In May, 2018 I gave a free public lecture in Melbourne, Australia entitled, Keys to Unlocking Depression: Why Skills Work Better Than Pills. The talk was sponsored by the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and you can watch it on YouTube. It has been viewed by more than two million people! The emphasis of my talk… Read More
The following blog post was originally written for the January 2021 issue of the Science of Psychotherapy magazine. As 2020 comes to a close, the phrase that seems to best represent it is Whisky Tango Foxtrot (or, more commonly, WTF?). It seems to capture well the weird combination of incredulity, despair, frustration, fear, and resignation,… Read More
We are pleased to announce Mindset is a mobile phone app whose express purpose is to make effective hypnosis sessions instantly available at any time of day to people who want to enhance their quality of life. Sessions range in length from 10 to 40 minutes and address common themes such as feelings of… Read More
Last week (March 5, 2019) the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new drug treatment for depression. It’s the first antidepressant drug in roughly 30 years to have an entirely new mechanism of action providing high hopes among chronic depression sufferers that this new drug will bring relief where the others have failed.… Read More
In the hot-off-the-presses September, 2017, issue of The Atlantic Monthly, psychologist Jean Twenge has an article entitled, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation” describing the rapidly deteriorating mental health of today’s adolescents. She draws on extensive research data to make the connection between the use of technology and the rising rates of anxiety and depression. This… Read More
A new study published in the online journal JAMA Psychiatry supports what we’ve known for awhile about treating depression – teaching problem solving skills works! This study supports how it can prevent depression as well in mothers of children in Head Start programs. The idea of preventing depression with problem solving skills is hardly a… Read More
A new study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry just a few days ago contains some alarming data about the rising rate of depression in adolescents in the United States. The study employed data compiled from in-person interviews with more than 100,000 children who participated in the National Survey of Drug Use and Health from… Read More
One of the toughest challenges of clinical practice, and certainly the most consequential of them for literally being about “life and death,” is dealing with the potential or actual suicide of a client. I run case consultation groups for those clinicians who have been through my 100 Hour Training in Clinical Hypnosis and Strategic Psychotherapy,… Read More
Late last week (March 30th), the World Health Organization (WHO) released a powerful statement from its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, declaring depression “the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide.” WHO estimates that more than 300 million people worldwide are now suffering a diagnosable depression. This reflects an increase of more than 18% between… Read More
I’m home, basking in the afterglow of the Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference held last week in Anaheim, California. Taking place just down the street from Disneyland, which calls itself “the happiest place on earth,” I think that title was temporarily hijacked by the 8,000 plus attendees from 50 countries who rocked the Anaheim Convention Center.… Read More