Therapy, Spirituality, and Mysticism

Therapy, Spirituality, and Mysticism

In the medieval period it was common to take pilgrimages to the holy land from mainland Europe. The trip was an opportunity to face one’s fears and learn to know the deepest parts of self. The trip was long and dangerous. The terrain and culture were different from anything that pilgrims had seen back home. Along the way the pilgrims prayed, fasted and sought inner peace to prepare to be close to God. The pilgrimage to the holy land was a metaphor for Jesus’s life and journey much like the stations of the cross....

What Happens to the Eye During a Brainspotting Therapy Session?

What Happens to the Eye During a Brainspotting Therapy Session?

Brainspotting is a revolutionary new therapy for trauma and PTSD. We use many modalities of therapy at Taproot Therapy Collective, but brainspotting is one of the most effective treatments for PTSD and lowering anxiety that I've ever found. when doing brain spotting the therapist looks for a position where your eye blinks and dilates. Many patients wonder what their eye looks like so I created this video to show you what I'm seeing when I do brain spotting on a patient. The eye you see in the video is my own eye...

Corporate Tech Monopolies are Going to Ruin Therapy

Corporate Tech Monopolies are Going to Ruin Therapy

Last weekend BetterHelp, the online subscription therapy company, settled with the FTC for almost 8 million in fines for selling therapy patient's confidential information to Facebook and Snapchat. This isn’t justice, so hold your applause. The company, whose name really is the word better and help smashed together with no space between them has had issues before. A quick google search reveals customer reviews claiming the company is as good at delivering therapy to paying customers as it is at punctuation. Real...

Karen Horney

Karen Horney

Who was the female psychoanalyst and what do her theories say about trauma and personality? Karen Horney was a German psychoanalyst. Her career came into prominence in the nineteen twenties when she formed theories on human attachment and neurosis that split from Freud’s key ideas. Horney’s theory of personality development and individuation are still highly relevant to modern theories of personality, attachment psychology and psychological trauma. Even though she is not well remembered, her work is as relevant...

Book Review of Lament of the Dead: Psychology after Jung’s The Red Book by James Hillman and Sonu Shamdasani

Book Review of Lament of the Dead: Psychology after Jung’s The Red Book by James Hillman and Sonu Shamdasani

    “The years, of which I have spoken to you, when I pursued the inner images, were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this. It began at that time, and the later details hardly matter anymore. My entire life consisted in elaborating what had burst forth from the unconscious and flooded me like an enigmatic stream and threatened to break me. That was the stuff and material for more than only one life. Everything later was merely the outer classification, the...

Stellate Ganglion Block for Trauma and PTSD – Interview with Dr. James Lynch

Stellate Ganglion Block (SGB)—a medical procedure that effectively treats symptoms associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—is an injection of local anesthetic in the neck to temporarily block the cervical sympathetic chain which controls the body’s fight-or-flight response. ​SGB has been safely used for over 80 years for many other reasons but was discovered ten years ago to provide relief of PTSD symptoms as well. Since that time, along with a handful of other physicians, I have pioneered the use of...

Interview with A. Savage of the Parquet Courts

Andy Savage is a brilliant visual and musical artist. As front man of the Parquet Courts he has seven ground breaking rock albums. As a visual artist he is makes beautiful impressionist work that has echoes of Wassily Kandinsky, playful modernism of Paul Klee and even the murals of Emil Bisttram. We are so grateful for his time with us and his body of work in the world. Here he talks about his process and personality as it relates to art. Check out his other work here: [email protected] https://www.parquet-courts.com/...

Interview with David Tacey on Carl Jung, Mysticism, and the Politics of Religion

Dr. David Tacey is a professor in literature and depth psychology at La Trobe University, Melbourne. He is the author of eight books, including Jung and the New Age (2001), The Spirituality Revolution (2003) and How to Read Jung (2006).He was born in Melbourne and raised in Alice Springs, central Australia. It was here that he was influenced by Aboriginal cultures and their religion and cosmology. After completing a PhD degree at the University of Adelaide, David Tacey was a Harkness Fellow in...

What Happens When We Can’t Feel Emotion?

What Happens When We Can’t Feel Emotion?

Anger, sadness and fear are the three basic states of our fight or flight system. These are the three basic negative emotions or body emotions. We feel these emotions physically before we process them in the prefrontal cortex because they activate our amygdala and begin our fight or flight state. The emotions recognition worksheet describes this process.  Fear is the absolute flight state. It is the awareness that we have no power to detect or prevent an attack. We hope the world will not hurt us but we think it...

How do I become a therapist?

How much does it cost to become a therapist? How do I become a therapist? This is the most common question that we get. Don't worry we have an answer for you! What is the difference in a psychotherapist and a psychiatrist? What are the different types of therapists? Psychiatrists and Nurse Practitioners can prescribe medication. A psychiatrist is a licensed medical doctor. They are licensed by the AMA. They can prescribe medication. A nurse practitioner is the highest level of licensure for a nurse who works with...

Karen Horney Article 4/4

Karen Horney Article 4/4

Karen Horney Moving Away From People Karen Horney was a German psychoanalyst. Her career came into prominence in the nineteen twenties when she formed theories on human attachment and neurosis that split from Freud’s key ideas. Horney’s theory of personality development and individuation are still highly relevant to modern theories of personality, attachment psychology and psychological trauma. Horney observed that children deploy three different coping styles during the time they are individuating from the...

Karen Horney Part 3/4

Karen Horney Part 3/4

Karen Horney Moving Against People Karen Horney was a German psychoanalyst. Her career came into prominence in the nineteen twenties when she formed theories on human attachment and neurosis that split from Freud’s key ideas. Horney’s theory of personality development and individuation are still highly relevant to modern theories of personality, attachment psychology and psychological trauma. This third part of a four part article will explore the moving against people personality style. In Horney’s theory of...