Therapy on the Cutting Edge

Muniya Khanna, Ph.D., discusses the next step in her career, which is helping get the tools of effective treatment into the hands of parents who want to help their children. She discusses her career in treatment and research, working with Martin Seligman, Ph.D. researching Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and her work with Philip Kendall, PhD. researching his CBT treatment for children, Coping Cat. Muniya tells about her interest in technology, and her work with Phil to make a computer program, and now an online program for kids to learn CBT, which is evidence based and used widely in schools and is now available for parents. She also discusses her work with University of Pennsylvania where she was on faculty, and participated in the research related to children and OCD, as well as young children and OCD. She explains that her new passion is in getting the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy tools for kids into the hands of parents through writing a book for consumers. She discusses her Worry Workbook, and her upcoming book which discusses five evidence based principals of resiliency that are effective transdiagnostically. Muniya Khanna, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist specializing in CBT for anxiety disorders and OCD. Dr. Khanna is a pioneer in web-based mental health research for anxiety disorders. In partnership with her mentor, Dr. Philip Kendall, she developed and tested Camp Cope-A-Lot, She is currently conducting 2 large-scale clinical trials, funded by NIH and NICHD, focused on the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatments for anxiety in urban public schools. Dr. Khanna has authored numerous books and research publications, has been on faculty, is on the review board of journals, and boards of the American Psychological Association. She is Founder and Director of the OCD & Anxiety Institute in Pennsylvania and Research Scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

In this interview, Guy Diamond discusses his personal journal in developing Attachment Based Family Therapy, a proven, effective treatment, that helps adolescents with depression, trauma, suicide, and anxiety, as well as LGBTQ adolescent young adults and their families. Dr. Diamond discusses how, through clinical practice and research, he and his collogues learned to make those profound, heartfelt moments in family therapy happen more often in a more purposeful, and predictable manner, event in a brief treatment model. These healing sessions activate the parents’ natural caregiving instinct, matched with the adolescents’ attachment need, to rebond the parent-child, creates a family safety net. This builds the foundation of trust and connection needed for adolescents to effectively solve problems and overcome life's adversity. Dr. Diamond discusses how this process oriented, emotionally focused, has been manualized and evaluated in several clinical trials. Additionally, Dr. Diamond talks about cutting edge treatment development and research with ABFT and adolescents diagnosed with eating disorders. Guy S. Diamond Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Associate Professor at Drexel University in the College of Nursing and Health Professions. At Drexel, he is the Director of the Center for Family Intervention Science (CFIS) and the Director of the Ph.D. program in the Department of Couple and Family Therapy. He has received several federal, state and foundation grants to develop and test this model. Dr. Diamond is the author, with his co-authors, Drs. Gary Diamond and Suzanne Levy, of the book, Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Depressed Adolescents, and continues to develop and implement the ABFT model.

Domestic violence often leads a therapist to determine that couples therapy is "contra-indicated", which may lead to treatment that could be helpful not being utilized. In this interview, John Hamel, PhD, LCSW discusses what the research tells us, and how his entry into the field of working with men who were domestically violent began with a model that was focused on men enforcing a patriarchy on women, but has evolved to consider the many ways that abuse manifests itself, from escalating conflicts fueled by poor impulse control and communication skills, to a pattern of domineering behaviors intended to control the partner, typically involving a personality disorder. John discussed how often men are vilified, and women are identified as helpless "victims", although the problem is much more complex. John explains how working with the couple together, the men individually, or in a group should be assessed, and that actually, working the couple may be a very effective means of repairing the couples' relationship and overcoming violence and anger problems. John Hamel, PhD, LCSW has authored several books on domestic violence including Gender-Including Treatment of Intimate Partner Abuse, Family Interventions in Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner and Family Abuse: A Casebook of Gender-Inclusive Therapy, and is currently editing the upcoming book, Beyond the Gender Paradigm: A Legal Primer on Evidence-Based Criminal Justice Approaches to Intimate Partner Violence. John provides therapy, oversees an anger management program, is an expert witness, teacher, and author. He has published numerous books, chapters, and peer reviewed research on the topic of domestic violence. For more information, you can go to his website at: www.johnhamel.net

Psilocybin (or magic mushrooms as it is commonly called) was used and researched in the treatment of mental health disorder extensively in the 50s and 60s, but stopped as the substance became illegal. Today, psilocybin has been named a "breakthrough treatment" by the FDA for the treatment of depression and other mental health disorders and is on track to be legalized for medical use. James Keim, LCSW discussed how psilocybin assisted therapy creates neuroplasticity, and helps clients change their brain. James Keim, LCSW is the founder of Mimosa Technologies, Inc., which uses bioreactors to grow research grade, natural psilocybin, rather than the synthetic psilocybin which is most widespread. He was the clinical director for Jay Haley and Cloe Madanes, the developers of Strategic Family Therapy, has published his work on Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and heads the Institute for the Advancement of Psychotherapy's Oppositional and Conduct Disorder Clinic. James Keim in addition to teaching at the IAP, he also teaches family therapy in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. ​