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February 2, 2012

February Newsletter

Filed under: Newsletter — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Kim Scott @ 10:14 am

In our February Newsletter learn about our upcoming CISM Fusion course. This course fuses an online/home study component with a live, hands-on workshop allowing the participants to practice the critical incident stress management skills they have learned.

In this month’s newsletter you will also find an interesting articles on the effect of placebo’s, the art of Tai Chi, and the Dementia Reality Tour.

As always, our newsletter offers discounts to our courses and links to new books in the field of Psychology.

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January 5, 2012

January 2012 Newsletter

Filed under: Newsletter — Tags: — Kim Scott @ 6:54 am

January’s Newsletter introduces our new Psychopharmacology CE course. We also review an article on the Psychology of Dictatorship, 5 ways to make New Years Resolutions stick, and an inspirational interview by the creator of One Hello World. Enjoy and register on our site to join our mailing list and to view a free Migraine Headache Cure video, showing techniques you can use with your clients.

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December 23, 2011

Juvenile Sexual Behavior Problems by Dr. Kathy Seifert

Filed under: Teens — Tags: — Kim Scott @ 7:00 am

Dr. Kathy Seifert, author of the PCES course, How Children Become Violent, had an interesting article in her December newsletter on Juvenile Sexual Behavior Problems. She explains:

“Sexual behavior problems and sexual offenses are a growing concern for many. In order to address this problem, we must first understand it. To this end, the characteristics of youth with sexual behavior problems were examined. They were compared to a group of youth without sexual behavior problems.

Nine hundred five youth were in a sample used to study sexual behavior problems. This sample contained 737 (81 percent) youth with no histories of sexual behavior problems and 168 (19 percent) who have sexually assaulted others. It was determined that several characteristics were more common among youth with sexual behavior problems than those that did not have sexual behavior problems. These included a history of other behavior problems such as school behavior problems, a history of assaultive behavior, delinquency, and learning problems.

Here are some characteristics of the families of the group of young people with sexual behavior problems:

69 percent had family violence
74 percent had parental discipline that was too lax, too harsh, or inconsistent
63 percent of families with low warmth and high conflict
67 percent of parents had histories of psychiatric or substance abuse problems
For 71 percent of families, one or both parents were dead or uninvolved in the child”s life

Characteristics of the youth included:

76 percent had psychiatric problems
70 percent experienced childhood trauma
83 percent had behavior problems before the age of 13
89 percent were impulsive
83 percent had anger control problems
87 percent had poor problem solving
75 percent had poor social skills

With this set of characteristics, we can determine appropriate treatment strategies for this population. The reality is that the rate of chronic sexual behavior problems for this group is really quite low–10 to 14%, and treatment is effective in lowering that rate as well. Once a clinician determines the risk level, it is easier to determine the type and intensity of treatment needed. Not all youth need the same level or type of treatment. Some may need sex education and work on boundaries and/or trauma, while others may need a more significant course of treatment specifically related to sexual behavior problems and provided by someone trained in this work. It is important to have someone specifically trained in this work to do the therapy. It is a specialty and is different from traditional therapy in several ways. Prepubescent youth with sexual behavior problems need to be evaluated to see if they have been victimized as well. If they have, treatment sh ould be provided.

Sincerely,

Dr. Kathy
Kathy@DrKathySeifert.com
DrKathySeifert.com

“The measure of our society is how well we take care of our children.”

Share these ideas with others. They may get their own free subscription by going to www.DrKathySeifert.com . ”

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December 22, 2011

Demystifying Trauma: Sharing Pathways to Healing and Wellness

Filed under: USEFUL RESOURCES AND LINKS — Tags: — Kim Scott @ 5:55 am

The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration Center for Mental Health Service (SAMHSA) has posted an interesting 90-minute webinar entitled Demystifying Trauma: Sharing Pathways to Healing and Wellness. The presenters discuss the universality of trauma and the healing impact of telling ones’ story.

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December 3, 2011

December Newsletter

Filed under: Newsletter — Kim Scott @ 4:28 am

In our December Newsletter we are featuring an excellent course on working with couples. This course is the Brief Relationship Workup by Dr. Brainerd. While earning 2 CE credits, you will learn about a new tool you can use to help your couples understand their relationship dynamics.

In our What’s New In the News section read about a new study on the multigenerational effects of cocaine use, and more.

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November 12, 2011

Astrological Psychology

Filed under: Astrological Psychology — Tags: — Kim Scott @ 8:57 am

Mention the word “astrology” and skeptics go into an epileptic fit. The idea that someone’s personality could be imprinted at birth according to the position of the sun, moon and planets has long been derided as “quackery” by the so-called “scientific” community which resists any notion based on holistic connections between individuals and the cosmos.

According to the conventional view, your genes and your parenting determine your personality, and the position of planet Earth at the time of your birth has nothing to do with it.

Then again, conventional scientists don’t believe the position of the moon has anything to do with life on Earth, either. They dismiss the wisdom that farmers have known for ages — that planting seeds or transplanting living plants in harmony with the moon cycles results in higher crop yields. Even the seeds inside humans are strongly influenced by the moon, as menstruation cycles and moon cycles are closely synchronized (28 days, roughly).

Researchers demonstrate scientific principle of astrology.

Skeptics must be further bewildered by the new research published in Nature Neuroscience and conducted at Vanderbilt University which unintentionally provides scientific support for the fundamental principle of astrology — namely, that the position of the planets at your time of birth influences your personality.

In this study, not only did the birth month impact personality; it also resulted in measurable functional changes in the brain.

This study, conducted on mice, showed that mice born in the winter showed a “consistent slowing” of their daytime activity. They were also more susceptible to symptoms that we might call “Seasonal Affective Disorder.”

