Science Monday: The end of Psychopathology

No, we haven’t found the cure for psychological problems. We’ve just come to the end of the course today. We’ll be looking at the problem of Borderline Personality Disorder. In order to understand personality disorders, we need to have an adequate understanding of both biblical anthropology (who does God say we are) AND the self [...]

Radio Disney?

My soon to be 10 year old found Radio Disney on the AM dial and now each morning I am greeted with vocals from Miley Cyrus and other teeny-bopper music. I think they have about 10 songs they play over and over and over…
So, now I have to start that habit that Paul Tripp used to [...]

The problem of embellishment: Not just the work of fishermen and politicians

Many people, myself included, had a little chuckle when yet another politician is caught by good ole videotape. Senator Clinton turns her trip to Bosnia in 1996 into something designed to play up her experiences with foreign diplomacy. She made it seem that she had to dodge sniper fire on her way from the plane to a [...]

Integrative Psychotherapy XI: Relationship focused interventions

We’ve been following the development of the theory and application of McMinn and Campbell’s 3 tiered Integrative model of persons and change. Now, in chapter 10, we arrive at the deepest and least objective level of change that takes place in counseling: therapeutic relationships. While some problems can be dealt with through skills and behavior [...]

Resurrecting greenhouses

On Saturday, in celebration of Resurrection Sunday, I resurrected my greenhouse. Around this time last March we had an ice storm that crushed the metal frame of my greenhouse. With my father’s ingenuity we rebuilt the frame and on Saturday I put it back together. I couldn’t find my thermometer but the temp inside was [...]

Science Monday: Easing the suffering in schizophrenia

While few outpatient, private practice therapists deal much with those diagnosed with schizophrenia, there are things therapists can do to ease the suffering of both client and family. Kim Mueser, a professor at Dartmouth Medical School has published a number of helpful research and popular writings designed to increase social and cognitive functioning and decrease family distress in people with schizophrenia. Click here [...]

The thirst for leadership…of any kind

Grading papers from class and one student illustrated her point by including this quotation from The American President. Not a movie I’ve seen but like this little piece:
President’s Aid (Michael J. Fox): People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They [...]

Integrative Psychotherapy X: Schema interventions for depression

In the last chapter the authors theorized about our propensity to live out of socially constructed schemas. Now in chapter 9 of Integrative Psychotherapy, McMinn and Campbell apply schema-focused interventions (domain 2–dipping beneath symptoms to core issues) to the problem of depression. But before they get to that task, they make these 2 points:
1. It’s “incorrect [...]

Race matters: Obama’s speech in Philadephia

MSNBC provides this transcript of Obama’s speech today. As you likely know he is under fire for comments his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, made in sermons over the years. This speech is quite masterful as it rejects Wright’s characterizations but recognizes the reality that is behind his angry judgments about American politics, racism, injustice, and place [...]

Signs of Spring at my House

One year ago, we had an ice storm that crushed my greenhouse. I’m itching to rebuild it (already made the skeleton of it out of PVC with my father). But I’m going to wait up bit longer. Until then, I’m looking for the signs of Spring, such as…

Meanwhile, my parents still have this (or most [...]