By Elizabeth Mahaney, M.A., MHC, MFT

Click here to contact Elizabeth and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

Communication is central to a healthy marriage.  Communication was ranked as the number one problem among couples in therapy (Hecker &Wetchler, 2003). There are several obstacles that can contribute to poor communication between couples. Research findings with regard to communication between couples tends to focus on distressed versus non-distressed couples.  Research findings also stress and focus on the importance of positive communication between couples. The main goal of cognitive behavior therapy is to increase the desired behavior or cognition and decrease the undesirable cognitions and behaviors. (more…)

By Jennifer B Baxt, LMFT, LMHC

Despite the common misconception among many single people, marriage is not easy. It takes a lot of work because life takes a lot of work. Life can be difficult and complicated enough for a single person, so when another person is involved it can become more complicated. Money is one of the many reasons that a marriage can break up, especially if times of financial distress has continued over a lengthy period of time. In fact, financial stress appears to be the cause of about 80 percent of all divorces. This goes to show just how stressful financial trouble can be for a couple who are both affected by it. (more…)

By: Ruth Herman Wells

If you are a counselor who finds that “nothing works”
to manage some students, this article may help. It’s also
the perfect article to pass to teachers and parents to help
them better grasp the key ideas behind a diagnosis of ODD,
Oppositional Defiant Disorder. (more…)

By: Lana M. Ackaway, LCSW-R, NCPsyA, CASAC

Click here to contact Lana and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

The well-written article by Daphne Merkin entitled “Darkness Invisible” in the September 16, 2007 edition of The New York Times was disturbing. It wasn’t disturbing due to its darkness. It was disappointing due to the misconceptions and insensitive comments regarding drug use/misuse. Drugs, to include alcohol misused—not only mask a depression—it can MAKE for depression and illuminate MELANCHOLY. Its use/dependency/misuse/alcoholism can, through psyche, soma, and behavior create, as Merkin quotes Chekhov: “I am in mourning for my life.” Addiction is a way to mourn for being alive—for actually living to full potential — via a never-ending depression. Alergy to alcohol—eventually produces (for some, earlier; for some, later) non-feeling states, inappropriate thinking and behavior, desperate acts, suicide—real—not imagined. Alcohol use/dependency/misuse/alcoholism/drug abuse is rampant—not only among the creative folk in film—in every walk of life—and with every socioeconomic class. It spares no one who suffers. (more…)

By: Mitchell Milch, LCSW

Click here to contact Mitchell and/or see His GoodTherapy.org Profile

We do not fall into neat little categories no matter how hard others may try to classify us. Still, in my psychotherapy practice I do notice a strong correlation between folks with chronic anger management problems and those who exhibit self defeating personality traits. These clients’ identities are often organized around a core belief that they are “victims” by virtue of the fact that they continue to suffer from parental improprieties long after growing up and leaving home. As much as these clients express sincere wishes to move forward with their lives, making these wishes a reality are easier said than done. Each and every time they are angry, the experiences feel as if salt is being poured on their incompletely healed emotional scars. They are especially resistant to the notion that their parents and themselves for that matter did and continue to do the best they can given their limitations and the support they receive from loved ones. They prefer to collect grievances and hold grudges even though such dispositions hold themselves back from breaking with their dissatisfying pasts to create more satisfying lives. With the fervor of evangelists they will settle for no less than one of the following: 1) An end to their pain and suffering, 2) An escape from their pain and suffering, 3) Revenge or 4) Special entitlements to compensate them for their misfortunes. It doesn’t matter whether they recall their parents as being miscreants of the most premeditated variety, or just very limited and clueless about what motivated apparently automatic and mindless methods of parenting. On an emotional level they hold tenaciously to demands that the justice be served. (more…)