excerpt from Trigger Point Therapy for Low Back Pain

We’ve often tried to account for the almost total lack of attention myofascial trigger points receive in the medical field—despite the fact that every day we perform therapy that relieves chronic pain in the great majority of people coming to us.

We’ve had many patients who were scheduled for surgery but after being treated with trigger point elimination techniques, chose not to go through with surgery because their pain was gone. We’ve also treated people who had already undergone surgery. Some of them qualified for the diagnosis of failed back surgery syndrome. Although pain relief is more difficult in such cases, we are usually able to help. Additionally, general anesthetic and surgical procedures sometimes activate latent trigger points, so we often treat painful conditions caused or exacerbated by surgery.

by guest blogger Judith Siegel Ph.D., LCSW, author of Stop Overreacting

Too often, people believe that the best way to manage anger is to suppress it. I have worked with so many clients whose problems are directly linked to their need to distance from their ‘bad’ feelings. But is anger always bad? Research based on neuro-imaging suggests that anger is an emotional response that generates from the amygdala. Like other hard-wired emotions, anger is a response to stimuli that sets off a reaction in our minds and bodies. The most important question is not how to suppress it, but to understand how we process it. Working with beliefs about anger is helpful, but is only part of the solution. If childhood experiences with adult anger have programmed us to shut down, then it is almost impossible to access thoughts and beliefs in the presence of the emotional intensity and anxiety that anger produces.

A new approach to anger management is to focus on helping connect the dots. One line of dots runs from the left to the right hemisphere of the brain, creating a neural pathway between thoughts and feelings. Without that path, the triggers that have generated anger can not be comprehended, and the result is senseless rage or shutdown. Another set of dots that need to be connected runs between awareness of our physical selves and awareness of feelings. I have worked with so many people who, even in the middle of an explosive outburst, have no awareness that they are angry. Learning to measure the degree of anger that you feel at any given moment in time is a helpful exercise, for it is important to comprehend and accept that there is a full range of emotional experience that involve both mind and body.

excerpt from When Anger Hurts

1. First, and most importantly, STOP.

2. Watch what you say to yourself.

3. Act the opposite.

Laura J. Knoff, NC, discussed her book, Whole-Food Guide to Overcoming Irritable Bowel Syndrome, tips on eating healthy, and loving it on Bay Sunday.

excerpt from Letting Go of Anger

“When I’m really mad at others, I sometimes take it out on myself.” “I get just as mad at myself as I do at other people.” “I just hate my guts.” Anger turned inward means taking the feeling of anger, and behaving in a way that turns that anger on ourselves. The results are that we hurt ourselves, sometimes knowingly but often without thinking much about it. Although anger is a feeling, it can lead us to angry behaviors such as blaming, ignoring, shaming, criticizing, attacking, condemning, abandoning, and physically harming its target. What happens when we target ourselves for these kinds of punishments? We often hear people say they are frustrated, angry, even furious with themselves. Some people get as angry with themselves as they do with others in their lives. But many say they are angry only with themselves. There are also those who refuse to admit any anger whatever, but treat themselves like yesterday’s trash. They are angry and disgusted that they are here in this world, feeling inadequate and paralyzed, they try to justify the fact that they exist, and often feel like failures.

It is when we turn our anger inward often, with too much energy, calling ourselves names and feeling angry with ourselves for whatever we do, that our anger becomes a problem—for us and usually for those who love us, as well.

Present Perfect by Pavel Somov, Ph.D. is Psych Central's Book of the Month. Read Psych Central founder John Grohol's review here

excerpt from The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook for Kids

Think back to your own childhood for a moment. What are the five most stressful moments that come to mind? If you are like many adults, family fights are at the top of your list.

All couples argue at some time. All kids lose their tempers, too. It is rare to find siblings who don’t occasionally quarrel or call each other names. But arguing and fighting should be an exception, not a rule. If your family life is tainted by constant bickering, sarcasm, yelling, or other forms of arguing, you should put peacemaking at the top of your stress-reduction to-do list.

Everyone, even children as young as five, can learn peacemaking or conflict-resolution skills. Conflict-resolution programs have been used in schools for more than a decade, and there is one thing we know about them: they work. There are many ways to teach these same skills at home. Here is one activity that can help family members find peaceful ways to resolve their differences.

excerpt from Parenting Your Out-of-Control Child

Research suggests that one important factor in differentiating parents who become physically abusive from those who don’t is the parents’ belief that their child is misbehaving on purpose; that is, the child knows the right way to behave but is misbehaving to spite the parents or make them angry. It has been my experience that many parents of out-of control children share this belief. At times, they see their child behave appropriately. Consequently, during those times when he misbehaves, they assume that he has purposefully decided to do so. This belief is further strengthened when parents experience their child’s verbal challenges of authority, such as when the child says, “You can’t make me” or “I hate you.” However, this belief is incorrect as well as counterproductive; it only serves to exacerbate the parents’ anger.

Instead, recognize that out-of-control children are usually impulsive and tend to follow the path of least resistance to get what they want. They are likely to repeat what has worked for them in the past to obtain the consequence that they want, even if the manner of doing so was inappropriate. As many noted behaviorists have pointed out over the years, it is the consequence after the behavior that determines whether that behavior will be performed again. If a behavior results in a consequence that your child considers desirable, he is more likely to perform this behavior in the future. If not, the likelihood of performing the same behavior is diminished.

New Harbinger Publications is now on Huffington Post! Our first piece is Top 10 Tips for Getting Your Dream Job. Bill Knaus, Ed.D., co-author of Fearless Job Hunting wrote this piece.

To see our latest pieces, please visit our Huffington Post page. Look forward to more pieces from a host of authors in the future!

by guest blogger Kiera Van Gelder, MFA, author of The Buddha and the Borderline

When Merinda Epstein, a Policy and Law Reform Officer of the Mental Health Legal Centre in Melborne Australia, made the decision to “come out” with borderline personality disorder as a consumer advocate, her therapist was horrified. She asked Epstein, “why would you want to talk about that diagnosis in public for? You’ve got a perfectly good psychotic diagnosis to use in public!”

Such unfortunately is the reaction many of us who self-identify as “borderline” encounter. You can be a drug addict, have depression, OCD, schizophrenia, or any other number of diagnoses and people will shake your hand and congratulate you on your courage and honesty. But if you say you have BPD, everyone—from counselors to well meaning friends to even DBT therapists, will prophesize that you’ve just ruined your chances of ever getting a good job, relationship or credit rating. The last thing you ever want to be in the line-up of mental illnesses is borderline. Even if you have it. Perhaps, especially if you have it.

I didn’t know this at first. I came to the diagnosis from the twelve step community, where they say “you can’t save your ass and your face at the same time.” I didn’t care what I had, so long as I knew there’d be a solution to it. And the doctor assured me there was, in the form of a new treatment called dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). I called one of my few remaining friends as soon as I got out of the doctor’s office. “Good news!” I gushed “I have borderline personality disorder! And it makes perfect sense!”

There was a pause on the other end of the phone and then Laura shrieked, “there is no f-ing way you are borderline!!” I pulled the phone away from my ear. “Why not?” “Think fatal attraction.. Knives and stalking. Psychobitch from hell. That’s not you!”