My Blog

Stephen Ilardi's Therapeutic Lifestyle Change for Depression (Youtube video) Ilardi defines depression as a chronic inflammatory condition, contextualizes it in human evolution, and summarizes the  research on what works to get rid of it.

Brené Brown on Shame (Youtube video) Brown shares her unique research and wonderful humility  to illustrate the universal problem of shame in human psychology and  relationships.

In this blog post, Hillary Jacobs Hendel, psychotherapist and author of "It's not Always Depression", explains the change triangle and how it can help you work with difficult feelings or states and connect to your deeper truth.

Gabor Maté's 4 Risk Factors for Chronic Illness This profound talk lays out a deep and truly integrative understanding  of human being. Maté describes 4 risk factors for chronic illness born  of our adaptive and imperative striving for attachment during childhood.  The goal of psychotherapy to help change these deeply wired templates  of behavior. The audio is a little poor for the first few minutes--hang  in there.

Psychiatrist Kelly Brogan, MD, author of "A Mind of Your Own: How Women  Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives"  has written a fantastic  blog post (Jan 2019) on the chemical imbalance myth. The long and short  is, "in six decades of research, the serotonin (or norepinephrine, or dopamine)  theory of depression and anxiety has not achieved scientific credibility".

Whenever a client tells me me that they want to make meditation a part of their lives I recommend Yoga Nidra. I've found it's a great place to start because, more than any other type of meditation, people find it easy to do, and so they actually do it! Simply lie down, close your eyes, and listen to a recording. You can find some good ones to try here:

https://youtu.be/Rac1pnsYaTE

https://www.irest.org/try-irest-now

https://youtu.be/YbsLWd_p6PI

Self-Acceptance Project If self-criticism is a problem for you, here are 22 interviews with  various psychotherapists and teachers all asking--how do I stop?

Here is a cute WikiHow I found on Non-Violent Communication.  NVC is an elegant model for communication that can help you resolve conflicts in any relationship. It takes a little effort to learn but this invaluable tool will serve you all your life!

Power Poses (TED talk) Want to feel more confident? Here's a quick trick!

Do not underestimate the simple power of breathing correctly!  When we breathe by expanding our lower torso, rather than with our  chest (as most of us do) we increase blood blood flow to our "second  brain", the gut. Proper breathing improves digestion, assimilation,  absorption of nutrients, gut motility, prevents compression of spinal  vertebrae (i.e back pain), prevents menstrual cramps, improves posture  and makes us feel more calm and confident! Especially if you're having IBS or any kind of problem with digestion, this is something you have  complete power over and can do immediately to reduce pain and feel  better. Read more at Erik Peper's excellent blog, the source of the video links above.

The Real Causes of Depression (article) Like many people, the author, Johann Hari was offered medication (based on the false premise of "chemical imbalance")  and little actual treatment for his symptoms of depression. He is  enlightened in part through conversations with Dr. Vincent Felitti, who  created the famous ACEs study which shows how adverse experiences in childhood dramatically increase  the likelihood of mental and physical illness in adulthood." ...if he had just told people what my doctor told me – that their  brains were broken, this was why they were so distressed, and the only  solution was to be drugged – they may never have been able to understand  the deeper causes of their problem, and they would never have been  released from them."

Another beautiful article on the true sources of depression and anxiety by Johann Hari.  He asks, "when will we learn that our pain makes sense?", defines the  social and environmental causes of mental malaise, highlights our gross  overuse of chemical interventions, and asks us to be more thoughtful. Of particular note is the distinction made between "chemical imbalance", a  concept neuroscientist Marc Lewis finds crude at best for describing  actual brain changes associated with depression, and "synaptic pruning" --a neuroplastic process: "Your  brain sheds synapses you don’t use, and if you are pushed into a pained response for too long, your brain can shed synapses, making it harder  to navigate away from dark thoughts."  Neuroplastic changes may  have some chemical component, but they require neuroplastic  interventions (i.e. learning, psychotherapy, experiences, neurofeedback)  o be properly addressed and resolved.