by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 7, 2025 | Alabama Local History, Psychology of History
Highway 280: The Psychological Bypass How Birmingham’s Suburbs Built Infrastructure to Avoid the City Every day, thousands of people commute along Highway 280, connecting Vestavia Hills to Mountain Brook to Homewood to Inverness to Greystone. It’s...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 7, 2025 | Alabama Local History, Birmingham
There’s a peculiar truth about Birmingham’s most famous pastry: the building where it was born no longer exists, yet the roll itself has become more iconic than the four-story Roman temple that housed its creation. As a therapist, I find this fascinating....
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 7, 2025 | Christian Mysticism in Therapy, Philosophy for Therapists
A Theologian Who Understood the Psyche In the landscape of 20th-century thought, few figures managed to bridge the seemingly disparate worlds of theology, philosophy, and psychology with the elegance and profundity of Paul Tillich. Born in Prussia in 1886 and...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 7, 2025 | Jungian Therapy and Depth Psychology
A Philosopher-King Writing to Himself in the Dark In the final decade of his life, along the frozen banks of the Danube River, surrounded by the chaos of military campaigns against Germanic tribes, the most powerful man in the ancient world sat alone in his tent and...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 7, 2025 | Philosophy for Therapists
A Medieval Voice Speaking to Modern Minds In the dimly lit scriptoriums of fourteenth-century England, a Franciscan friar bent over his manuscripts, crafting arguments that would reverberate through centuries of human thought. William of Ockham could not have known...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 7, 2025 | Christian Mysticism in Therapy, Phenomenology and Existential Psychology, Philosophy for Therapists, Psychology of Mystics, Gurus, and Spiritual Philosophers
The Ancient Roots of Inner Exploration When contemporary therapists speak of the unconscious, the divided self, or the healing power of narrative confession, they participate in a tradition far older than Freud or Jung. Sixteen centuries before the birth of...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 7, 2025 | Philosophy for Therapists
A Sixteenth Century Mystic Speaks to the Modern Consulting Room In the annals of Western spirituality, few figures have captured the imagination of depth psychologists and existential therapists quite like the sixteenth century Spanish mystic Juan de Yepes y Álvarez,...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 6, 2025 | Alabama Local History, Legal Updates for Therapists and Psychologists, Psychology of Artists, Poets, and Writers, Psychology of History, Psychology of Media and Culture, Psychology Topics and Articles, Psychotherapy Biographies: Historical Figures in the History of Psychology
Author’s Note: I became interested in George B. Ward and his unseen influence on this city while working on a screenplay about his life. I have already written a much shorter article on his life, but I wanted to make my research notes for the screenplay...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 5, 2025 | Brainspotting in Alabama: Revolutionary Trauma Therapy for Deep Healing, Lifespan integration in Alabama, Mental Health and Trauma Therapy in Alabama, Psychology Topics and Articles, Therapy Resources for Alabama, Trauma Treatment in Alabama
The Crunch Under Your Boots: What “Japanese Rock Beetles” Teach Us About the Human Mind If you live in Alabama, you know the sound. It’s a dry, brittle crunch under your socked foot as you walk across the living room carpet in January. You look down, and...
by Joel Blackstock LICSW-S MSW PIP no. 4135C-S | Dec 4, 2025 | Alternative Medicine and Holistic Health, Brainspotting in Alabama: Revolutionary Trauma Therapy for Deep Healing, Color Psychology, Evidence Based Practice and Research Psychology, Evidence Based Practice in Therapy, History of Psychotherapy, Psychology
Energy Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Body-Based and Energy-Informed Approaches to Healing For decades, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has reigned as the gold standard of psychological treatment. Its structured protocols, measurable outcomes, and...
