Blog posts with the tag "Staff Perspective"

Staff Perspective: Musing About Grief

By Elizabeth Parins  on 27.01.2016 1:50 pm
Elizabeth Parins, Psy.D.

As we move through life, we accumulate experiences with death and grief, sometimes other’s grief and sometimes our own.  In 2014, my twin boys died the day they were born.  Their death propelled me into my own very personal experience of grief, but also heightened my awareness of other’s experiences with grief.   As I began searching for topics for this blog entry I kept coming back to grief.

Staff Perspective: Decreasing Risk Aversion in Service Members Who Have Deployed

By Anthony McCormick  on 20.01.2016 1:22 pm

If you spend any time talking candidly with a Veteran or active duty Service member who has deployed during recent military campaigns, you will shortly determine that they are generally hypervigilant and risk averse.  As a clinical psychologist working with Service members and Veterans who have deployed in support of OIF, OEF, etc., I continue to realize anecdotal interventions to help address and decrease the negative impact and/or influence of disruptive post-deployment adjustment issues resulting from deployment experiences (to include trauma experiences).  This blog entry will address “risk aversion” (i.e., the post-deployed service member’s or veteran’s tendency to avoid things that, from their perspective, might put their safety or security at risk such as being in crowds, not having control of a situation, going places without plan, etc…).  This “protective” avoidance is extended to the Service member or Veteran’s family and/or loved ones and consequently, has a significant impact on their lives as well. 

Staff Perspective: Evidence-Based Care: Why Are Providers So Resistant to Treatments We Don’t Know?

By Debra Nofziger  on 13.01.2016 10:52 am
Debra Nofziger, Psy.D.

While every provider may experience some initial discomfort with implementing an unfamiliar treatment, I am often surprised with how resistant many mental health providers are toward learning and implementing evidence-based treatments.  An article on this topic by Scott Lilienfeld and colleagues demonstrates this resistance, reasons for it, and potential ways to work through it.  I believe providers on all sides of this issue should read this article as a way to both consider another perspective and to clarify their own opinions.

Staff Perspective: Symptom Exacerbation When Using Evidence-Based Psychotherapies

By Andrew Santanello  on 06.01.2016 1:44 pm

When I was starting out with practicing EBPs, there was a part of me that was a little frightened by the prospect of guiding my clients toward their worst fears, and I was more than a little concerned that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate seeing them in distress. I had visions of my clients “falling apart”. Luckily, the training and supervision I received (and a decision to have faith in the data) helped me. I’ve gone on to learn, practice, and teach EBPs for a variety of issues, including both Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for PTSD.

Staff Perspective: Old Wounds, New Insight - Helping our Vietnam Veterans Heal Now

By Kimberly Copeland  on 30.12.2015 12:20 pm

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Vietnam War. Although more than 40 years has passed since the end of that war, it has become evident that long-term psychological repercussions still linger, impacting both those who served and the nation that sent them. Collectively, the experiences of those who fought have touched our country and been well documented in postwar art, literature and film, yet questions still remain about the specific impact of that war on the individual warrior today.

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