Catch Oprah yesterday?  Visit the website for more information about Dr. Berman and sex therapy and check out Dr. Berman's column in the Sun Times.

There aren't a lot of treatment options for older women with flagging libidos, but a new study suggests that a testosterone patch may significantly improve the number of satisfying sexual episodes that women experience. {Click for complete article}

Australian scientists believe they have identified a significant link between a gene involved in testosterone and male-to-female transsexualism. {Click for complete article}

While you may not see anything wrong with your sex life, other people do. Medical and counseling professionals and members of the clergy - with no background in sexuality - are being aggressively trained to identify and deal with a supposed issue cleverly labeled "sex addiction." {Click for entire article}

ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2008) — The rapidity of ejaculation in men is genetically determined. This is the result of research by Utrecht University. Neuropsychiatrist Dr Marcel Waldinger and Pharmacological Researcher Paddy Janssen studied 89 Dutch men with premature ejaculation and will publish the results this week in the renowned International scientific journal the Journal of Sexual Medicine. {Click for complete article}

This is fascinating news, and a relief for many.  However, it should be noted that even when the cause is not psychological, there are definitely psychological ramifications to any sexual difficulties.  Premature ejaculation can be greatly exacerbated by anxiety over having premature ejaculation, and symptoms can be greatly alleviated by behavioral techniques learned in sex therapy.

All Things Considered, June 3, 2004 · The psychologist who laid the intellectual foundations of cognitive therapy wasn't always lauded by the mental health community. In fact, Dr. Albert Ellis believed most psychologists and psychiatrists hated him -- and thought cognitive therapy was superficial. Ellis is now regarded as one of the most influential psychotherapists of the last century. NPR's Alix Spiegel reports.  {Click here to listen]

 

One of the main goals of psychotherapy is to help you feel okay in your own skin.  Check out the Human Rights Campaign's article on National Coming Out Day, which is October 11th, 2008. {Click for Article}

From Mental Health America

Mental Health Parity Passes!

On Thanks to you and the thousands who lent tireless support to our years-long effort to win enactment of legislation to end discrimination in mental health coverage. Today we won! With House passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act today, 263-171, Congress has at last adopted mental health/addiction parity legislation. Congratulations! With speedy presidential approval assured, more than 100 million Americans will gain equitable coverage and improved access to needed mental health care.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Best for Traumatized Youths

But study also finds too many clinicians still using unproven treatments

{Click here for complete article}

How Therapy Can Help Your Sex Life

It's not just two bodies intertwined between the sheets. Minds get tangled, too {Click for Complete article}

In a finding that calls into question the old saying that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", psychologists used four experiments to discover how people get over emotional or physical pain. {Click for entire article]

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is offering an insurance-like benefit to help cover mental health and substance use treatment for NYC residents affected by 9/11. {Click for more information}

We often talk about not getting our needs met, which causes conflict both within ourselves and with others.  Interestingly, many turn towards medication to make them feel better without attempting to get better.  Remember in 6th grade health class and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?  

You can sort of think of it as a comprehensive roadmap for your life.  The very basic human needs are at the bottom of the pyramid, and are necessary for survival, followed by needs for safety and stability.  It might be argued that in an era of home foreclosures, rising food costs, and a general sense of being on heightened alert (for the past seven years?!) that it's little wonder people feel off.  How can you reach the pinnacle of self-actualization and transcendence when you're worried about how you're going to pay for gas and make your mortgage payment?  Again, medication may keep you from feeling depressed or anxious about such things, but what about finding a solution? If you aren't meeting the basic needs of food, shelter, sleep, sex (notice how sex is not on the same level as love) and shelter, then you're not going to be able to work on meeting a need for belongingness, meaningful career, relationships, family, etc.  And how are you going to meet these needs by taking a pill every day?

