www.MyTherapist.Info

Here is an excellent introduction to Maslow (most know for the hierarchy of needs). 

"...Most commonly, self-actualizing people see life clearly. They are less emotional and more objective, less likely to allow hopes, fears, or ego defenses to distort their observations. Maslow found that all self-actualizing people are dedicated to a vocation or a cause. Two requirements for growth are commitment to something greater than oneself and success at one's chosen tasks. Major characteristics of self-actualizing people include creativity, spontaneity, courage, and hard work.

Maslow lists the following characteristics of self-actualizers (1970, pp. 153-172):

1 . more efficient perception of reality and more comfortable relations with it

2. acceptance (self, others, nature)

3. spontaneity; simplicity; naturalness

4. problem centering [as opposed to ego-centered]

5. the quality of detachment; the need for privacy

6. autonomy; independence of culture and environment

7. continued freshness of appreciation

8. mystic and peak experiences

9. Gemeinschaftsgefiihl [a feeling of kinship with others]

10. deeper and more profound interpersonal relations

11. the democratic character structure

12. discrimination between means and ends, between good and evil

13. philosophical, unhostile sense of humor

14. self-actualizing creativeness

15. resistance to enculturation; the transcendence of any particular culture"

{Click for Complete Article}

Note from Dr. DeMarco:  I am hoping to start a non-profit that incorporates the ideas of Maslow and his hierarchy of needs and will be setting up brainstorming sessions in NYC over the next few weeks.  I will first be focusing on offering low-cost psychotherapy and sex therapy, but plan to expand to include various other treatment types such as personal training, nutrition, massage therapy, etc.  If you are in the New York area and are interested in attending one of the brainstorming sessions, please contact me through this website!  For a previous article I wrote about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, click search in the menu bar on this page and type Maslow.

Sex addiction has emerged as the 21st century version of sin -- the latest way to guilt people about sex. {Click for Complete Article}

The rich, famous and married often seek "treatment" to combat their strong sexual urges. But, argues Jed Mercurio, it's not a disease, it's just an excuse.  {Click for complete aerticle}

(OPRAH.com) -- Physical attraction may be as old as time, but new studies are beginning to uncover the science behind sex appeal. Unexpected factors -- like biochemical odors, face shape and voice pitch -- just might have more to do with your choice of mate than anyone ever expected. {Click for Complete Article}

Note from Dr. DeMarco-  I will review the documentary referred to in this article from Discovery Channel called "The Science of Sex Appeal" shortly.  Another one I recommend is BBC's series  "Secrets of the Sexes".

Today's seniors, their sex lives liberated long ago by one pill and extended indefinitely by another, have every intention of staying in the game. {Click for complete article}

from the American Counseling Association website:

"

Medicare Coverage Bills Introduced

Legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate to establish Medicare coverage of licensed professional counselors.On March 23^rd, Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) introduced S. 671, the “Seniors Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2009.” The next day, Representative Bart Gordon (D-TN) introduced H.R. 1693, identical legislation with the same title. The legislation would also establish coverage of licensed marriage and family therapists. ACA worked closely with Senator Lincoln and Congressman Gordon in the development and introduction of the legislation, and we are committed to gaining its enactment this year.

Counselors are strongly encouraged to call, write, or e-mail their Senators to ask them to cosponsor S. 671, and their Representative to ask for cosponsorship of H.R. 1693. The more cosponsors we have on these bills, the more likely we are to gain their inclusion in the larger Medicare legislation to be approved by Congress. You can quickly identify your Senators and Representative, and see suggested language for contacting them on this issue, on our internet action center webpage. "

Currently Medicare is highly biased towards social workers as the only master's level clinicians who are able to accept Medicare.

Saturday

• April 25th 8pm

Julia Richman Educational Complex
317 East 67th Street at 2nd Avenue
$20, $15 for seniors/students/advance
TDF vouchers accepted

• 212-591-2886

info@lgbac.org • www.lgbac.org

In this history-making, thirtieth anniversary season, the Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band brings you an evening of heavenly hedonism. Our spring concert, Gods and Monsters: Music From the Unearthly to the Ethereal, will feature our usual classical favorites (Holst's "Jupiter" and Orff's "Carmina Burana"), plus such off-the-beaten-path pieces (or perhaps scorched or trampled path) as "Godzilla Eats Las Vegas." You'll also have the opportunity to dance the Can-Can (from your seats) as we perform Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld." Click here to buy tickets!

If you've been following LGBAC news, then you know it's been a very exciting 2009 for us. After closing 2008 by hosting the wildly successful "Deliciously Wicked" LGBA conference, we became the first ever LGBT organization to march in the Presidential Inaugural Parade in Washington, DC. Less than a month later, we made our ensemble debut at Carnegie Hall, becoming the first LGBT band to be invited to perform at a concert by DCINY (Distinguished Concerts International of New York).

These three major efforts, like everything else we do, came to fruition only with the support of our members and gracious donors. Please show your support for the LGBAC by making a donation today. Click here, or make a check out to TriMusicAngle, Inc. and mail it to 332 Bleecker Street, #K48, New York, NY 10014.

