Where is God in the suffering of a mentally ill person? What happens to the soul when the mind is ill? How are Christians to respond to mental illness? In this brave and compassionate book, theologian and priest Kathryn Greene-McCreight confronts these difficult questions raised by her own mental illness--bipolar disorder. With brutal honesty, she tackles often avoided topics such as suicide, mental hospitals, and electroconvulsive therapy. Greene-McCreight offers the reader everything from poignant and raw glimpses into the mind of a mentally ill person to practical and forthright advice for their friends, family, and clergy. The first edition has been recognized as one of the finest books on the subject. This thoroughly revised edition incorporates updated research and adds anecdotal and pastoral commentary. It also includes a new foreword by the current Archbishop of Canterbury and a new afterword by the author.

Autism is a rising epidemic that affects 1 in 68 children. When Jennifer Noonan's son was diagnosed in 2009, she refused to accept the conventional wisdom that autism was largely permanent, instead launching a relentless investigation into the very latest dietary, immunological, and metabolic research available. "I certainly had no reason to believe at that time that autism was treatable," she writes, "but somehow I decided, in my classically pigheaded way, that it would be." This spirited audacity gave her not only courage,and ultimately success,in the face of such a devastating diagnosis, but also a self-aware and darkly funny perspective on her own faults and struggles over the next six years.With equal parts defiance, tenacity, and wry humour, No Map to This Country details one family's journey through the modern autism epidemic, and the lengths to which a mother will go to heal her family. Neither a medical manual nor a heartwarming tale of growth, Noonan's ground-breaking yet profoundly relatable memoir seamlessly combines cutting-edge research with a gripping and unapologetic account of her family's fight for recovery.

Acclaimed for providing a flexible framework for individualized treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this empathic guide has now been revised and expanded with 50% new material. The authors show how the case formulation approach enables the practitioner to adapt CBT for clients with different trauma histories, co-occurring problems, and complicating life circumstances. Vivid clinical material illustrates the implementation of exposure therapy, cognitive restructuring, and supplemental interventions, with ample attention to overcoming common obstacles. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the book's 22 reproducible handouts in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. New to This Edition *Chapters on evidence-based practice and emotion regulation. *Significantly revised chapter on supplemental treatment tools, with new discussion of anger management. *Advances in theory and practice of exposure therapy. *Increased attention to multicultural issues in treatment. *Updated throughout with current treatment research and DSM-5 diagnostic changes.

Sexual obsessions are a common symptom of OCD, but addressing them in treatment is uniquely challenging due to feelings of shame, prior misdiagnosis, and the covert nature of ritualizing behaviors. These complicating factors make it difficult for clients to disclose their symptoms and for clinicians to know how to approach treatment. Sexual Obsessions in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder provides clinicians with the information and guidance needed to help clients experiencing unwanted and intrusive thoughts of a sexual nature. Opening with background information on sexual obsessions and OCD, including assessment and differential diagnosis, Williams and Wetterneck then offer a complete, step-by-step manual describing treatment using a combination of empirically-supported CBT strategies, such as exposure and response prevention, cognitive therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy, as well as useful mindfulness techniques. Accompanying these practical, step-by-step instructions are educational handouts and diagrams for clients designed to promote learning. The book concludes with a discussion of relationship issues that commonly result from sexually-themed OCD, and how therapists can tackle these problems. Sexual Obsessions in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is an essential resource for clinicians who treat OCD, as well as students and trainees from across the mental health professions.

The leading clinical reference work in the field--now significantly revised with 85% new material--this handbook gives practitioners and students a comprehensive understanding of the causes, consequences, and management of adult and childhood obesity. In concise, extensively referenced chapters from preeminent authorities, the Handbook presents foundational knowledge and reviews evidence-based psychosocial and lifestyle interventions as well as pharmacological and surgical treatments. It provides guidelines for conducting psychosocial and medical assessments and for developing individualized treatment plans. The effects of obesity--and of weight loss--on physical and psychological well-being are reviewed, as are strategies for helping patients maintain their weight loss. New to This Edition *Many new authors and topics; extensively revised and expanded with over 15 years of research and clinical advances, including breakthroughs in understanding the biological regulation of appetite and body weight. *Section on contributors to obesity, with new chapters on food choices, physical activity, sleep, and psychosocial and environmental factors. *Chapters on novel treatments for adults--acceptance and commitment therapy, motivational interviewing, digitally based interventions, behavioral economics, community-based programs, and nonsurgical devices. *Chapters on novel treatments for children and adolescents--school-based preventive interventions, family-based behavioral weight loss treatment, and bariatric surgery. *Chapters on the gut microbiome, the emerging field of obesity medicine, reimbursement for weight loss therapies, and managing co-occurring eating disorders and obesity.

