People will sacrifice their own interests to spare other people pain.

For more click here.

Psychotherapy Stories Podcast - Happy To be here.

Father's who physically play with their kids help them develop more emotional self regulation.

For more https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0273229720300307?via%3Dihub

How to make a new friend

One of the regular topics which come up in psychotherapy sessions with my clients is lonliness. Social connections is one of the key components of wellness. As we get older it is harder to make new friends. There are some good tips in this video which is informative and entertaining.


 

A way of understanding later life problems in living is to understand the trauma we may have experienced in childhood. This trauma is called "adverse childhood experiences."

If a person has a high score on the ACE screening tool, what can they do to lower their over all anxiety and tension level? Dr. Nadine Burke Harris describes 6 components of wellness one of which is social connections.

People who smoke and vape at higher risk for Covid IX

Research at the University of Rochester Medical Center has found evidence of why COVID-19 is worse for people who smoke and vape than for the rest of the population.

Irfan Rahman, who runs a lab at URMC that studies the effects of tobacco products on the lungs, said people who smoke and vape often have elevated levels of receptors for an enzyme called ACE2.

Those receptors also allow the novel coronavirus to enter lung cells. More receptors means more viral load, which means more severe infections, Rahman said.

How Can You Do This Work?

How Can You Do This Work?

I get asked this question fregquently.

Here is my attempt to respond.

I had read Sue Mann’s article, “How Can You Do This Work?”, in Trauma, Narrative Responses To Traumatic Experience edited by David Denborough in which she describes her work as counselor in an agency serving adults who were sexually abused as children. Sue describes sharing with others, who ask, what she does for a living and them then saying, “How can you do that work?” Throughout my career of 49 years, I have continually reflected on this question myself. 

A career in clinical human services brings one continually into contact with stories of pain, suffering, injustice, and abuse. We are not only recruited, but required, to insert ourselves into situations where we witness and engage with the worst in human behavior and activity. Often these jobs pay very little, provide meager, if any, benefits, provide little, if any, social status and respect. A naive outsider sometimes asks why would a person go through the time and trouble to acquire a college education and training at significant expense to engage in such difficult and financially unrewarding work? Even further, people being aware of the vicarious trauma the counselor is subjected to in the course of her work, appropriately ask “How can you do this work?”

For more click here.

Fatal car crashes up 13% for 15 - 24 year old males in states with decriminalized marijuana laws

States with marijuana decriminalization laws experienced a 13% increase in fatal car crashes among 15 - 24 year old males. There was no increase in females, and no increase in drivers over 24.

There also were no increase in fatal car crashes in states with medical marijuana laws. It is hypothesized that the reason for the difference between deciminalized states and medicalized states is that medical marijuana laws require that the marijuana only be used at home.

From the American Journal Of Public Health, March, 2020.

For more click here.