Wise Counsel Podcasts

Parental Alientation occurs when one parent manipulates children into believing that the other parent has rejected them and is otherwise no good and should be themselves rejected. Parental Alienation Syndrome is what happens to the children who are subject to this treatment. PAS only applies when there is evidence of parental manipulation and there is no other good reason why a child might reject a parent (e.g., becuase that parent was abusive, etc.). The syndrome was first identified in the 1980s as something that occurred in the context of divorce and custody battles. Dr. Baker suggests that while this classic sort of PAS does occur (e.g., when a narcissistic or otherwise troubled mother in the midst of a divorce turns her children against her former husband), there are also other variants to how PAS may occur. PAS may occur in the midst of an intact but troubled marriage, for instance, and PAS may also be something initiated by fathers against mothers, contrary to the normal stereotype.

One of the things that we have hoped to do in this series from time to time is to get the psychotherapy client's perspective. We have interviewed a number of well-known and highly-respected therapists, counselors, and research academics, representing a wide variety of theoretical perspectives. To balance out the picture, it's also important to hear from client's themselves about both the benefits they have received, as well as the challenges and possible setbacks they faced in their therapeutic journey. Today's interview is with Laris Macpherson, a 36 year old woman from the Netherlands. Laris left home at 16, setting off on what proved to be a rocky road that over the years would include some success as a radio and TV announcer, but also several diagnoses, visits to multiple therapists, an eating disorder, marriage and divorce, and an eventual diagnosis and treatment for ADHD. At his point, she feels better than she ever imagined possible and is planning to study to become a counselor herself.

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Marsha Linehan, Ph.D. on Dialectial Behavior Therapy", posted October 15, 2007. In this interview, Dr. Van Nuys talks with Dr. Marsha Linehan, who is widely known as the founder of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), an empirically validated form of psychotherapy useful for treating people who have borderline personality disorder, suicidal people, and other people who are in severe and chronic psychological pain. DBT represents an integration of two traditions: the behavior and cognitive-behavioral therapy tradition which is focused on developing technologies of change, and the mindfulness tradition that comes out of various spiritual practices including Zen Buddhism and contemplative Christian practices. The main change target of Dialectical Behavior Therapy is to help patients stop engaging in life threatening behaviors. If that goal can be achieved, then the focus of the therapy shifts to work on understanding and altering behaviors that interfere with patients' ability to attend and benefit from therapy. This second focus inevitably calls attention to the quality of the relationship between the patient and the therapist.

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D. on her book 'Waistland'", posted October 1, 2007. Through her book 'Waistland' and in this interview, Dr. Deirdre Barrett, a Psychologist specializing in Behavioral Medicine at Harvard Medical School, talks about some of the currently prevalent wrong ideas and myths that make it difficult for people to become motivated to lose weight and make healthy food choices. The worst idea out there is that people should trust their instincts when making food choices. This idea is dangerous becuase our instincts were set up during a time in human history when all foods were obtained through active hunting and gathering of naturally occuring food resources. Dietary fat and sugar was very scarce and we evolved to crave these diet elements so as to motivate us to pursue these elements which are necessary in small proportions for good nutrition. Today, fats and sugars are both commonplace (making them too easy to get) and highly refined (which reduces their nutritional content). We are still attracted to these elements, but now they make us fat and often set us up for lifestyle related diseases.