Every day I turn on the news and see reports of violence somewhere. . . . it may be armed conflicts in the Middle East or Africa. . . . it may be child or domestic abuse here at home. As a psychologist, my next thought is how to treat the mental anguish that must […]
Getting ready for PTSD
In case you haven’t already heard, April is National Stress Awareness Month. Why do we as a nation spend an entire month on this topic? Because we need to. Just to put the insidiousness of stress into perspective, here are a few statistics from the American Psychological Association: Highly stressed teenagers are twice as likely […]
Who the Hell do you think you are? – Bill O’Hanlon Guest Blog
Some years ago I met Michael White, the now departed co-founder of Narrative Therapy. Soon after, his star rose rather quickly and he became a very well known teacher and writer. But all was not well in Australia, his home country. As Michael traveled around the world, his colleagues at home began to make snide […]
Good Deeds are Catching: Altruism and the Social Brain
I’ve been thinking a lot about altruism ever since the horrible devastation in Haiti. In the aftermath, the world contributed millions of dollars of aid. From the US alone, $220 million was raised in the first week. The first week! And this at a time when our national unemployment rate was in double-digits. While pondering […]
Get out your hand weights… Strength Training and Cognitive Improvement in Women
In the United States, about 20% of seniors who suffer a hip fracture will die within a year. Teresa Liu-Ambrose, PhD, has been investigating the impact of women’s weight training for helping seniors decrease the rate of fractures out of her laboratory at the Center for Hip Health and Mobility, Vancouver General Hospital. Now she […]