Practical expert guidance on embitterment disorders Learn about the evidence-base of PTED and wisdom therapy Teach clients skills to overcome embitterment Tips on social, legal, and medical apsects Includes printable handouts A companion book for clients is available Feelings of embitterment and posttraumatic embitterment disorder are common in our society and result from reactions to injustices, humiliation, and breaches of trust. They can lead to significant suffering in those affected and to those around them although the clients may be otherwise psychopathologically inconspicuous. The aggressiveness of this client group, as well as their rejection of help, among other factors, is challenging for practitioners and makes treatment complex. Help is at hand with this practical evidence-based guide that provides models for the development and continuation of such embitterment states as well as outlines how to diagnose embitterment disorder. The reader is guided through the state-of-the-art treatment approaches for embitterment disorder: cognitive behavior therapy with wisdom strategies. Teach your clients how to process their internalized feelings of hurt and humiliation so that they can create the conditions to reconcile themselves with the events that triggered these difficult and long-lasting states. The book is full of practice-oriented tips to help clients actively gain closure with the past and enable a new orientation towards the future. One method to reach this goal is the reevaluation of the critical events and their consequences. Wisdom therapy provides various tools for this, and these techniques are brought to life with numerous case vignettes. The author also provides tips on the social, medical, and legal aspects associated with this disorder, for example, questions of work incapacity and criminal responsibility. Helpful information for clients is provided in the accompanying book, How to Overcome Embitterment With Wisdom.

This book presents a new paradigm for distinguishing psychotic and mystical religious experiences. In order to explore how Presbyterian pastors differentiate such events, Susan L. DeHoff draws from Reformed theology, psychological theory, and robust qualitative research. Following a conversation among multidisciplinary voices, she presents a new paradigm considering the similarities, differences, and possible overlap of psychotic and mystical religious experiences.

I Am Me is a courageous story offered as a gift of hope, inspiration, and love to anyone whose life is affected by an autism spectrum diagnosis-a candid and moving personal narrative about raising a child with the devastating diagnosis. One out of 68 children today are diagnosed with autism. One of those happens to be Marlene Ringler's son. Yesterday's autistic child is today's autistic adult. As mothers, women worry about just what will happen to their child when they are no longer around to provide guidance and support. Who will look after him? Who will care? Who will love my son? Marlene Ringler directly addresses those very human questions as she pays special attention to research findings and current investigations into the spectrum disorder. Her journey provides a firsthand look at the highs and lows of raising a son with this diagnosis, leading towards a greater understanding of how recognition of an autistic diagnosis can be viewed as part of our human condition. I Am Me is a straightforward, honest, and touching story of how a family copes when one member is on the spectrum. It is a journey told through the prism of a mother who offers hope, belief, and conviction that the life of a child with autism can and should be fulfilling and rewarding.

"[A] fascinating read... Contrary to what the title might suggest, this is an upbeat exploration of suicide with a positive message." --Jeanine Connor, Therapy Today, December, 2018 This thought-provoking volume offers a distinctly human evolutionary analysis of a distinctly human phenomenon: suicide. Its 'pain and brain' model posits animal adaptations as the motivator for suicidal escape, and specific human cognitive adaptations as supplying the means , while also providing a plausible explanation for why only a relatively small number of humans actually take their own lives. The author hypothesizes two types of anti-suicide responses, active and reactive mechanisms prompted by the brain as suicide deterrents. Proposed as well is the intriguing prospect that mental disorders such as depression and addiction, long associated with suicidality, may serve as survival measures. Among the topics covered: * Suicide as an evolutionary puzzle. * The protection against suicide afforded to animals and young children. * Suicide as a by-product of pain and human cognition. * Why psychodynamic defenses regulate the experiencing of painful events. * Links between suicidality and positive psychology. * The anti-suicide role of spiritual and religious belief. In raising and considering key questions regarding this most controversial act, The Evolution of Suicide will appeal to researchers across a range of behavioral science disciplines. At the same time, the book's implications for clinical intervention and prevention will make it useful among mental health professionals and those involved with mental health policy.

This open access book offers an exploration of delusions-unusual beliefs that can significantly disrupt people's lives. Experts from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, including lived experience, clinical psychiatry, philosophy, clinical psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, discuss how delusions emerge, why it is so difficult to give them up, what their effects are, how they are managed, and what we can do to reduce the stigma associated with them. Taken as a whole, the book proposes that there is continuity between delusions and everyday beliefs. It is essential reading for researchers working on delusions and mental health more generally, and will also appeal to anybody who wants to gain a better understanding of what happens when the way we experience and interpret the world is different from that of the people around us.