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Therapy dogs help Boston Marathon bombing survivors heal

April 19, 2013 by BPSTherapy Leave a Comment

golden retriever pet therapy boston marathon bombings

Photo Credit: Lutheran Church Charities via Today

Therapy dogs have long been known to help hospital patients, particularly those involved in traumatic experiences begin the healing process.

On April 18, Time reports pet therapy via therapy dogs is being used with the Boston Marathon bombing survivors.

The golden retrievers, trained by the Lutheran Church Charities in pet assisted therapy, were made available to survivors in the Boston community.

President of the Lutheran Church Charities, Tim Hetzner commented:

“People talk to the dogs — they’re like furry counselors. It’s a chance to help bring some relief to people that are shaken up because of the bombings.”

Some benefits of pet assisted therapies, specifically those that involve therapy dogs, for trauma survivors include:

Physical Health:

lowers blood pressure
improves cardiovascular health
releases endorphins (oxytocin) that have a calming effect
diminishes overall physical pain
the act of petting produces an automatic relaxation response, reducing the amount of medication some folks need

Mental Health:

lifts spirits and lessens depression
decreases feelings of isolation and alienation
encourages communication
provides comfort
increases socialization
reduces boredom
lowers anxiety
helps children overcome speech and emotional disorders
creates motivation for the client to recover faster
reduces loneliness

(List from Paws for People)

Today notes that one of two of the dogs brought to Boston are actually the golden retrievers taken to Sandy Hook Elementary in the wake of their shooting which took place in December 2012.

Sources: Today, Time

Filed Under: All Topics, In The News, Therapy Tagged With: benefits of pet assisted therapy, boston marathon bombings, golden retriever therapy dogs, lutheran church charities, pet assisted therapy, sandy hook

Online counseling offers affordable addictions etherapy options for clients

March 9, 2013 by BPSTherapy Leave a Comment

Many times, clients opt not to get treatment for their present mental health issues because they simply can’t afford it or can’t seem to find the time to stop and really focus on themselves in their busy schedules.

One option is online addictions counseling. Through online addictions etherapy, clients can access treatment when and where they like, for affordable prices.

etherapy online counseling internet therapy

Photo Credit: stockiimages via Freedigitalphotos.net

Online counseling services offer flexibility clients might not otherwise get in traditional settings.

The Lionrock Recovery Power center located in California offers addictions treatment for client by way of etherapy in the form of online group counseling, video-conferencing, and individual sessions as well.

Lionrock CEO Peter Leob discusses these options and their potential benefits for clients:

“Many people now struggling with alcohol and drugs while juggling busy lives don’t get help at all because the available options are too costly, too time-consuming, and too public,”

“Of course, some people need a higher level of care than an outpatient program provides. But Lionrock’s Recovery Power can be a great option, delivering high-quality care from the privacy of home, at a very affordable price, with program schedules that fit busy people’s lives.”

Addictions counseling is a multifaceted program. Tackling the problems that come with addictions may be treated once an individual has begun or completed intense treatment in an inpatient residential program or outpatient program, depending on their needs.

After initial, acute needs are met, online addictions counseling can be a great option for clients looking to avoid relapse.

Sources: PRWeb

Etherapy can help clients feel connected through others in a busy world via the aforementioned methods, video-conferencing, group counseling, and individual sessions, all offered online.

Filed Under: All Topics, Online Counseling, Psychology, Therapy Tagged With: addiction, addictions counseling, etherapy for addiction, online addictions counseling

Planned Parenthood Toronto online therapy program aims to help teens

March 9, 2013 by BPSTherapy 1 Comment

Photo Credit: David Castillo Dominici via Freedigitalphotos.net

Online therapy groups are increasingly being used for treatment of a variety of mental health concerns.

One Canada News-wire article from Feb. 20 highlights a new program launched by Planned Parenthood that targets teens living with the goal of giving them access to a range of online mental health services.

