Wise Counsel Podcasts

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Yulonda Brown on Surviving Abuse and Bipolar Disorder" Today's interview is with Yulonda Brown, an African-American woman who has successfully struggled with child abuse, depression, Bipolar Disorder, and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). She is an author, publisher, mentor to young women of color, and mental health activist. Ms. Brown relates her story, describing her early experience of physical and verbal abuse by her mother, the subsequent effect of this abuse on her relationships, her experience of postpartum depression and suicide attempt, and her hospitalization, diagnosis and successful treatment.

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Stefanie Goldstein, Ph.D. on Mindfulness-based Treatment for Addiction". Dr. Van Nuys interviews Stefanie Goldstein, Ph.D., a Los Angeles, CA based Clinical Psychologist specializing in providing mindfulness-based forms of psychotherapy to people dealing with substance abuse and addiction. Dr. Goldstein talks about her practical work helping addicted clients and the "broken pleasure system" that maintains their habits. In a simplified form, she reviews briefly the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine and its role in creating the experience of pleasure. Mindfulness and psychosynthesis techniques are helpful to addicted people becuase they help them to become more conscious and thus more capable of understanding when they are most vulnerable and of choosing to not continue drug use. Many actions in life are done on "autopilot"; in a semi- or unconscious state where people act but aren't really paying attention. Addictive behaviors get acted out without thought when they are triggered by unconscious impulses and feelings, and by mistaken interpretations of events. By learning to be more aware and conscious, it becomes easier for people to pay attention on a more consistent basis, and thus become more free to choose what they will do, rather than be led around by impulses and cravings.

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Natalie Rogers on Expressive Arts Therapy". In this episode of Wise Counsel, Dr. Van Nuys talks with psychologist and psychotherapist Natalie Rogers, Ph.D., a leader in the field of Expressive Arts Therapy which is a form of psychotherapy integrating a variety of artistic and creative modalities and techniques including movement, sound, drawing, drama and language so as to encourage client's self-expression, insight and personal growth. Though individual art therapies have been around for many years, including music, art (painting and drawing), dance, and psychodrama therapies, Expressive Arts Therapy represents a newer effort to coherently integrate these various techniques. Art therapies are particularly useful for people who are feeling stuck, overwhelmed or otherwise unable to express themselves or move forward in their lives. Expressive arts therapy offers such clients multiple non-verbal, and experiential ways to come to understand what it is that is blocking their progress, which can lead to increased self-understanding and to better decision making.

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Laurence Westreich, MD. on Helping Families Help Addicted Members", posted July 1, 2007. The traditional advice offered to family members has been to use "tough love" with addicted members. However, Dr. Westreich fears that too many families emphasize being "tough" over providing "love". He recommends that families use a combination of creative engagement and constructive cohersion to repeatedly and lovingly push addicted members into treatment. Threats and ultimatums are less helpful, he suggests, than are multiple caring confrontations that continually push the addicted family member towards obtaining treatment. At the same time, boundaries must be set to keep the addict from harming family members (physically, emotionally, financially, etc.) Dr. Westreich's recent book offers various dialogs that work though typical ways that such confrontations can be offered, typical ways that addicts respond, and good arguments family members can make back to help keep the addict on track towards treatment.

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Anita Remig, Ed.D. on Child Development", posted May 15, 2007. Dr. Remig describes the process of attachment and attachment disorders in biological, relational and maturational terms. Recent neuroscience findings have tended to confirm what 1950s child development theorists like John Bowlby suspected - that the quality of a baby's early relationships strongly influences the development of that baby's brain, and therefore, the quality of that baby's ability to regulate emotions, form a coherent sense of self and other and enter into and effectively manage social relationships. Modern imaging techniques have localized some of the brain areas damaged by inadequate, abusive or neglectful early caregiving. The midbrain and orbital prefrontal cortex are involved as are diverse right hemisphere circuits involved with emotional regulation and judgement. In short: Child abuse interferes with brain development.

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Myrna Weissman, Ph.D. on Interpersonal Psychotherapy", posted June 1, 2007. Dr. Weissman is one of the founders of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), one of only a few empirically validated (EV) and manualized forms of therapy existing today which has been designed for the treatment of depression. As the name suggests, IPT is based on the idea that depression symptoms exist as part of an interpersonal, relational context and cannot be understood independently of that context. In IPT, therapists help patients to talk about what was going on for them when their symptoms first appeared. They then assign the interpersonal context of the patients' depression to one of four categories: grief, conflicts and disagreements, life transitions or too-few attachments and help patients to identify ways to resolve those issues.

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Jeff Bernstein, Ph.D. on defiant children", posted May 1, 2007. Dr. Bernstein talks about how parents can better understand and manage defiant children's behavior so as to bring all family members closer together. Defiant children are often angry, frustrated, looking to externalize blame and operating under the assumption that they are equal in authority and wisdom to adults. Parents of defiant children too often "take the bait", become emotional, angry and authoritarian themselves and end up trying to manage the resulting conflicts with demands and threats. Dr. Bernstein suggests a more detached, mindful and judo-like approach that is calm, firm and non-controling. Parents who are able to show their defiant children through their actions that they are understood and respected (as well as loved) and at the same time, who are able to firmly set expectations and limits can defuse and avoid otherwise explosive situations and get to the results they want. By modeling the response they would like their children to emulate, parents are able to teach their children how to better self-sooth and interact.

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Marsha Temlock on Adult Child Divorce", posted March 6, 2007. When a marriage ends, lots of folks are hurt. The divorcing couple, of course, and their children are usually the center of attention. Little attention gets paid to the parents of the divorcees, who may themselves be hurt by the divorce process. Temlock's examination of this sensitive topic offers parents of divorcing children a friendly guidebook packed with helpful information and suggestions from other parents who've "been there." She offers a five-stage model of the divorce process as experienced by parents of divorcing children will can help readers to stay grounded through the emotional upheavals they'll share with their children and grandchildren. This practical manual puts an arm around the shoulder of parents of divorcing adults and supports them through the difficult days of the divorce process and its aftermath.

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Timothy P. Kowalski, M.A.,C.C.C.-SLP on Asperger's Disorder", posted April 16, 2007. Mr. Kowalski discusses his work as a speech pathologist working with Asperger's Disordered patients. Asperger's Disorder is a pervasive developmental disorder of childhood characterized by communication and social deficits. It is often thought of as identical to high functioning Autism (another, more severe disorder), but Kowalski differentiates the two disorders on the basis of social desire (Autistic individuals lacking the desire and skills to socialize, vs. Asperger's individuals having the desire to socialize but lacking the skills). The pattern of social and emotional deficits characteristic of Asperger's is described, as are ways that these deficits are measured and assessed, and ways that compensatory coping stratagies can be taught.

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Jeffrey Young, Ph.D. on Schema Therapy", posted February 22, 2007. For years, psychotherapy has been split into various camps or schools, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy and person-centered or humanistic therapy. Each therapy school has different ideas for what therapy should accomplish, and how to go about doing therapy. Faced with this complexity, many working therapists have become eclectic, meaning they try to use techniques from multiple schools at once. Eclecticism can become very confusing and muddy for therapists and patients, however, when it is done inexpertly. Originally trained as a cognitive-behaviorist, Dr. Jeffrey Young is the founder of Schema Therapy, which represents an effort to systematically and coherently integrate techniques from the various therapy approaches. Though a general purpose therapy, Schema Therapy has been designed with the goal of helping personality disordered and otherwise treatment-resistant patients find relief.