Therapists are, by profession, expert listeners. They mine the spokent word (and gesture and expression) for insight into their patients’ minds and hearts.

I arrived a few weeks before her 101st birthday. She was living in deplorable conditions-her glasses and dentures were missing, she had no socks or underwear, and spent her time lying in her bed (which she had wet), all alone, staring at the ceiling. I found mouse droppings in her nighttable.

In fact, upon reading the book, we weren’t so much struck by his inability to “pick up on” normative social interactions as we were by how shallow and deceptive our “normal” social interactions actually appear when analyzed by someone with Asperger’s! He’s right-many of our unwritten social rules really, logically, don’t make sense.

I just learned that I am supposed to care about my Twitter numbers-in fact, they are quite important. Yes, a kind, dear friend asked me how many followers I had. Here’s the conversation:

When we interviewed therapy patients for Therapy Revolution one of the most common complaints was that therapists took phone calls (or accepted other interruptions), during sessions. Can taking a phone call during a patient’s time ever be okay?

Acting appeals to most of us-something about taking on a different persona, exploring unfamiliar motives and gestures is alluring. With roots in *psychodrama, role-playing in individual and family psychotherapy offers an exceptional tool for patients struggling with a variety of issues.

Today more than ever some dough-jockeys (and others in high-pressure careers), are not only relieving their stress after work by partying with alcohol but have few qualms about using heroin, cocaine (that has been a problem for nearly three decades in the financial world), and other hard drugs.

I feel that real healing comes from the patient’s active participation in the therapeutic process, and the drawings offer a mirror of the inner self. Pioneer art therapist Edit Kramer says that the very act of drawing is therapeutic. Current research has verified that drawing and painting change the physiology of the brain.

ScienceDaily.com reported that an enormous study (4299 respondents from United Kingdom, Spain, and Japan), showed that indeed, teens felt just about as close to their Internet buddies as they did to their families. Is the Internet taking teens away from the family sphere?

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.