When a person develops sufficiently powerful narratives about himself or the world, information that contradicts such narratives gets ignored while information that supports them acquires additional weight. If those narratives are negative enough, they can lead to psychological distress. Put simply, narrative therapists believe that the human mind not only interprets reality but also constructs it.

If a person is an adult who consistently struggles to maintain relationships across family, social, and professional life, there is likely something wrong. Or, more to the point, something he or she is doing that makes the relationships difficult to sustain. Let’s explore the personality traits and behaviors that commonly lead to the collapse of relationships.

Autism is, arguably, one of the most overdiagnosed mental health conditions in America today. About 90% of the time I come across a client with this diagnosis, it is incorrect. I do have a few ideas and opinions about why this is happening. Some of them may appear controversial, but we seem to be at a point now where a long, hard look at what’s going on with autism is warranted.

DBT is developed for people who engage in harmful or dangerous behavior directed at themselves or others. The goal of DBT is to help the client come to terms with his or her painful emotions and understand that they will pass. DBT’s main principle is change through acceptance. The contradictory nature of this principle is reflected in DBT’s adoption of the term dialectical as part of its name.

We are all mortal and are aware of this fact. We are all unique and therefore can never be completely understood by others. We are not beholden to our natural drives and have to search for meaning beyond the biological imperatives of survival and procreation. Finally, life presents us with the need to make fateful decisions that come at a steep cost and whose consequences cannot be fully anticipated. Every cognitively mature person will have to deal with the existential problems listed above in one of three ways: avoid them, outsource them, or confront them.

Despite being one of the most popular forms of therapy, psychodynamic therapy is often somewhat misunderstood by its practitioners and their clients. Because the psychodynamic tradition was created by Sigmund Freud, psychodynamic therapy is often erroneously conflated with psychoanalysis. Also, the name itself can be misleading to many people due to its Greek roots. Let’s unpack it step-by-step.

CBT is based on the idea that maladaptive thought patterns lead to maladaptive emotions and behaviors, which, in turn, cause dysfunction in a person's life. This whole cognitive machine (the “C” in CBT) leads people to feel and behave (the “B”) a certain way. The role of therapy (the “T”), then, is to educate the client about the existence of said cognitive machine and help him or her reprogram it.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) straddles the worlds of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and coaching. Just like CBT, SFBT is an evidence-based psychotherapeutic modality, which means there is authoritative research confirming its efficacy. When deployed without a specialized license, disconnected from a specific mental-health diagnosis, and not paid for via insurance, SFBT, in effect, becomes coaching.