While in France recently I met with a Toulouse therapist and his wife who are both TAT professionals. In the course of our lunch together, they spoke of not wanting to raise their son, now 13 months old, in France because of the restrictive, rigid school system.
What do you think of this article from Psychology Today?
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/suffer-the-children/201203/why-french-kids-dont-have-adhd
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Drugging Our Kids
Several years ago, I met with a woman who had recently moved to this area. She and her husband had one son who was 7 at the time.
The woman was having a lot of anxiety, stemming in large part from having moved 11 times since the birth of her son. Her husband's career success was based in large part on their family moving frequently.
In the course of our initial intake, this woman mentioned that her son was going to be medicated for ADD/ADHD. Apparently, his private school teacher felt that the boy was a disruptive influence in her class because he had difficulty sitting still. This teacher had referred the boy to a physician who prescribed medication, without even doing a full evaluation. I got the feeling that the physician in question was the go-to resource for this school because of his liberal prescribing of medications to make behavior problems "go away."
I asked my client to reconsider the physician's recommendation, pointing out that if she was having a hard time coping with all the moves, her little boy may be experiencing similar stress that he had even fewer tools to cope with than she. She said she'd never thought of that.
At our second appointment, I asked about her son's situation. She said that she had spoken to his teacher about my concerns. The teacher's only response was to say that if the boy wasn't going to be medicated, he had no place at that school.
I was horrified and said so. I suggested that with such policies, perhaps this was not the right school for her son after all.
After that second session, I never saw that woman again.
I'm not qualified to assess whether a child needs to be medicated or not. But neither are many of the people making that determination. I urge parents to try every other avenue of help for a child struggling with emotional problems before turning to medication.
For those of you who are really interested in this subject, here is a stellar documentary on the subject. Thanks, as always, to Michael Ellner, for the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26e5PqrCePk#at=115
The woman was having a lot of anxiety, stemming in large part from having moved 11 times since the birth of her son. Her husband's career success was based in large part on their family moving frequently.
In the course of our initial intake, this woman mentioned that her son was going to be medicated for ADD/ADHD. Apparently, his private school teacher felt that the boy was a disruptive influence in her class because he had difficulty sitting still. This teacher had referred the boy to a physician who prescribed medication, without even doing a full evaluation. I got the feeling that the physician in question was the go-to resource for this school because of his liberal prescribing of medications to make behavior problems "go away."
I asked my client to reconsider the physician's recommendation, pointing out that if she was having a hard time coping with all the moves, her little boy may be experiencing similar stress that he had even fewer tools to cope with than she. She said she'd never thought of that.
At our second appointment, I asked about her son's situation. She said that she had spoken to his teacher about my concerns. The teacher's only response was to say that if the boy wasn't going to be medicated, he had no place at that school.
I was horrified and said so. I suggested that with such policies, perhaps this was not the right school for her son after all.
After that second session, I never saw that woman again.
I'm not qualified to assess whether a child needs to be medicated or not. But neither are many of the people making that determination. I urge parents to try every other avenue of help for a child struggling with emotional problems before turning to medication.
For those of you who are really interested in this subject, here is a stellar documentary on the subject. Thanks, as always, to Michael Ellner, for the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26e5PqrCePk#at=115
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Savvy Clients
Just finished speaking with a young professional musician. From one colleague she had heard that EFT is effective in relieving specific fears. From another colleague she had heard that hypnosis is helpful in improving confidence. I was so happy to be able to offer her both modalities.
More and more these days the people who call me do so with specific information about how the techniques I work with may help them. The good word is spreading fast and "mind-body healing" is practically a mainstream concept.
Having spent much of my early career reassuring people that hypnosis wouldn't make them quack and waddle like ducks (unless they specifically wanted to for some reason), this growing awareness and acceptance is very,very exciting.
I can hardly keep up with all the books and articles being written on this subject now. Check this one out:
More and more these days the people who call me do so with specific information about how the techniques I work with may help them. The good word is spreading fast and "mind-body healing" is practically a mainstream concept.
Having spent much of my early career reassuring people that hypnosis wouldn't make them quack and waddle like ducks (unless they specifically wanted to for some reason), this growing awareness and acceptance is very,very exciting.
I can hardly keep up with all the books and articles being written on this subject now. Check this one out:
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Back Just In Time
Having just returned from France through SFO, yesterday's plane crash really grabbed my attention. Just reading the related articles in this morning's paper got my empathic channels going.
When something like this happens, I relate to the people on the plane, the friends and relatives of those who died or were injured, the people who watched the crash from the ground, and the passengers whose unrelated travels were interrupted or cancelled. Why? Because flying phobias are often born or deepened in those very incidents and my client files are filled with these stories.
Years ago I worked with a woman who had just missed her flight out of the Denver airport. As she stood at the gate watching the plane she was supposed to be on take off, it crashed right in front of her. She had to be heavily medicated in order to board a flight home when flights were once again available and suffered for years from horrific flying phobias.
As with so many of my clients, she came to me as a last resort, without any real hope of getting relief from her crippling fears.
Her description of the crash was crystalized in memory and full of sensory details. Since the subconscious has no sense of time and since part of her had frozen as she watched the crash, this made perfect sense.
Using EFT (The Emotional Freedom Technique) we slowly, gently and methodically dissolved the hold the experience had on her, moment by moment, memory by memory until she could recount the entire experience from beginning to end without any negative emotion attached.
She thought it was a miracle. I knew it was just EFT doing its magic.
When something like this happens, I relate to the people on the plane, the friends and relatives of those who died or were injured, the people who watched the crash from the ground, and the passengers whose unrelated travels were interrupted or cancelled. Why? Because flying phobias are often born or deepened in those very incidents and my client files are filled with these stories.
Years ago I worked with a woman who had just missed her flight out of the Denver airport. As she stood at the gate watching the plane she was supposed to be on take off, it crashed right in front of her. She had to be heavily medicated in order to board a flight home when flights were once again available and suffered for years from horrific flying phobias.
As with so many of my clients, she came to me as a last resort, without any real hope of getting relief from her crippling fears.
Her description of the crash was crystalized in memory and full of sensory details. Since the subconscious has no sense of time and since part of her had frozen as she watched the crash, this made perfect sense.
Using EFT (The Emotional Freedom Technique) we slowly, gently and methodically dissolved the hold the experience had on her, moment by moment, memory by memory until she could recount the entire experience from beginning to end without any negative emotion attached.
She thought it was a miracle. I knew it was just EFT doing its magic.
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