Horses are both empathic and intuitive creatures. They are also without judgment, betrayal, or dishonesty that can be found in personal relationships. They work as a bridge between human-human bonding and teach people who have experienced emotional pain to come back to affection and intimacy in a healthy way.

I have found it to be especially profound for addicts, trauma survivors, and persons with eating disorders as these persons are often so “stuck” in how they relate to others.

Inception has brought dreams into the public eye. With new, and not so new, insights into dreaming, dreams, and nightmares (and more insights into nightmares), there are still plenty of people who doubt the importance of dreams. Of course, others, including us, feel dreams have significantly impacted how we reflect on and understand our lives. What do you think?

You are doing very exciting work with horses and yoga and psychotherapy. Please share with us how you got started doing this.

I was working with combat veterans and survivors of military sexual trauma for the Department of Veterans Affairs and had wanted to explore equine therapies for some time.

Jewish law requires not just behaviors and rituals, but actually asks of us to feel emotion. For example, we are commanded to love God, which begs the question: How do you “command” a feeling?

With real unemployment numbers hovering around 17 percent (or higher, depending who does the tallying), we’ve talked with professionals who’ve seen a rise in the number of people contacting them about symptoms of anxiety and depression. But is the economy and unemployment to blame? This week’s poll asks for your opinion

Who are we talking about? You know. Those people. The ones who aren’t as (fill in the blank yourself, if you like): intelligent, open-minded, generous, kind, intellectual, deep-thinking, politically astute, as we are. They’re the same “those people” who don’t possess the common-sense, logic, broadmindedness, compassion, sophistication, wisdom, insight, gravitas, humor, we do.

The overwhelming majority of respondents to the first weekly Therapy Soup readers’ poll (on basic views on God and Religion), were clients/patients, mental health professionals, and general readers who believe in both God and religion. Frankly, we were surprised! We had some preconceived notions and the poll, while not scientific, challenged them.

Controversy rages on about the best modalities for addiction treatment. Professionals and those with addictions have a variety of opinions–some are adamantly against addiction medications, others embrace them. Some say sobriety isn’t possible without a 12-Step program, others vehemently disagree. What do you think?

In part one of our interview with Dr. Sally Palaian we discussed whether or not money addictions were “real” addictions and learned about Dr. Palaian’s wonderful book, Spent: Break the Buying Obsession and Discover Your True Worth.

come from a financially dysfunctional family and my relationship with money has had many twists and turns along the way in life. I was forced to learn about what money is and isn’t, what it can and can’t accomplish.