as distinguished from the function of philosophy and science.

What to avoid, and what to do, when addressing negativity in the therapeutic process.