Executive Director Sarah Hobbs-Blyth of Planned Parenthood Toronto explains:

“Online therapy groups for youth are a unique way to meet a pressing need using technology that’s increasingly integrated into people’s lives, particularly the lives of youth,”

She continues:

“We saw this as a way to increase access to mental health services and to help meet the needs of youth who might never be able to walk through our doors. It’s important to us at Planned Parenthood Toronto to be on the cutting edge of using new technology to offer innovative programming and services.”

Teens are actively involved in blogging and social media.

Offering them access to mental health services online seems like an ideal avenue for them to find help when and where they need it most.

Sources: Canada Newswire

How do you think teens will react to this new program, granting them access to online therapy?

Online counseling may help with postpartum depression

September 7, 2012 by BPSTherapy 3 Comments

Online counseling has been identified as way to help many clients who cannot reach treatment when they most need it. One population identified as potential ideal clients for online or distance counseling is new mothers experiencing or predisposed to post partum depression.

First time mothers, particularly those identified as low economic status are at highest risk for postpartum depression – often misdiagnosed or mislabeled as ‘regular’ depression which will fade with time.

Postpartum depression starts shortly after a mother gives birth. Symptoms can include anything from crying spells and feelings of detachment from the baby to fear something will happen to the baby and overwhelming anxiety. When a mother experiences these symptoms and feels alone, the symptoms can worsen with time.

One study lists the following points as risks for babies and children living with a mother suffering with postpartum depression:

Evidence suggests that depression can interfere with parenting, potentially leading to poor child development— setbacks that are particularly devastating during infancy.
Compared with their peers with nondepressed mothers, infants living in poverty with severely depressed mothers are more likely to have mothers who also struggle with domestic violence and substance abuse, and who report being only in fair health.
Infants living in poverty with depressed mothers receive similar prenatal care as their peers whose mothers are not depressed, but they are breastfed for shorter periods of time.

Were these mothers offered either online counseling or distance counseling as an added source of support they might fare in the longrun? Granted, if they are living in poverty, they might not be able to afford the computer equipment required for online counseling. But distance counseling offered by way of telephone sessions could surely offer them an escape from their symptoms.

Simply being offered the opportunity to discuss their feelings on a regular basis could both improve their mental health as well as their parenting. Talk therapy, whether it is face-to-face in an office, or over the phone, can make the difference in someone’s day when they are feeling depressed.

Some centers, such as the Women & Infants’ Center for Women’s Behavioral Health, already implement programs that offer mothers the opportunity to be with their babies while they receive treatment for depression. What if a patient opts to go home instead? At this point, they could be offered the choice of receiving distance counseling aimed at helping them feel better at their job as moms.

Sources: Huffington Post, Official Journal of the Academy of Pediatrics, Urban. org

How do you see online counseling or distance counseling as a way of helping mothers experience postpartum depression? What potential benefits and drawbacks do you see?

Filed Under: All Topics, Family, Online Counseling, Parenting, Therapy Tagged With: distance counseling, new mothers, online counseling, parenting, postpartum depression, telephone counseling, telephone therapy

Starting marriage counseling alone can be good

August 9, 2012 by BPSTherapy 2 Comments

Sometimes when you decide to go to marriage counseling, you may end up going by yourself.

Marriage counseling, or couples therapy is aimed at helping couples or individuals work through different issues they may be facing in their marriage.

Believe it or not, some partners end up attending marriage counseling alone when their spouse is adamant against attending therapy sessions. Does this work?

This all depends on the couple and what their primary concerns are.

When only one of the partners is working at saving the marriage by attending therapy sessions, only that person is addressing whatever relationship problems are bothering them in their marriage.

Does this mean they will help solve the problems for the couple as a unit? Not necessarily.

While the person attending counseling will be able to pick up new ways of handling problems within the relationship and perhaps teach them to their source, more than likely they will be unable to fix everything in the marriage singlehandedly.

What can you accomplish by going to starting marriage counseling alone? You might be able to dig into some relationships problems you are facing and perhaps start to work through some of you own emotional baggage you might be bringing to the marriage.

