Short Term-Solution Focused Therapy

With mental health benefits being slashed or all together disappearing, consumers & insurance companies are looking for ways to get in and out of therapy quickly by strategically targeting specific problems. As an old school psychodynamic, existential and humanistic therapist I am impressed with emerging theories of psychological thought called "Post Modern Therapy."

Post Modern includes theoretical orientations such as Solution Focused and Narrative. New lingo includes "externalizing the problem," "strength based" and "resiliency." Most of this work focuses on identifying the problem in a non-judgmental supportive forum, helping the client become aware of their inner resources and strategize solutions to the problem. Although post modern therapy lends well to long-term work it tends to be short-term and highly focused. Insurance companies and clients like these therapies because less sessions mean less out of pocket expense as well as a quicker return to wellness.

Lake Mary Counseling Center is happy to help clients achieve their goals in the shortest possible time.

7 reasons to choose Collaborative Profesionals

If you and your spouse are considering divorce, a new alternative to the usual adversarial approach is collaborative divorce law. This is an area of family law that trains attorneys to negotiate, compromise and create a friendlier environment. It is an effective, new way to end a marriage without the acrimony, anger and resentment of many divorces.

There are seven main benefits to collaborative divorce law, but for it to work both spouses must be committed to working together to have an amicable divorce.

The Advantages

1. You each have more control over the outcome. You can voice your opinions and know that you will be heard.

2. You get to agree to settlement issues based on compromise and fair play instead of having a judge make the final decisions that affect your lives

3. It is less expensive than litigation. Attorney fees and court costs can add up quickly.

4. The process takes less time than litigation because you chose the time and place you meet instead of dealing with the timetable of busy divorce courts.

5. There is far less stress and anxiety involved because you are playing a more active role in the divorce.

6. The goal is to reach a settlement before anyone files papers in divorce court. Once a couple accepts a settlement, then a legally binding agreement is written and once signed by both parties the papers are filed in court for the approval of a judge.

7. You know that you worked together to make life easier for everyone. This is especially important if children are involved.

The Disadvantages

1. None

More and more attorneys, mental health professionals and accountants are involved in collaborative divorce law. If a marriage has come to an end, this is a far better solution for all involved.

Why use Collaborative Divorce?

Educating the public on the vital need to avoid litigation in most family matters is part of the mission of the Lake Mary Counseling Center. Alternative dispute resolution is the best choice for families, children and pocketbooks.

In the next few weeks I will post some information about Collaborative Divorce.

Please feel free to post a response or contact us directly for more information on this progressive new way to settle a divorce.

Why would you use collaborative divorce? If you have a family it is the better approach to take, that’s why. Collaborative divorce is an effective way where each side in the divorce is able to reach a fair solution and resolve differences. With collaborative divorce, it is more a question about if you’re going to treat the divorce like a sensible adult or not.

Collaborative divorce addresses more than just the legal issues. It looks at the grand scale pictures – looking out for the emotional issues as well. Court, battling out who is going to get what – this is something no child should ever have to be a part of. Kids shouldn’t have to see their mother and father showing such a display of hostility towards one another. It is inconsiderate, unfair, and unkind to them.

Even though you are leaving someone, you are working together to get what best works for everyone else. Use it if you care about your loved ones. Use it if you want to set an example for your children, despite the fact that you are getting divorced.

However, collaborative divorce is not for everyone or every situation. It requires that those involved be committed to working with and not against the other party in order to achieve results.

Collaborative divorce and its participants are committed to creating a process that is safe and that does not cause further harm to the participants and the families involved.

Collaborative divorce results in a negotiated settlement that is reached without the costs and conflict that accompany traditional methods. The atmosphere of collaborative divorce is respectful and much less stressful than traditional litigation. Collaborative divorce provides the parties with an agreement that is designed by the parties, with the assistance of their collaborative divorce lawyers.

Why are we so concerned about what generation you come from?

