Here's an interesting dilemma.   In December 1799, three physicians were summoned to the Mount Vernon estate to treat the former first president of the United States for a sore throat.  The accepted therapy of the day was administered skillfully and competently multiple times.  Several hours later, the president was dead.  Historians agree ...
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I remember exactly where I was on April 4th, 1968 -- in a pool doing laps.  I was a junior member of my hometown's swim team.   I'd barely started when the coach blew his whistle calling the practice to an abrupt halt.  As we toweled off, he told us something ...
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Bad therapy. Are you guilty of it?  A quick internet search turned up only 15 books on the subject.  It's strange, especially when you consider that between 5 and 10% of clients are actually worse off following treatment and an additional 35-40% experience no benefit whatsoever!  (Yep, that's nearly 50%) And what ...
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With the outbreak of the coronavirus, much of mental health service delivery shifted online. Regulations regarding payment and confidentiality were scaled back in an effort to deal with the unprecedented circumstances, allowing clinicians and their clients to meet virtually in order to reduce the spread of the illness.   But ...
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The year is 1846.  Hungarian-born physician Ignaz Semmelweis is in his first month of employment at Vienna General hospital when he notices a troublingly high death rate among women giving birth in the obstetrics ward.  Medical science at the time attributes the problem to “miasma,” an invisible, poison gas believed ...
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One warm, summer June day, Marietta Jaeger, her husband Bill, and their five children packed into their borrowed R.V. for a cross-country road trip touring the American west.  "This was going to be the adventure of a lifetime, a grand family vacation, the one we were going to talk about for ...
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I can remember exactly where I was when I first "met" Swedish psychologist, K. Anders Ericsson.  Several hours into a long, overseas flight, I discovered someone had left a magazine in the seat pocket.  I never would have even given the periodical a second thought had I not seen all ...
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First, the coronavirus outbreak.  Then the lockdown, followed by an ever-rising number of deaths and catastrophic economic fallout -- and just when the tide seemed to be turning, George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis resulting in nationwide protests and unrest. I don't recall a time in recent memory when events ...
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Imagine having the distinction of being voted one of the top 10 most influential psychotherapists of the 20th Century. Psychologist Don Meichenbaum is that person.  In his spare time, together with Arron Beck and Marvin Goldfried, he created the most popular and researched method of psychotherapy in use today: cognitive-behavior ...
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I love live trainings.  The spontaneity.  The interactions.  The possibilities inherent in learning together.  Each year, for the past 30, I've been out -- generally 40 weeks out of 52 -- providing workshops on feedback-informed treatment and, more recently, deliberate practice.   It's been a gift to work with clinicians and ...
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This blogpost comes with a "trigger warning."  For most, the last 60 days have been witness to the complete disruption of daily life.  Many people have died -- nearly 250,000 worldwide, 70,000 in the United States -- from a virus that the majority of us had never heard of just ...
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Just over a month ago, as countries around the world began locking down in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, ICCE Community Relations Manager, Cynthia Maeschalck and I, put out a post on Facebook offering an opportunity to meet and discuss Feedback-Informed Treatment and Deliberate Practice.   We were taken by surprise ...
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It's nearly impossible to escape.  Turn on the television, open a newspaper, or scroll through the newsfeed of whatever app you use, and the subject is the same: death from COVID-19.  And it's grip on our attention only tightens as the numbers continue to rise. Two polls document the impact.  Over ...
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Since they were developed and tested back in the late 90's, the Outcome and Session Rating Scales have been downloaded by practitioners more than 100,000 times!  Judging by the number of cases entered into the three authorized software applications, the tools have been used inform service delivery for millions of ...
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When I was around 11 years old, a gag quickly circulated through my school. Cornering an unsuspecting chum, you'd ask, "Hey, have you seen my hammerfor?" "What's a hammerfor?" they'd invariably ask, a quizzical look glued to their face. "Pounding nails!" you'd then scream, followed by paroxysms of laughter. Funny ...
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I hope this post finds you, your loved ones, and colleagues, safe and healthy. What an amazing few weeks this has been.  Daily life, as most of us know it, has been turned upside down.  The clinicians I've spoken with are working frantically to adjust to the new reality, including ...
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