In time, if your partner sees you are improving in terms of your attitude or outlook on the marriage, this might rub off on them and they might change their mind about therapy altogether.

Another potential benefit of starting marriage counseling alone is that you will able to get everything out in the open without fear of being interrupted or judged by your partner if you have been hesitant to share your thoughts with them lately.

What do you think? How do you think someone could benefit from starting marriage counseling alone? Do you think this can work to help get a couple on the right path to saving a marriage?

Filed Under: All Topics, Marriage Trends, Online Counseling, Relationships, Therapy Tagged With: couples, going to therapy alone, marriage, marriage counseling, spouse, starting therapy alone, therapy

Online Therapy: When your computer crashes

April 29, 2012 by BPSTherapy 2 Comments

What happens when you are in the middle of an online therapy session and your computer crashes? There are a few ways to answer this question, but one of the most sensible ways would be that you could reboot your computer and get back into your session.

Some critics of online therapy, or distance counseling, use this potential obstacle one might face during an online therapy session as something that makes the entire experience a negative one.

Well, what happens when the lights go out during a face-to-face session? Do you continue the session without any lights on? Or do you reschedule the session for when you can work in a lighted setting? In my own practice, I tend to do a few things.

If a client has already paid for an online counseling session, say they want online marriage counseling or couples counseling via the telephone and they do not make it to their appointment for instance, I will make sure that session is rescheduled.

If I have a chat session scheduled for Skype and the client’s internet is down and I find out afterwards, again, I reschedule the session for a later date. The same is done with face-to-face sessions. If for some reason, a client cannot make it to their session or is unusually late, the session is scheduled for another date. Fees, in both situations are assessed accordingly.

As a therapist, when I worked in the prison system, the lights often went out, the fire alarms were frequently tested, or the entire compound would be locked down at a moment’s notice. In these situations, both the inmates and I had sessions scheduled and were expecting to get these sessions completed. Due to unseen circumstances, the sessions were rescheduled. Yes, these are unusual circumstances, but the end result is the same – treatment to the client is priority!

My point here is, always be sure to educate yourself before you made the decision to get therapy in any type of medium, be it face-to-face, online, through email, or by phone. Each situation poses its own benefits and risks to both you as the client and to your therapist as well.

Filed Under: All Topics, Online Counseling, Relationships, Therapy Tagged With: counselor, couples counseling, marriage counseling, online counseling, risks of online counseling, risks of therapy

Anti-gay discrimination and stigma may increase GLBT drug use

March 13, 2012 by BPSTherapy 4 Comments

Facing undue stress in life can lead to many things. As a minority group, the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) group faces great disparities in the United States and throughout the world. The way in which one copes with stress varies from individual to individual.

In the GLBT community, resources are sometimes limited and some research is indicating that anti-gay discrimination may actually increase the likelihood a gay or lesbian person will turn to drugs in times of anxiety and stress.

Some research indicates that as many as 20-30% of the GLBT population is actively abusing some sort of drug. In a research brief released by the Center for American Progress, some findings indicate the following:

“the stress that comes from daily battles with discrimination and stigma.”

“In order to lower these rates, our health care system needs to better meet the needs of gay and transgender people, and our government needs to advance public policies that promote equality for this population,”

Some ways to decrease the incidence of anti-gay discrimination and stigma include creating safe schools, communities, and legislation for the GLBT community. Educating the community at large can increase the comfort level of gay and lesbian people in the United States.

Programs that consider how discrimination and stigma impact people in their sexual development from an early age will also facilitate an increase in self-confidence in the GLBT community and a decrease in drug abuse as a coping mechanism. What can be done in your community?

Source: The Advocate

Filed Under: All Topics, Gay and Lesbian Couples, GLBT, LGBT, Relationships, Therapy Tagged With: anti-gay, Center for American Progress, discrimination, drug abuse, stigma

Coping with stress together makes marriage stronger

March 8, 2012 by BPSTherapy 1 Comment

A previous article discussed how being empathetic to your partner’s needs and being able to read them when something is wrong alluded to the fact that knowing what is happening with your partner can lead to relationship satisfaction.

