Mindfulness in Psychotherapy

Mindfulness is finding its way more and more into the field of psychotherapy, and with positive effects on those who practice it. It is helpful in reducing everything from anxiety, to impulsivity, to stress and chronic pain. Could radical acceptance and compassionate awareness be the key to ease suffering and promote change? Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; Dialectical Behavior Therapy; and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction are some of the approaches that incorporate mindfulness at their core. Check out this May 2008 New York Times article by Benedict Carey.

CriticalThinkRx -- A Prescription for Critical Thinking About Psychotropic Medications

Critical Think Rx

CriticalThinkRx, a FREE web-based resource on psychotropic medications, is now available to the world. The project, which is research-based and publicly funded, grew out of public concerns about the increasing use of psychiatric medications (that have serious adverse health effects) in children and adolescents, the escalating costs to taxpayers (through public health insurance) to pay for these prescriptions, and the undue influence of the pharmaceutical industry on drug information (as well as increasingly exposed deceptive and often illegal marketing practices). Key conclusion: There is little or no research evidence supporting safety and efficacy of these drugs in children, and ample evidence of the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions to treat childhood problems. Let's challenge the pharmaceutical industry--health insurance cartel and advocate for the use of psychosocial interventions. Let drugs be an intervention of last, not first, resort.

The curriculum was developed over the last 18 months after systematic research literature searches of databases in medicine, pharmacology, psychology and social work. More than 1,000 abstracts and articles were reviewed for relevance and accuracy, and 600 articles were further summarized and synthesized into the first draft of the web-based modules. These were further reviewed and edited by independent consultants in counseling, law, psychology and social work. The information was produced as an 8-module, web-based course with Flash videos, PDF courses materials, learning guides with questions for practice, supervision and administration, and additional supporting materials such as medication adverse effect monitoring checklist, guidelines for Court affidavits, and more. Take advantage of CriticalThinkRx for your free professional development and training purposes. CEUs will be offered soon for counselors, psychologists adn social workers, and possibly select health professionals. Check out the website at www.CriticalThinkRx.org and let me know what you think. Enjoy the fruit of my labor!

Reported this week: 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. suffer abuse

The Centers for Disease Control reported this week that 1 in 50 infants suffer non-fatal abuse and neglect, 30% of them before they are a week old. That means 2% of all babies have the cards stacked against them at the starting gate. The researchers counted more than 91,000 infant victims of abuse and neglect from October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2006. And these were verified cases. Clearly many more may not have been reported. Federal officials define neglect as a failure to meet a child’s basic needs including housing, clothing, feeding and access to medical care. Studies show that poverty (lack of access to basic needs) and early neglect or abuse are a high predictor for later problems in life, both in physical and mental health. New understandings in neuroscience explain how brain development is adversely affected by lack of nurturing by a caring, protective adult. These children grow up to have trouble modulating their em0tions, concentrating and paying attention, and forming lasting bonds with others. We must raise awareness to end social disparities and the abuse of children if we are to call ourselves "human".

Embodiment as Path to God

Our bodies, long vilified by traditional religions and yes, even science, is taking a renewed place of importance in the scheme of our evolution. Candace Pert is one of the pioneers in this field of thought, as a scientist who long has preached that "molecules of emotion" reside in our bodies, not our minds.

More recently, she has written a book that brings God into this sensory picture ("How to Feel G(o)oD"), and published CDs titled "Your Body IS Your Subconscious Mind."

Here is what she has to say about consciousness, choice and free will, and the infused power we own to create our reality:

"If mind, and its emanation 'consciousness', suffuse the body, and in fact extend beyond it, we may consider the role of our personal choices in the creation of our reality for it is the physicists we have informed us of the primacy of the observer. I don’t see that this leads to a “reduced”, scientifically verified, “objective” reality. Thought, and the emotions, are co-created, in a process that uniquely defines our bodyminds, and in fact our reality. And as all our consciousnesses intermingle, we, at least the sentient among us, are continually co-creating our reality, our evolutions, and our destinies. This is the fundamental free choice we are called upon to exercise. And as information seems to be transduced in 'non-local', ways, that is not bounded by space and time, 'creation' seems instantaneous."

