My Practice Index

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Misc. Index

Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Book, Howard — How to Practice Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (1998) Gabbard Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis Rethinking Therapeutic Action Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (2010) McWillians, Nancy Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2004) Modell,  Arnold Reflections on Metaphor and Affects Shedler, Jonathan The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (2010) The Tyranny of Time: How Long Does Effective Therapy Really Take? (2020) That Was Then, This Is Now (2022) Wachtel, Paul Therapeutic Communication (2011)
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Transformations and Train Wrecks: Some Reflections on Group Therapy

I became a member of a process-oriented therapy group without really knowing anything about these groups. If you know something about process groups, then you’ll recognize that this would make a good premise for a skit on <i>Saturday Night Live</i>. If you don’t know about these groups, then you’re probably as confused as I was that first night. “Process,” of course, is therapy-speak for your present emotional experience. If you’re in a process group, you and the other group members are expected to talk about your respective present emotional experiences. It’s inevitable that you’ll sometimes talk about the past or the future, but your goal is to stay in the present. And yes, telling a group of strangers your innermost feelings is as awkward as it sounds. If you acted this way in everyday life, people would unfriend you on social media and make a point to cross the street when they saw you coming. In a process group, however, this behavior is not just tolerated but demanded
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My Dad and Me

Anger I knew I’d been angry with my dad for the past several years, but it was only after I started reading through some old journal entries that I realized that this anger had been with me for most of my adult life. These old entries felt as though they could have been written last week. I like to think that I’m ever changing, ever evolving, but these writings paint the picture of someone stuck in an endless loop. In one passage after another, I express rage that he’s always trying to change me, that he refuses to accept me for who I am. I write that I hate him and that I’m lying when I say at the end of our phone conversations that I love him. In an entry from almost twenty years ago I recount how he told me I was wasting potential at my job. I proceed to explain in detail why he’s wrong, giving reason after reason why I’m working exactly the right job for that time in my life. I admit to myself how much his “stupid words” irritate me and not because I think they’re true but because
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