Research released to USA Today by investigators at the online dating website eHarmony.com indicates that the way in which you and your partner support each other during stressful times may also be an indicator of whether your dating relationship or marriage will survive in the long term.

Many people think that facing hardship in a marriage or dating relationship can weaken your passion or sense of connectedness. The eHarmony.com findings indicate otherwise. Gian Gonzaga, one of their leading researchers comments:

“This points to the fact that your partner really has a big impact on how you’re going to respond,” he says.

“Are you compatible in the way you give support? If you’re someone, when stressed out, who needs a partner to listen to you vent and manage your emotions, you need a partner to do that well, as opposed to a partner who is good at giving advice and finding solutions but is really bad at giving emotional support. You want to make sure those ways of having support from a partner are going to mesh with each other.”

With that said, how have you done in your marriage or dating relationship in terms of supporting each other during times of stress? Do your styles of coping and being there for one another align or do you need some work on this area? If you find that your approaches differ vastly, consider discussing areas of improvement with each other.

Chances are your partner may not know what you need when you are in a state of vulnerability. Getting things out in the open may help you both feel better. With time, you will learn what works and what doesn’t; weeding out ineffective methods of supporting each other will allow for the development of stronger modes of emotional support down the road.

Source: USA Today

Filed Under: All Topics, Dating Trends, Marriage Trends, Online Dating, Relationships, Therapy Tagged With: coping styles, coping with stress, dating stress, marital stress, stress

How to find a therapist for online counseling or in-office therapy

January 22, 2012 by BPSTherapy 5 Comments

Choosing a therapist can be a tricky process if you are seeking online counseling or in-office therapy for the first time. Many clients turn to the internet to find someone they trust, but how do you really get a feel for someone until you have some sort of interaction with them, whether through a chat or email exchange, or in their office at the first session. And even then, you might still have your doubts. So how do you go about choosing a therapist that will best meet your needs, emotionally, and intellectually? In other words, how do you connect with your therapist and know they are competent all at the same time?

Lynn Bufka from the American Psychological Association states:

“It’s a very vulnerable thing to be in therapy,” says Lynn Bufka, head of the department of practice, research and policy at the American Psychological Association. “As with any health care provider – whether it’s a physician or nurse or therapist – you’re interested in finding someone who’s competent. But the question of fit becomes even more critical with a therapist, because you’re going to see that person quite regularly and you want to have a comfortable relationship.”

Many things are important to consider when looking for a good therapist. As one Chicago Tribune article points out, take into account the person’s credentials. What are they? Where did they go to school? Are the licensed in their chosen profession? This is important in that it shows a certain level of dedication to their discipline. It also shows they are up to date in their area of specialty because clinicians with active licenses are required to obtain continuing education on a regular basis.

What is the therapist’s area of expertise? Take a moment to look into what their area of specialty is. Do they meet your needs? Are they flexible in their approach? Would it vibe with what you are looking to work on? When you look at this honestly, you will get a feel for whether a therapist can truly help you with your concerns.

Burka adds:

“You don’t have to necessarily like the therapist,” Bufka says. “It’s important to feel the therapist respects you and understands you and has the expertise to help you with what you’re seeking help for.

Do they make sure that your information will be confidential? Whether you will be receiving counseling through online counseling, distance counseling, or in the traditional in-office format, make sure that your information will be secure. Is the therapist’s office secure? Online therapists have several ways to secure your personal information – ask about this. In-office counselors also have measures they follow, such as locking the office, filing archives of sessions safely, and limiting communication with others. How well would they do this with your information?

A good idea shared in the article is to set up an initial ‘interview’ with the therapist to see if you have a good fit. If you are seeing an online therapist, send them an email to see if you can chat in Skype for a while or exchange an email explainining your needs. For an in-office session, see if the counselor will meet with you briefly before your intake session to see how you feel speaking to them. Any of these approaches might help make the process of selecting a therapist a bit easier.

What are some other measures you would take to find a good therapist? Sources: Chicago Tribune, American Psychological Association