A lucid therapist is one who strives continually to gain greater clarity about underlying principles and processes and how they manifest in day to day psychotherapy. This past year I came to appreciate the role of visualization in seeing, moment to moment, what is happening and what to do next. L...

This last TIFT of the year seems like a fitting time to talk about hope, one of the most amazing capacities of the human mind. It’s uniquely human that some of our most vaunted achievements are driven by hope, even when the chances of success are far from certain. The winter holiday is, more than...

Most therapists wish they had an expert colleague with whom to discuss problem cases and puzzling situations, but few actually access such a resource. Mostly, we muddle through or talk to peers but wish we had a more definitive source of knowledge and stronger support. This post describes an innovat...

Announcment: Before going into the subject of this 90th post, we are pleased to let readers know that our Psychotherapy Coaching Community is up and running and accepting new members. More information is at the end of this post.

The issue of directive vs. nondirective is relevant in so many rela...

This post is about the concepts of “bottom up,” “top down,” and how they relate to the art of communicating with the inner self, where problem patterns are formed and hopefully exchanged for healthier ones. I’ll start by putting these things in some perspective, then look at two clinical examples...

This post was prompted first by goings on in the world, but more specifically by two interesting encounters. I attended a talk entitled, “Darwin, and Freud's Epistemological Path to the Unconscious” by Mark Erickson, MD. Coincidently, I listened to an episode of Dr. David Puder’s podcast with Rob...

Maybe it’s like the state of healthcare in the US, where corporate interests hove so overpowered the ranks of those who do the work that we have fallen into a state of passive demoralization. The field of psychotherapy is largely unaware that it is suffering the same fate. In our field, the passi...

First, announcing a Free Webinar and New Course:

Psychotherapy Essentials: Navigate the Therapeutic Space with Confidence

An online course and free introductory webinar for new and experienced therapists– 

Many therapists suffer from the lack of an accessible and practical framework for naviga...

Internalizers Welcome: Share your difficult problems! Winning subscribers will receive free coaching via TIFT. All you have to do is Dare to Share!

We all have difficult cases and doubts. Of course you are hesitant to expose the areas where you feel unsure, but I promise full anonymity. We wi...

The Affect Avoidance Framework adopts a modern view of mind to make lucid the problems psychotherapy is designed to treat as well as precisely how words and human interaction can produce enduring change. Today I’ve made a substantial addition to a previously shared diagram. It’s the inclusion of ...

Subscriber "Dare to Share" **

Hi Jeffery,

I’d still be interested in your thoughts about online therapy as a continuing platform for therapy. It’s an issue for me because my therapist has decided to work only online. This means I will never meet her in person since I started with her in Dece...

Internalizers Welcome: Share your difficult problems! Winning subscribers will receive free coaching via TIFT. All you have to do is Dare to Share (see below).

We all have difficult cases and doubts. As internalizers we think first of critiquing ourselves. Therapist coaching offers help makin...