Excerpt from http://www.brenebrown.com/welcome

Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past ten years studying vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame. Brené spent the first five years of her decade-long study focusing on shame and empathy, and is now using that work to explore a concept that she calls Wholeheartedness. She poses the questions:
How do we learn to embrace our vulnerabilities and imperfections so that we can engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness? How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to recognize that we are enough – that we are worthy of love, belonging, and joy?

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BPD Expert Dr. Marsha Linehan at the National Institute of Mental Health

 Dr. Marsha Linehan from University of Washington, the pioneer of Dialectic Behavioural Therapy, designed for suicidal people with Borderline Personality Disorder, talks about her research and challenges with treating Borderline Personality Disorder.

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A great article about effectiveness of Yoga Practice on our mood.  The interesting chemical changes practice of yoga stimulates our brain to handle anxiety and stress better. Is is linked to have the same chemical effects as antidepressants.

Yoga's Ability To Improve Mood And Lessen Anxiety Is Linked To Increased Levels Of A Critical Brain Chemical

< Main Category: Complementary Medicine / Alternative Medicine
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry;  Anxiety / Stress
Article Date: 15 Nov 2010 - 0:00 PST


Yoga has a greater positive effect on a person's mood and anxiety level than walking and other forms of exercise, which may be due to higher levels of the brain chemical GABA according to an article in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online.

Yoga has been shown to increase the level of gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, a chemical in the brain that helps to regulate nerve activity. GABA activity is reduced in people with mood and anxiety disorders, and drugs that increase GABA activity are commonly prescribed to improve mood and decrease anxiety.

Tying all of these observations together, the study by Chris Streeter, MD, from Boston University School of Medicine (Massachusetts) and colleagues demonstrates that increased GABA levels measured after a session of yoga postures are associated with improved mood and decreased anxiety. Their findings establish a new link between yoga, higher levels of GABA in the thalamus, and improvements in mood and anxiety based on psychological assessments. The authors suggest that the practice of yoga stimulates specific brain areas, thereby giving rise to changes in endogenous antidepressant neurotransmitters such as GABA.

"This is important work that establishes some objective bases for the effects that highly trained practitioners of yoga therapy throughout the world see on a daily basis. What is important now is that these findings are further investigated in long-term studies to establish just how sustainable such changes can be in the search for safe non-drug treatments for depression," says Kim A. Jobst, MA, DM, MRCP, MFHom, DipAc, Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

Source:
Vicki Cohn
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News



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 Here is an article that examines what makes us happier in life.  How a wondering mind isn't always helpful.

We Are Most Happy When Making Love, Exercising Or Chatting, And Least Happy When Our Mind Wanders
from Anxiety / Stress News From Medical News Today
11 Nov 2010 

We are typically unhappy when our mind wanders, which apparently happens during 46.9% of our waking hours, and happiest when lovemaking, doing exercise or chatting to people, Harvard University researchers revealed in an article published today in the journal Science. While resting, using a home computer or working we tend to be least happy, the authors wrote. We are the only animals on this planet that spend a great deal of time thinking about stuff that is not occurring around us. We think about past events, potential occurrences in the future, or things that are not likely ever to happen. Some might say mind-wandering is our brain's default mode.

Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert used an iPhone Web app to collect 250,000 data points on people's feelings, thoughts and activities as they went about their daily lives.

The authors wrote:

"A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost."

The researchers randomly contacted 2,250 participants aged between 18 and 88 at intervals to find out their levels of happiness, exactly what they were up to at that moment, and whether they were focused on their activity at the time or something else that was either unpleasant, neutral or pleasant. The participants came from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds and occupations. 74% of them were Americans.

The iPhone app gave them 22 activities to chose from, such as watching TV, doing exercise, eating or shopping. The investigators found that people on average spend 46.9% of their time wandering. In fact, even during activities, with the exception of lovemaking, people's minds wandered for at least 30% of the time. It appears that making love really focuses the mind.

Killingsworth, who is doing a PhD in psychology at Harvard, said:

"Mind-wandering appears ubiquitous across all activities. This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the nonpresent. Mind-wandering is an excellent predictor of people's happiness. In fact, how often our minds leave the present and where they tend to go is a better predictor of our happiness than the activities in which we are engaged."

Our mind-wandering status accounts for approximately 10.8% of our happiness while any specific activity we are doing accounts for just 4.6%, the researchers estimated. They also concluded, via time-lag analyses, that mind-wandering caused unhappiness, rather than being a consequence of it.

They wrote:

"Many philosophical and religious traditions teach that happiness is to be found by living in the moment, and practitioners are trained to resist mind wandering and to 'be here now. These traditions suggest that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind."

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A book: Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain by Elio Frattaroli

http://psychotherapy.tumblr.com/post/2405032123/just-finished-this-last-night-highly-recommended

Welcome to my Blog.

I designed my website www.veraakulov.com to introduce you to my practice as a psychotherapist. I hope as you browse my website you will get a sense of what I’m like as a psychotherapist, and would be interested to work with me.

 

My preparation in counseling includes both a Masters and Bachelors Degree in Psychology from Northwest University. My Masters Degree was in cross-cultural counseling psychology. Focusing on how our cultural heritage informs our current behavior, values, beliefs, and customs. I integrate my training as a cross-cultural counselor and also use psychodynamic theory to help inform my understanding and treatment of my patients. Click here to learn more about my intercultural focus.

In psychotherapy with me I will put my prejudice, biases, and personal issues aside and become an receiver of your story. Your job is to talk about what’s on your mind and speak as freely and honestly as you can. My job is to listen carefully; paying attention to the emotional side of things, so that we can understand better and resolve what might be hurting. Goals of this type of therapy are to increase insight, expand self-awareness, deepen emotional experience and have variety of intimate connections.

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