What Remains: The Aftermath of Patient Suicide

Psychologist Margaret Clausen shares poignantly about the loss of her client to suicide,  the steps she took to heal her grief, and the isolation and shame that many clinicians needlessly suffer in the wake of client suicide.

Losing the Couch: Finding the “Sacred Place” in Online Therapy

I clearly remember my very first visit to my British psychotherapist. She used to receive her patients in her conservatory. Her dogs sometimes got impatient and produced considerable clatter, which I could clearly hear from inside the house. The front door would be unlocked. Clients just had to push the gate to get through an unkempt garden into the peculiar therapy room. She would be already comfortably sitting there in the same old chair, and a flowery cup of tea…

Psychotherapy in the Year 2045

According to Ray Kurzweil, futurist extraordinaire, the singularity is approaching at the speed of Jimmy John’s delivery. The technological notion of the singularity asserts that computers, robots, and related super-intelligent machines will reach a stage when they match and then exceed the capabilities of human beings. When will the singularity occur? Ray has his calendar marked for 2045, so I should have the majority of my credit card bills polished off by then. Now, of course, we could dismiss Kurzweil’s predictions…

Heather Clague on Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Working with Society’s Most Marginalized Populations

Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Heather Clague offers reflections on the difference between private psychotherapy practice and working in the psychiatric emergency room, how prescribing medication broadens psychotherapy, and the joy and heartache of working with those society is "happy to ignore."

Creative Writing as Psychotherapy

“An interesting fusion.” That’s what my project Wild Words was once called by a fellow psychotherapist, and yes, he was looking down his nose at me. But I’ve discovered a huge demand for the fusion of body-based, nature-based, and narrative therapy, via which I help people to find creative flow in their lives. Here’s one recent example. A stooped 17 year-old man came to me. He had a mop of black hair and smelled of spirits. There were tensions in the…