Mental wellness news, discussions, and tips
Presenter: Jennifer Chen Speckman, LCSW
When: Friday, April 19, 11:30am – 1:30pm
Where: Il Davide Private Dining Room, 901 A Street, San Rafael
Cost: $25, includes 1.5 units Continuing Education
MYnd Analytics is using artificial intelligence to help treat mental health issues like depression and PTSD. Dr. Robin Smith, chairman of the board at MYnd Analytics, explains how it works.
Read MoreCheck out Mind Therapy Clinic on the recent episode of This Is SF on CBS5 aired on January 26th and February 3.
Read MoreFor Clinicians
We'd love you to join Mind Therapy Clinic's staff at our clinical training the evening of February 15. Tea and light snacks will be offered.
When: Friday, February 15, 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Where: Mind Therapy Clinic, 240 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera CA 94925, Upstairs Classroom
FREE with no CEs. $25 for 2 CEs.
RSVP here by Friday, February 8.
For questions, please contact Jacqueline Perlmutter, Director of Professional Relations, 415-846-8409
Read MoreThe latest paper by Mind Therapy Clinic’s Dr. Mark Schiller reviews significant contributions to the evidence for the use of quantitative electroencephalography features as biomarkers of depression treatment and examines the potential of such technology to guide pharmacotherapy.
More recent machine learning approaches such as the Psychiatric Encephalography Evaluation Registry (PEER) technology and other efforts analyze large datasets to develop variables that may best predict response rather than test a priori hypotheses. Frequency band abnormalities such as alpha and theta band abnormalities have shown promise as have combinatorial measures such as cordance (a measure combining alpha and theta power) and the Antidepressant Treatment Response Index in predicting medication treatment response. Nevertheless, studies have been hampered by methodological problems and inconsistencies, and these approaches have ultimately failed to elicit any significant interest in actual clinical practice. Technologies such as PEER may go beyond predicting response to a particular antidepressant and help to guide pharmacotherapy.
Read MoreWe are thrilled to announce, Katy Tarella, LCSW, joins Mind Therapy Clinic as assistant clinical director and brings her expertise in borderline personality disorder treatment from her previous position at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA. Katy is a licensed clinical social worker, trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (DBT-PTSD), MBT for families, and General Psychiatric Management (GPM).
Read MoreAs family members, we would love it at our get-togethers if members could relax and enjoy each other. However, when a member experiences depression, anxiety, social anxiety, addiction struggles and personality disorders, we may have to adjust that dream picture of cozy camaraderie and stress-free relationships. A key tool of this readjustment is to cultivate our own inner peace, acceptance and equanimity. Here are some tools to help move into peace of mind and create the space for joy and gratitude.
Read MoreClinicians: Join Andrew Sidoli, MSW, Executive Clinical Director, Recovery Ways Treatment Programs to learn more about effective trauma treatment for families with a member in treatment. Moderated by Katy Tarella, LCSW, Assistant Clinical Director at Mind Therapy Clinic, we’ll review the neurobiology of attachment, examine current theory about attachment trauma and discuss and practice the use of the attachment interview as a practical therapeutic tool.
Read MoreIt can be confusing and worrisome for kids when a parent is suffering, but there are things you can do to help kids cope.
Read More
One direction of intense interest currently is the potential of certain powerful psychoactive agents such as psilocybin or MDMA to act as catalysts for powerful transformational healing in conjunction with intensive psychotherapy. MDMA and psilocybin can be powerful catalysts for psychotherapeutic healing because they help to temporarily break the subjects’ brains out of the conditioned patterns of thinking and behavior that have perpetuated their symptoms, thus enabling psychotherapy to have markedly enhanced efficacy through breaking down barriers such as deeply entrenched psychic defense-mechanisms. Famous UC Berkeley journalist Michael Pollan recently released a great book on this topic called How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.
