Two senses of “psychotherapy is political” are often conflated.  The first is the notion, popular lately, that psychotherapy either allows or demands political advocacy in the therapy room itself.  The other is recognition that political factors influence the nature and practice of psychotherapy.  It is a conceptual error to confuse the two, and a [...] The post Political advocacy and psychotherapy don’t mix first appeared on Reidbord's Reflections ..read more

In January 2021, I described my search for a HIPAA-compliant email provider for my practice, and reviewed several options. In the end I chose Hushmail for Healthcare. It was, and is, a good service: thoughtfully featured, reasonably priced (with minor changes since then), and fast support when needed. But the truth is, I didn’t [...] The post HIPAA-compliant email revisited first appeared on Reidbord's Reflections ..read more

Currently, therapy apps featuring a nonhuman “therapist” aim fairly low at best, and at worst willfully mislead the public.  However, the advent of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT-4 brings exciting potential for genuine depth psychotherapy delivered by AI — and many challenges and potential pitfalls as well.  Since “therapy” has no precise [...] The post Making an AI dynamic therapist first appeared on Reidbord's Reflections ..read more

When one of America’s most prominent psychiatrists expresses deep disdain for depth psychotherapy, especially when that criticism is misinformed and hopelessly outdated, it should concern all of us. Dr. Tom Insel directed the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) from 2002 to 2015. Formerly a psychiatric researcher “at the cellular level,” he studied medications [...] The post Dr. Tom Insel scorns traditional psychotherapy first appeared on Reidbord's Reflections ..read more

Is there more "presence" during online therapy, or in the office -- even while wearing masks? [...] The post “Being with” patients in the office and online first appeared on Reidbord's Reflections ..read more

What is a retronym?  Retronyms are adjectival qualifiers, like “acoustic” guitar and “snail” mail, that were previously unneeded — because all guitars were acoustic and all mail was slow.  We only added qualifiers when alternatives arose.  As these two examples illustrate, retronyms can be nearly neutral — the status and popularity of acoustic and [...] The post Retronyms, teletherapy, and implicit bias first appeared on Reidbord's Reflections ..read more

Hysteresis isn't hysteria, but it's irrational all the same. Why relaxed COVID guidelines make us hesitate. [...] The post COVID Hysteresis first appeared on Reidbord's Reflections ..read more

I finally returned to my office after a year and a month. Or more accurately, since I was in my office all along making video calls, it’s some of my patients who returned. Two weeks ago the CDC issued new guidelines: people vaccinated against COVID-19 can meet safely inside without masks. The guidelines appear [...] The post Returning to the office first appeared on Reidbord's Reflections ..read more

Quick, grab a weapon! Millions of alarmed Americans, and people the world over, grabbed the nearest bludgeon to fend off the Trump presidency. They reached for anything handy: street marches, sympathetic pundits, counter-tweets, progressive infotainment, social media. Unfortunately, most of these reactions only fed a vicious cycle of attack and counter-attack. For the relatively [...] The post Psychiatry and political discourse first appeared on Reidbord's Reflections ..read more

The problem In the months since the COVID-19 pandemic forced me to practice by video and phone, I’ve exchanged much more email with patients than I did before. Previously, I discouraged email from patients. For one thing, I knew it was an insecure channel, not “HIPAA-compliant.” It’s also somewhat less personal than a phone [...] The post HIPAA-compliant email: a review first appeared on Reidbord's Reflections ..read more