It is silly to dismiss all medication as absolutely terrible.  When you have strep throat, you get some pills which you take until you're over the strep throat.  No judgement there.  As a therapist, I feel the same about psychoaactive medication.  If you meet a diagnosis for which there is a medication that can help, then by all means, take the meds.  But often I find someone who has never been to therapy, yet they have been taking medication for the past ten years.  Surely I'm not the only one who sees this as an issue.  Maybe this is a holdover of psychoanalysis when a person would see their analyst four times a week for ten years.  Maybe people are trained to think that since they only have to pay $5 for their meds to be refilled, that to have to pay for therapy is a luxury.

I make no guarantees in my practice, but a statsistic that gets thrown about is that people come to an average of 8 therapy sessions.  If this is true, then it might be worth considering 8 weeks of therapy as opposed to accepting being medicated for a decade- especially if it's something related to some very basic needs that aren't being met. 

*Illustration from http://www.bkone.co.in/clubBK/MaslowsHierarchyofNeeds.asp

Psychiatry is medicating a nation, even though studies continue to show that talk therapy is effective.  {Click for article}

This article fails to mention that a large number of mental health clinicians are licensed marriage and family therapists and licensed mental health counselors. There is a myth being perpetuated by lobbysists and professional organizations that a doctoral degree is somehow better for the public, and that a social worker is the next best thing to a doctoral level clinician.

LMFT's and LMHC's have a minimum of a master's degree (often in Psychology) and must have 2 years of supervised experience before sitting for the licensure exam- which is at least equivalent to the LCSW. Social work is also a master's degree. Interestingly, in some states (namely New York), only social workers and psychologsts are able to bill Medicaid and Medicare. (In New York there is even a loan forgiveness program for social workers, and not for counselors or marriage and family therapists- who are qualified to do the same work.)

Masters level clinicians are doing psychotherapy across the country, and even though the field continues to be skewed towards social workers and doctoral level clinicians, these other qualified practitioners serve a great purpose to the public, often making psychotherapy affordable to those who need it the most, and not just the people who can afford psychoanalysis, which, by the way, is not the only style of therapy, yet is the one most portrayed in the media.

from ValueOptions:

Give An Hour is a non-profit national network of volunteers capable of responding to both acute and chronic conditions that arise within our society. The organization's first target population is America's returning veterans and their loved ones. The current conflicts overseas have placed a  strain on many  soldiers and  their  families  through multiple deployment cycles and extended  lengths of  tour. This strain has resulted in an increased need for behavioral health services.
 
While spouses, children, parents, siblings, and unmarried partners of military personnel are being adversely affected by the stress of the current military campaign, parents, siblings, and unmarried partners are not entitled to receive mental health benefits through the military. Although these individuals may have access to mental health services through other means, they are less likely to seek the help they need and deserve if that help is difficult to find or costly. The goal of Give An Hours to provide easy access to skilled professionals for all individuals affected by the war.
 
Participating mental health professionals will offer a wide range of services including individual, marital, and family therapy: bereavement counseling; and support for those caring for persons with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). Volunteers commit to giving their services for an hour a week for a minimum of one year. They may provide services in face-to-face office visits, over the phone, or through other institutions like schools.
 
Links to various military web sites and sites sponsored by military support organizations such as the National Military Family Association will be hosted on the Give An Hour website. 
 
If you are interested in these services, or in volunteering an hour of your time each week for this worthwhile cause please visit their website at www.giveanhour.org.

By the time they arrive in Beijing, most athletes have resigned themselves to the possibility of undergoing a battery of tests for banned substances, like anabolic steroids and certain cough medicines.  But some female athletes may find they are asked to submit to an entirely different examination — one that will test whether they are, in fact, women.  {Click for the entire article}

This brings up an interesting question of chromosomal sex vs psychological gender.  As illustrated in this article, sometimes the two are not the same.

A term that has deep roots in psychoanalytic literature appears to have become a popular descriptor so bloated as to have been rendered meaningless.  {Click for complete article}

Viagra may help women who experience sexual dysfunction while taking antidepressants, according to a report from JAMA.

Picking up where Green Porno left off, New York favorite The Museum of Sex has a new exhibit entitled The Sex Lives of Animals.  Nothing better than educating yourself about the sex lives of other species to really put your own sexuality into perspective.  On display through Spring 2009.