Lisa Turetsky LMFT, therapy and counseling in Glendale CA

https://www.theatlantic.com//how-to-predict-the-fu/588040/ Fascinating article. Expertise in a subject makes you, paradoxically, LESS able to perceive what is really going on, even in your field. Makes sense when you realize that perception is dependent on curiosity and openness, both of which diminish as you start to believe you KNOW what's true.

Have you heard therapists talk about resistance? The basic idea is that, although the client professes to want help, they are at the same time resistant to the process and are doing things to slow down or stall the therapy. I've always found this a troubling concept. As I continue to study Internal Family Systems, one of the things I love about it is that in this model there is no such thing as resistance. Instead, it's assumed that "resistance" is the result of a fearful part (an aspect of the client) that has good reasons for not trusting the process. And rather than trying to eliminate that part, we turn toward it with curiosity to learn what it's about and what it wants for the client, which is always something valuable.

https://www.nytimes.com//broken-heart-syndrome-is-not-all- If you feel like your heart is aching/breaking, well, it may be more literally true than you think! People with Takotsubo syndrome show unmistakable physical symptoms when they suffer grief and lossbut practically everyone who has experienced "heartache" has felt the link between mind and body. If your heart (or your brain) is aching, a compassionate therapist can help ease the pain.

This is a Reveal podcast I heard on the way home tonight. I was appalled by what I heard: stories that implicated people in the therapy business in some very un-therapeutic doings. Not to mention the doings of some judges! The name of the episode is Bitter Custody. What do you think? https://www.prx.org/reveal/

Clients so often come to therapy with the demoralizing conviction that something is wrong with me. Internal Family Systems takes a non-pathologizing stance that counters that assumption from the get-go. What other models think of as symptoms are, in IFS, assumed to be well-intentioned (if outdated or misguided) accommodations to circumstances that arose in response to difficult experiences in the absence of other options. This fits with the view I’ve long held that defen...ses and resistance are actually important protective measures and deserve to be understood and appreciated before they can be expected to dissolve or transform. Also, the notion that everyone has a Self (aka inner wisdom, higher power, core self) that has the ability to lead each person’s system toward wholeness and better functioning is congruent with my conviction that we are wired for growth and healing, for self-righting and resuming impeded growth, to quote Diana Fosha. There is something that just feels spiritually right to me about that stance! It implicitly removes the therapist from the pedestal from which she is expected to dispense healing and wisdom, and allows her to become co-therapist with the client’s innate self-knowledge and inclination toward growth. The therapist’s job becomes facilitating the dissolution of the constraints that are blocking this growth, done collaboratively with the client. These are just a few of the reasons why I am so intrigued with this model. More soon!