Psych Careers

Even though I'm at a university that values teaching over research, I still get many (many) students interested in working in my lab in some capacity (currently, my "lab" is technically a basement office that would be blank except for my lab manager's Flight of the Conchords posters, but you get the gist). Read More

Mentoring refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced person helps a less experienced person. The receiver of mentorship was referred to as a protege, but more recently the word "mentee" was invented. Read More

Over the past several days, major media outlets have cited art therapy as a source of failed rehabilitation for two former Gitmo detainees who are allegedly connected to the recent bomb attempt on Northwest Flight 253. While the rehab program included religious education, psychotherapy, and other components, just why did the media decide that paints and crayons were culprits in the terrorist plot? Read More

In order to be truly effective in our work, we physicians need to conduct our own personal exploration, take time for introspection, and replenish our personal reserves. Read More

OMG, someone is using Twitter to disparage my profession. At first I dismissed this tweeter as twitwit and even a bit of a twhiner. But then I started to wonder: Is Twitter possibly a digital oracle of wisdom? Is art therapy really a fake? Read More

In the 20th century, art therapy mirrored modern art movements and the media of the time period—drawing, painting, and sculpting. And just as digital means of expression, image manipulation, and social multimedia have permeated the early 21st century art, they also are beginning to influence the field of art therapy…well, maybe. Read More

My wife and I belong to a book club. We gather with a small group of friends every month or so for a bit of cabernet and culture. Read More

Identifying a heartfelt question and pursuing it with integrity is no less demanding than chivalric questing used to be-and no less transformative. Read More

Alain de Botton is a writer who appreciates the value of psychotherpay. In that spirit, he recently opened a bookstore in London that doubles as a therapy office, called The School of Life. The bookstore offers sessions with bibliotherapists (who find you books that are likely to change your habits), offers weekend “holidays,” with titles Holiday to Heathrow, and Philosophy by Bicycle, and hosts courses, not in abstract topics like “science” or “philosophy,” but in “How to Have Conversation” and “How to Die.” De Botton thinks traditional schooling has let us down and that overspecialization has shaped a lot of us into brilliant loners. Read More