At this point, there have been tremendously exciting positive results in clinical trials using MDMA as a catalyst to augment psychotherapy for patients with PTSD. MDMA helps break the sufferers’ brains out of the abnormal patterns of neural network activity (correlate of symptoms and psychic defenses) that were established through the powerful conditioning that occurred as a result of their traumatic experiences. There have also been incredibly fascinating results from studies using psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat end-of-life anxiety/depression, treatment-resistant depression, nicotine addiction and alcohol addiction. These therapies (unlike TMS, DBS, and ketamine) are not yet legal for community clinicians to perform, and they require further study of their efficacy and safety before the FDA will grant approval. Dr. Reeves has been following this line of research very closely for many years, and at least in the case of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, it seems to be getting close to the point of potential FDA approval, as Phase 3 Clinical Trials are just now beginning and the FDA has granted MDMA-assisted therapy its coveted “Breakthrough Therapy” designation.
There are currently ongoing psychedelic research studies in San Francisco and Marin, such as MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD (UCSF) and for end-of-life anxiety/depression (Dr. Phil Wolfson in Marin), as well as psilocybin-assisted group therapy for depression related to the trauma of the 1980s AIDS epidemic in gay men (UCSF). Dr. Reeves is a close acquaintance of many of the psychiatrist-scientists conducting these studies, so please feel free to call him if you think your patient might benefit from referral to any of the mentioned clinical trials.
In summary, the field of psychiatry is undergoing exhilarating changes that are inspired by the principles of neuroscience, and several dramatically efficacious and neuroscience-informed treatments are emerging that may radically change the way psychiatry is practiced in the second half of the 21st century. There has never been a more fascinating time to be a scientifically savvy (read: nerdy) psychiatrist, and each successive generation of new psychiatrists will be able to truthfully say the same thing.
Congratulations to Dr. Schiller and MYnd Analytics! The FDA has awarded breakthrough device designation to a MYnd Analytics', PEER 4.0, a technology that identifies the medications most likely to work in patients with mental health conditions.
Read MoreIn the words of famous neuroscientist Donald Hebb, “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” Thus, the conditioning that led to abnormal neural circuit activity can be recognized, and new patterns of thinking and behavior can be strengthened through conditioning that installs healthier patterns through the mechanisms of neural plasticity (e.g. changes in number of synapses for communication between neurons within a network and number/sensitivity of the neurotransmitter receptors on the postsynaptic neurons).
Read MoreThe neuroscience helps us to understand the distal mechanism of action of the medications we use in psychiatry. What is important to understand from the neuroscience is that the final result for individuals with any psychiatric disorder is that there are changes in the connectivity and function of various brain circuits that correlate with the symptoms of their respective illness
Read MoreThere are now two well-researched neuromodulation therapies that are specifically designed to alter activity in brain circuits that exhibit abnormal activity in specific psychiatric disorders. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) were developed specifically with an understanding of neuroanatomy and the physiology of neural networks as a guide.
Read MoreThe science also provides some explanatory power as to why certain therapies may be effective. For example, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps patients to identify how certain errors in their thinking and certain maladaptive behaviors they exhibit helped generate and/or help perpetuate their disorders, as well as the interconnection between these cognitive distortions and the behavioral manifestations of their disorder.
Read MoreEmotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) with Dr. Galia Schechter:
Learn:
EFT's philosophy and general theory
The guiding therapeutic principles of EFT
How to practice basic emotion-focused techniques and interventions
Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD Treatment
This two-hour presentation on Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) introduces participants to the 12-session format of this empirically supported treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. The theoretical framework of CPT be reviewed and key concepts of CPT will be defined. Participants will engage in experiential exercises to contextualize and practice CPT techniques. 10 SPACES AVAILABLE.
Read MoreClinician, please join Mind Therapy Clinic staff and Patricia Zurita Oña, PsyD for ACT for Emotion Regulation training event.
This training introduces clinicians to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and will provide a brief history of this powerful approach, ACT's goals and components and experiential activities.
FREE with no CEs. $25 for 2 CEs. Tea and light snacks will be offered.
Read MorePlease join Mind Therapy Clinic's staff at our April 4 training with Dr. Hassert.
This training will focus on updates made to the DSM-5. We will cover how the DSM-5 is organized by familiarizing ourselves with the overall layout and assessment measures. We will use an applied model of learning in which case vignettes will be presented to better understand common DSM-5 criteria and rule out diagnoses. Practical diagnostic tools to use within a standard clinical setting will be reviewed, as will the importance of accurate diagnoses and the implications that making diagnoses have on our clinical practice and clients' lives
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