Sincerely,
The Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps

Romance does not have to fizzle out in long-term relationships and progress into a companionship/friendship-type love, a new study has found. Romantic love can last a lifetime and lead to happier, healthier relationships. {Click for Complete Article}

from Dr. Alex Benzer 

"...the smarter you are, the more clueless you will be, and the more problems you're going to have in your dating life."  {Click for Complete Article}

A new nationwide study (pdf) of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider finds little variation in consumption between states. {Click for Complete Article}

from PNHP.ORG

February 25, 2009

Dear single payer friends,
We have some good news, some bad news, and some breaking news!
The good news is that single-payer legislation (H.R. 676) was reintroduced in the 111th Congress on Jan. 26. Supported by 94 representatives in the 110th Congress, the bill is now backed by a new alliance of physicians, nurses, unions and grassroots groups with a base of over 20 million Americans and growing!
The bad news is that Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, will not allow consideration of single payer as an option for reform, and Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass.) is, by all indications, poised to promote the flawed Massachusetts health plan at the national level after months of secret meetings with insurance, business, and pharmaceutical company lobbyists.
The breaking news is that PNHP is co-hosting a briefing to refute the Massachusetts model and to promote single payer on Capitol Hill today (Wednesday, Feb. 25). The congressional forum will be webcast live on our web site at www.pnhp.org starting at 2 p.m. EST, with PNHP founder Dr. David Himmelstein as the first speaker (the forum will be posted for viewing later as well). Last week, PNHP released, with Public Citizen, a report on the Massachusetts plan, along with a letter to Sen. Kennedy signed by 500 physicians and other health professionals in the state, calling on him to return to his earlier support for single payer.
While President Obama has acknowledged that single payer is the best option for reform, and while he opposed a mandate requiring all individuals to purchase private insurance during his campaign, it would appear he is poised to embrace the piecemeal, incrementalist approach that keeps the private insurance industry in place. He may outline more details about his stance tonight when he appears on television to address the nation about the budget. As John Nichols blogged for The Nation, single payer national health insurance would be a huge help to the automakers and the economy as a whole.
In this environment, PNHPers across the country are challenging the "inside the beltway" mentality that believes only incremental reform that retains (or "bails out") the insurance industry is possible. Dr. John Benziger, Dr. John Geyman, Dr. Laura Boylan and PNHP President Dr. Oliver Fein are among the many PNHPers who are writing and publishing op-eds and letters-to-the-editor in support of single payer. Several PNHPers have garnered endorsements from their city councils, most recently in Seattle. And PNHPers from coast to coast responded to the call to host house parties and send messages in support of single payer to Obama over the holidays.
What you can do:
Urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor H.R. 676 (in the House) or encourage hearings on single payer (in the Senate). There are useful lobbying materials at www.pnhp.org/change, and PNHP staff can help you set up an appointment: contact Danielle Alexander at danielle@pnhp.org. There will be a national call-in day for H.R. 676 on April 15 (but you don't have to wait until then!). Plan to visit with your member of Congress during the April 6-17 Easter recess when lawmakers will be at work in their home districts. You may also write them online.

Submit an op-ed or letter to the editor. Feel free to use any PNHP materials as starting points - especially Dr. Don McCanne's single payer "quote of the day."

Speak out in support of single payer. PNHP has slide sets available for this purpose to members at www.pnhp.org/slideshow. The password is "fein."

Encourage grassroots groups to join the new national single payer alliance, The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care. Requests may be sent to staffer Katie Robbins at healthcarenow08@gmail.com.

For many years, PNHP has been inspired by a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and most inhuman." Lately we have found a new quote from Dr. King that seems very fitting for the newest phase of our struggle: "Although social change cannot come overnight, we must always work as though it were a possibility in the morning."
Thank you for your continued support and especially your priceless efforts for reform,

Quentin Young, MD
National CoordinatorIda Hellander MD
Executive Director

P.S. PNHP was recently the recipient of a $64,603 grant from CREDO/Working Assets as a result of balloting by their customers. Please help us raise the additional funds needed to meet the challenges of this historic moment by donating or renewing your membership today. Donors of $100 or more will receive a free copy of "Do Not Resuscitate: Why the health insurance industry is dying, and how we must replace it" by John Geyman, M.D., or "10 Excellent Reasons for National Health Care," edited by Mary O'Brien, M.D., and Martha Livingston, Ph.D.

“Me Sexy” is a sweet, robust, sometimes solemn, often ribald overview of sexual practices and philosophies that accompany worldviews and lifeways in the Indigenous North, with implications for us all. {Click for entire Review}

Valentine's Day is coming up.  And while no couple's therapist would tell you this day is more important than any other in the life of your relationship, it can be a day to get people thinking about the health of their relationship.  Discovery health's website has a great page with all sorts of assessments meant to measure areas such as arguing style to jealousy.  Find something that may need some improvement?  Schedule a relationship checkup with a licensed marriage and family therapist!  Couples therapy doesn't have to only be used when the relationship has reached its breaking point.  Tweaking a few small things before they pile up and turn into a something big and nasty is an effective way to get your relationship back on track!

This is from a 1974 People with the late Dr. Albert Ellis, sex researcher and arguably the father of modern psychotherapy in the United States.

In the early 1950s, when Dr. Albert Ellis first began to write about sex, no one wanted to publish his work, so extreme were his views. With the publication of Sex Without Guilt in 1958, he moved into the forefront of the sexual revolution. Today, many of his earlier critics concede that his blunt, nonmoralistic advice helped to free the discussion of sex and put it in better perspective. At 60, Ellis is the author of 30 books, including several bestsellers. He has written over 200 professional papers, founded institutes for study and research in a dozen major cities and is in constant demand on the lecture circuit. {Click for Complete Article}

Locally and across the country, grass-roots groups and major organizations are launching or expanding mental health services for returning combat troops, new veterans and their families. {Click for Complete Article}

Note from Dr. DeMarco: I participate in the Give an Hour program.  Please contact me for more information or visit http://www.giveanhour.org/

Teenagers who take virginity pledges are no less sexually active than other teens, according to a new study. {Click for complete article}

Click to listen to a holiday favorite

Happy Holidays from Dr. DeMarco and MyTherapist.Info!!

Is compulsive shopping a mental problem? Do children who continually recoil from sights and sounds suffer from sensory problems — or just need extra attention? Should a fetish be considered a mental disorder, as many now are? {Click for complete article}