Pretty heady stuff! I do believe that when my mind says one thing, and the body is telling me another, the body is the truest outpicturing of my subconscious state. Have you ever had someone tell you they are not angry, and yet you are seeing anger reflected in every feature and gesture in their body? Or how about fear? Are you trying to convince yourself fear is not real, and yet your body is clenched and ready to react to some unexpected threat? We must listen, and work with those trapped energies in order to more deeply align the conscious and subconscious.

Peace is Not the Answer?

Andrew Cohen challenges seekers of what he calls "21st century evolutionary enlightenment" to transcend our narcissism, our "relentless self-concern" and our "ambivalence and restlessness" and take responsibility for the challenges inherent in human existence, to participate in the life process in a deeper and more authentic way. He is surprised, he says, that spiritual seekers are still seeking for peace as the ultimate goal. He sees that as seeking an escape, a way out.

He is particularly surprised that in the developed nations, where unprecedented wealth, education and personal freedom abound, people are seeking peace -- "the ultimate relief and release from the unrelenting grind of day-to-day existence." So he challenges us to consider that perhaps suffering, at the existential level, "has been an integral part of the developmental process from the beginning."

As long as peace (or release, escape, a way out) is all we seek to achieve spiritually, we are missing the point, he asserts in his editorial in the Spring issue of What is Englightenment magazine, "Peace is Not the Answer." He even goes on to underscore the fact that, indeed, we won't be of much good to the intelligence that created us.

"In order to be truly available to the energy and intelligence that created the universe, we do have to transcend our angst-ridden separate selfs. But the motive for doing so is not so we can abide in a state of peace and freedom beyond the process. Our motive is to become passionate egoless vehicles for ongoing evolution."

Do you want "peace" today, or do you want an egoless existence that is fully-engaged with others and with Life itself?

Welcome to this Blog

This blog will be dedicated to an exploration of the evolution of human consciousness. We stand on the cusp of a new era, at a crossroads that will lead us in one of two directions: either to the destruction of civilization as we know it, or firmly on a path to conscious evolution as a unified species. Change is happening. It is inevitable. The question is -- will we be "victims" of that change, or take full responsibility for the direction that change will take?

I have been asking myself these questions for years now:

• what does it mean to be (fully) human?
• what is our relationship to the divine?
  
• what is "free will"? is there truly such a thing?
  
• are we responsible for what we have created?
• can we CHANGE what we have created and CREATE a new world?
• do I have a "conscious choice"?and what does that mean?
  
• am I responsible for alleviating suffering and creating "peace on earth"?

Of course, there are no easy answers. Philosophers, mystics and great thinkers have been attempting to answer these questions for millennia. I don't pretend to be one of them. What I want to do is use this forum to explore these ideas and post the writings of others on this topic.

I do believe in freedom of choice, personal responsibility and accountability, and the embodiment of divine ideas in our human experience. If every one of us can move beyond our personal "dramas" (the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves) and creates an intention to see the bigger picture, we have the capacity to "change the world."

A year ago I saw the picture posted above in my local newspaper. Antonio was three-years-old and starving to death in rural Guatemala. I decided that for as long as there were people suffering to that degree in this world, I had a responsibility to at least CARE. Otherwise, if I could turn my face and ignore the pain of a starving child, I was less than human. I recognize that there are other forms of "starvation" that also need notice. There are lonely and isolated people everywhere "starving" for attention, affection, and connection.

In fact, if there is something we as humans are "craving" more than ever is a sense of connectedness, to ourselves, to our families, to our communities, to physical nature and to the transcendent. We know, at the deepest levels of existence, that "things" will not fulfill that need. We are running on empty. That is the real "fuel crisis." I am asked to pay attention, and respond to that crisis.

I will try to post something each day, and quote both ancient and modern mystics who can say it better than I can. I hope you'll also contribute your thoughts.