The study was carried out by Professor of Biological Sciences Douglas McMahon, graduate student Chris Ciarleglio, post-doctoral fellow Karen Gamble and two additional undergraduate students, none of whom believe in astrology, apparently. They do, of course, believe in science, which is why all their study findings have been draped in the language of science even though the findings are essentially supporting principles of astrology.

“What is particularly striking about our results is the fact that the imprinting affects both the animal’s behavior and the cycling of the neurons in the master biological clock in their brains,” said Ciarleglio. This is one of the core principles of astrology: That the position of the planets at the time of your birth (which might be called the “season” of your birth) can actually result in changes in your brain physiology which impact lifelong behavior.

Once again, such an idea sounds preposterous to the scientifically trained, unless of course they discover it for themselves, at which point it’s all suddenly very “scientific.” Instead of calling it “astrology,” they’re now referring to it as “seasonal biology.”

How to discredit real science

It all reminds me of the discovery of cold fusion in 1989 by Fleishmann and Pons, who were widely ridiculed by the arrogant hot fusion researchers who tried to destroy the credibility (and careers) of cold fusion researchers (http://www.naturalnews.com/025925_c…). After the very idea of “cold fusion” was attacked and demolished by these arrogant scientists, it soon returned under a new name: Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR).

LENR has now been verified as true by none other than the U.S. Navy — along with hundreds of other researchers around the world (see link above). And yet, even today, the conventional scientific community still insists cold fusion doesn’t exist and cold fusion researchers are frauds.

Just as there is a solid scientific basis for LENR, there is a scientific basis for astrology, too. The relationship between the Earth, Moon and Sun naturally alter light exposure, temperature, gravitational pull and other conditions that may be sensed by living organisms. To believe in astrology, all that’s really required is to grasp the basic concepts of the interrelationships between all living things. Does the position of the sun or moon influence life on Earth? Of course it does: Life as we know it wouldn’t even exist without the moon tugging on Earth and preventing its rotational axis from shifting around to the point where radical changes in seasonal temperatures would make life far more challenging. (The moon, in other words, is one of the key “stabilizers” of life on planet Earth because it tends to stabilize the seasons and keep the Earth on a steady rotational plane.)

None of this, of course, means that the position of Saturn today is going to make you win the lottery or find a new love. That’s the tabloid version of astrology, not real astrology.

Don’t confuse tabloid astrology with real astrology

Even astronomy has its tabloid versions, too, which are entirely non-scientific. For example, every model of our solar system that I’ve ever seen is a wildly inaccurate tabloid version of reality, with planet sizes ridiculously exaggerated and planet distances not depicted to scale. These silly, non-scientific solar system models imprint a kind of solar system mythology into the minds of schoolchildren and even school teachers. Virtually no one outside the communities of astrophysics and astronomy has any real grasp of the enormity of not merely our solar system, but of our galaxy and the space between neighboring galaxies.

To show a giant sun the size of a basketball, with a depiction of the Earth as a marble-sized planet three inches away is the astronomical equivalent of a gimmicky horoscope claiming you’re going to win the lottery today because you were born under the sign of Pisces. Both are fictions. And both are an insult to real science.

In fact, even the whole idea that an “electron” is a piece of physical matter, made up of other “particles” is an insult to real science. The sobering truth of the matter is that “particle physics” doesn’t have much to do with actual particles at all. It’s all about energies that might, on occasion, vibrate in just the right way so that they momentarily appear to take on the illusion of a particle as measured by our observers — observers who inevitably alter the outcome of the entire experiment, by the way, once again proving the interrelated nature of things in our universe, including observer and experiment.

The horoscope predictions in the Sunday paper — as well as much of the hilarious mythology found in the modern description of an atom — are both simplified, comic-book versions of a larger truth — the truth that we live in a holistic universe where every bit of physical matter, every bit of energy and every conscious mind impacts the rest of the universe in subtle ways. There is no such thing as an individual who is isolated from the cosmos, because we are of the cosmos and we exist as the physical manifestations of energies that, for our lifetimes, are momentarily organized as beings.

We are made of star stuff, says Carl Sagan. He he’s right: We are not only made of star stuff, we are influenced by that stuff, too. And finally, modern science is beginning to catch up to this greater truth that astrologers have known since the dawn of human existence on our tiny planet.

http://naturalnews.com/030698_astrology_scientific_basis.html – NaturalNews.com

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November 4, 2011

November 2011 Newsletter

Filed under: ADHD,News Articles,Newsletter — Kim Scott @ 11:11 am

In November’s Newsletter receive discounts on our new Substance Abuse classes. Check out our monthly What’s New In The News column and join the discussion on new ADHD guidelines.

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October 26, 2011

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Used Successfully in Treating Clients with Severe Schizophrenia

Filed under: News — Tags: , — Kim Scott @ 6:43 pm

A hopeful new study was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry showing that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be effective in treating clients who have been diagnosed with server Schizophrenia. The Huffington Post summarized these findings. What has your experience shown in working with schizophrenic clients?

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October 6, 2011

October 2011 Newsletter

Filed under: Newsletter — Kim Scott @ 2:42 pm

Enjoy our October Newsletter and learn about the 8 new classes we have added, receive discounts, and see what’s new in psychology in the news.

We are looking for therapists to submit courses to add to the PCES library. The author receives 30% of all course revenue.

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August 18, 2011

Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?

Filed under: News — Kim Scott @ 5:50 am

Excellent New York Times article “Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?” by John Tierney discusses how we become fatigued by making numerous decisions. As the fatigue takes over people tend to resort to either making reckless or impulsive decisions or making no decision at all.

Tip: If you need to ask for something that will require decision-making, do it in the morning before the person has hit their decision making wall.

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