Integrative Healer
« Previous EntriesThe Relational Field Beyond Home and Family
Friday, May 11th, 2012The wide availability of self help groups offers a valuable resource for
therapists to engage some patients in a sympathetic and supportive social
network of people who understand from their own experience how difficult
it can be to engage with others. Group therapy provides a more structured
and protective option for patients who respond […]
Relational Healing
Thursday, May 10th, 2012Beyond couple and family work, promoting involvement in social, occupational and community networks can become a crucial area of Relational healing for abuse trauma. In general, survivors of severe childhood abuse have low tolerance for social interaction. For many, social anxiety of paranoid proportions and extremely low self esteem have […]
Treating Relationships Continued
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012From what I learn in these sessions, I devise entertaining exercises for couples and families to rehearse in the office and take home, often involving comical role reversals in which family members have a chance to take on attributes of others and exaggerate them to absurdity. This playful way of changing […]
Treating Relationships Continued
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012When one spouse withdraws the projection and reclaims the aspect that has been projected previously, the dissociation is dissolved and the other partner is then forced to take back what has been projected onto the spouse. My intervention strategies combine two approaches that I find to be particularly effective to untie […]
Treating Relationships Continued
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012In my experience, this phenomenon occurs most commonly in couples where one spouse displays symptoms of a major mental illness and the other plays the part of the long suffering “normal” partner taking care of a chronically ill spouse. After the “sick” partner begins to stabilize and function more effectively, the […]
Treating Relationships Continued
Thursday, April 26th, 2012For a patient or a family to break this cycle and make even small changes in the way they treat each other is a tremendous achievement that may require considerable work on a couple or family’s part. Paradoxically, the more chaotic and dysfunctional the family system, the more resistant to change […]
Treating Relationships Continued
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012In our society, members of a couple have usually chosen each other, so acting out of the abusive patterns fulfills unconscious needs for both parties. Their children are just trying to survive, however, to get whatever attention and care they can, so they are compelled to adjust to whatever skewed role […]
Treating Relationships Continued
Thursday, April 19th, 2012Ongoing relationship patterns often sustain the disabling symptoms that therapy is trying to relieve. Conflicts are no longer just internal but have become embedded in the family system as well. When the symptoms shift, the whole family system shifts. Self-reinforcing interactive systems like families, however, are quite resistant to change. […]
Treating Relationships
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012Distortion of current relationships in the families of patients suffering from severe childhood abuse can complicate the individual healing process. In the absence of therapeutic insight, patients tend to be unaware of the ways in which unresolved issues from childhood have influenced their current family patterns. An experienced therapist will […]
Facing Any Challenge in Life
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012Facing any challenge in life confers upon people the experience to empathize with others like them and help them to cope. Self help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous depend on this principle to bolster the self esteem of participants as they succeed and go on to help others stay on the safe […]
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