Normative history-graded influences are common to people of a particular generation within a specific society. Due to historical circumstances, a wide-sweeping occurrence, such as the Vietnam War, greatly affects each generation a particular society in a great, but unique way. For example, the younger generation’s members were drafted and exposed to the horrors of war while the older generation debated to the political and economic implications upon the country. These events became normative when the event was unavoidable, discounting extreme circumstances, and held a lasting and gradable effect on a significant amount of at least one generation with the society.

How important is age in your mental health?

"Age is becoming an irrelevant factor in our modern society." The “age” being referred to in the quote is most likely referring to chronological age, the number years a person has lived since their birth-date. According to Botwinick in 1978, life-span experts believe that chronological is not very relevant in understanding a person’s biological, psychological, and social age. The three prong system in determining development, rather than simply stating a number, states an individual’s biological health, psychological capacity, and the expected social roles of a person. Life-span expert Bernice Neugarten concurs with this understanding of an irrelevant chronological scale, but acknowledges that some social markers such as getting married, still occur at relative chronological ranges.

Questions for LGBT clients might ask in selecting a therapist:

* Are you licensed? How many years have you been practicing?

* I have been feeling (anxious, tense, depressed, etc.). What kind of experience do you have in this area?

* What are your areas of expertise for example, working with children, families, the LGBT community?

* What kind of treatments do you use, and have they been proven effective for dealing with my kind of problems?

* What are your fees? (Fees are usually based on a 45- or 50-minute session.) Do you have a sliding scale fee policy?

* What types of insurance do you accept? Will you bill my insurance company directly? Many insurance companies provide coverage for mental health services. Check with your insurance company to see if these services are covered and for limitations which apply, and how you may obtain these benefits.

* Is the therapist in your preferred provider network?

* How is payment to be made (weekly, monthly, etc.)?

* Does the therapist have experience treating people with problems similar to yours?

* How often should you meet with the therapist?

* How long are the sessions?

* How available will he or she be to you during emergencies at odd hours or during weekends?

* Does the therapist treat other LGBT clients?

* What are the therapist's views about whether being LGBT is a problem?

* If the therapist is not a psychiatrist, is the therapist affiliated with one in case there is a need for medication or hospitalization?

Is porn addictive

from WebMD

I copied this article which explains the debate. Porn addiction or compulsion still needs treatment.

Psychologists debate whether people can have an addiction to pornography.
By Martin F. Downs
WebMD Feature
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

In November 2004, a panel of experts testified before a Senate subcommittee that a product which millions of Americans consume is dangerously addictive. They were talking about pornography.

The effects of porn on the brain were called "toxic" and compared to cocaine. One psychologist claimed "prolonged exposure to pornography stimulates a preference for depictions of group sex, sadomasochistic practices, and sexual contact with animals."

Compulsion or Addiction

The difference between describing the behavior as a compulsion or an addiction is subtle, but important.

Erick Janssen, PhD, a researcher at the Kinsey Institute, criticizes the use of the term addiction when talking about porn because he says it merely describes certain people's behavior as being addiction-like, but treating them as addicts may not help them.

Many people may diagnose themselves as porn addicts after reading popular books on the subject, he says. But mental health professionals have no standard criteria to diagnose porn addiction.

Mary Anne Layden, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, was one of the witnesses at the Senate hearing on pornography addiction. She says the same criteria used to diagnose problems like pathological gambling and substance abuse can be applied to problematic porn use.

"The therapists who treat pornography addicts say they behave just like any other addicts," she tells WebMD.

One of the key features of addiction, she says, is the development of a tolerance to the addictive substance. In the way that drug addicts need increasingly larger doses to get high, she thinks porn addicts need to see more and more extreme material to feel the same level of excitement they first experienced.

"Most of the addicts will say, well, here's the stuff I would never look at, it's so disgusting I would never look at it, whatever that is -- sex with kids, sex with animals, sex involving feces," she says. "At some point they often cross over."

Janssen disputes that people who look at porn typically progress in such a way. "There is absolutely no evidence to support that," he tells WebMD.