Forgiveness is a quality frequently preached about, talked about, and idealized: yet it may be very difficult to accomplish. The National Association of Social Workers has written about the value of forgiveness and how to bring this into one’s life. “Sometimes forgiveness is an important part of what a client wants to achieve in counseling. […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.For nearly the past 60 years, the psychiatric profession has published a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual describing different mental conditions that are treated by psychiatrists. The first manual was spiral bound and was made up of fewer than 80 pages. DSM IV has become a major reference work, with hundreds of pages and many auxiliary […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Interstingly, some psychologists are weighing in on possible distrust toward the oil company BP and “government officials,” speculation that is not necessarily backed up by scientific evidence. What follows is from the website of the American Psychological Association The most visible damage from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill might be to the Gulf’s beaches […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.We have previously written how pack-rat tendencies in their extreme form can be a form of obsessive compulsive disorder. With this in mind, I think it’s fair to say that many keep old medications in the medicine cabinet for those just in case emergencies, unlikely as they may be. This tendency toward saving prescription drugs […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.There’s a very provocative article in CNN.Health today. If you are depressed (or have some other mental-health condition), should you reveal this at work? And if you decide to make this revelation, to whom should you share? In 1972, Thomas Eagleton’s revelation of his history of depression cost him the nomination for the Vice Presidency. […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Also posted in AMERICA magazine; please go to here to make comments or read the comments of others Perhaps we cloud this topic with euphemisms: but many a boy or growing young man who is poor at sports faces hurdles of bias, loneliness, and rejection. Despite many ways of compensating (intellectual, musical, artistic), poor athletic […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.On the AMERICA online magazine, here is an interesting profile of one of our upcoming authors: “Ninety years ago this week Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women a right to vote that should have been inalienable. This week, Joanne Gavin continues apace in coauthoring her third book, Live Your […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.A fascinating case was tried in 1993 in the state of Connecticut involving an est session, an est trainer named David Norris (among others on the scene), and the death of an est participant. How much stress is too much? How much of our own lives, including one’s own death (excepting by suicide), could be […]
By: Evander LomkeJoanna Weiss has a slightly different take on bullying as she analyzes the trial of six young women. They are accused of bullying another adolescent so brutally as to cause her to hang herself. The entire article is worth reading. See Article on Bullying by Joanna Weiss in the Boston Globe
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.We all know unhealthy ways to get to sleep, but how aware are we of small habits and behaviors that reap a big reward when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep. Sleep studies have become an important medical field in both psychology and medicine and are discovering and organizing behavioral principles that promote […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.The New York Times reports on new medical research suggesting that repeated concussions and other brain trauma might be responsible for the constellations that are called “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” The article points out that Lou Gehrig probably suffered more head injuries and concussions than realized when one takes into account his career as a football […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Karen Smith, writing in AMERICA, reports on President Obama’s talk at the beginning of the month in Atlanta, Georgia at the convention of the Disabled Veterans of America. After World War II, the country had built an impressive system of health care for Veteran’s. They had excellent clinical psychology training opportunities available for clinical psychology. […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.An intriguing article is presented in the current issue of the Journal of Counseling and Development, the academic journal of the American Counseling Association. The authors (Gill, Minton, and Myers) that a woman’s spirituality or religious commitment accounted for a good portion of their resilience and wellness. There are implications for training programs in psychology, […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.As experts and the public ask for and learn more and more about bullying, not only is its presence in schools better known, but one begins to wonder about all the other situations across the lifespan where bullying occurs. Some possibilities: *Siblings bullying each other *Parents bullying teachers *Cliques that bully other cliques *Boys that […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Eric J. Green writes about Jungian Play therapy in his article Traversing the heroic journey,” which appeared in the March 2010 issue of Counseling Today, published by the American Counseling Association Here are some of his ideas: “One of our primary tasks as child counselors is to provide an emotionally safe and protective space within […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.A different approach to the treatment of eating disorders–one combining elements of behavior therapy, flooding, and family therapy has become known as the Maudsley Approach. Rather than using psychological therapies and medication, this approach uses the family as the core element of treatment. What occurs is that the entire family makes a commitment to live/eat […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.To help provide us with a range of ideas and resources, AMHF is making the first two appointments to its Professional Advisory Board. This group of professionals will offer ideas and advice to AMHF regarding ways to implement the mission. This will help to five us a further diversity of viewpoints. The first two members […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Glenn Close, award-winning actress who has become an advocate for persons with bipolar disorder and other severe mental illnesses, will be the Keynote Speaker at Neuroscience 2010 , the 40th Annual Meeting of the Society of Neuroscience, to be held in San Diego from November 13-17th, 2010. Close has developed a special interest in mental […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Kendra’s Law, passed by the New York State legislature about ten years ago, is set to expire. This law was passed and named after a woman who was pushed to her death by a severely mentally ill person who was not following the prescribed treatment regimen. One of the advocates of this bill is E. […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Many of the public and well as the mental health professions have never heard of the phrase “sports wound.” This refers to males who do not display athletic prowess or good eye-hand coordination. As much as we may want to deny this, boys who lack sports ability often are teased and bullied through their growing […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Today on the news, television reporters spoke of a new law that will mandate school officials to intervene and report instances in bullying. The bill was proposed after one student committed suicide following bullying. One of the more-fascinating aspects of the increased awareness or incidence of bullying, and what appears to be ineffective adult intervention, […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.There’s too much bullying going on and not enough being done to stop it. In all fairness, many have the good will and courage and desire to confront bullying but want to make sure it is done properly so as to not make a bad situation worse. AMHF is monitoring the psychological damage done to […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.As everyone is just beginning to sort out what exactly is in the new health-care laws, how they will apply, and whom they will affect, and when, AMHF is monitoring this legislation with a special interest with respect to mental-health care. More to come as the politicizing dies down and the implications become manifest.
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, by Randy Frost and Gail Skeketee, is a book of interest to many, a cautionary tale in some respects, and a message of help for a group of others. The latter are those who suffer from one of the varieties of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): compulsive hoarding. For […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.The New York Post recently hired Ashley Dupre to write a column on relationships, “Ask Ashley”, and it appears each Sunday. Recently, Cara, age 35, residing in Park Slope, asked Ashley the following: “My boyfriend and I recently moved in together. I’m anal about keeping a straight apartment. How can I approach this so I […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.How might Eudes’ views be judged by others who are knowledgeable about psychology, psychiatry, and spirituality? Robert Coles, M.D., psychiatrist at Harvard University has for four decades emphasized the need for modern mental-health workers to combine spirituality with mental-health therapy. John Cardinal O’Connor, while known for his strong and formidable presence, also had a master’s […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.“The problem with OCD,” John Eudes says, “is that it leads to a mode of perception and thinking that is too abstract, too narrow. God is life-giving, not a taskmaster or harsh judge of solitary behaviors, as OCD or scrupulosity suggests. To fight OCD, one has to develop other images and thoughts based on reality […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.As professionals in the mental-health fields try harder with cognitive behavior therapy and medications, over and over, one might imagine that this is a manifestation of the same mechanism of OCD. Where might other sources of help be found, especially for those suffering with scrupulosity? Can a Trappist monk, who is also a Georgetown-trained physician […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Although Monk and Jack Nicholson’s character in As Good as It Gets brought smiles as well as sympathy to those who never heard of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and even a certain peacefulness among OCD sufferers that, finally, their peers might see them not as weird but as true persons, a sad reality remains. Obsessive […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.How might the manner of treatment in which behaviors indicative of mental-health problems on campuses be related to violence? The recent murders by a professor who was denied tenure in Alabama bring the issue of FACULTY mental health to the fore. Heather Munro Prescott has some tantalizing ideas on the massacre that recently occurred in […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.
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