The Dangers of Diet Culture: What Parents Can Do to Be a Positive Influence on Their Children

in Clinical, Developmental, Featured Article, Pop Culture, Public News

Diet culture puts unrealistic pressure on everyone — children and adults alike — to live within a narrow range of false and dangerous ideals. It does not accept that healthy people can come in many shapes and sizes. Diet culture sends the wrong message that people need to be in thinner bodies in order to be valued, and mistakenly pressures people to value being thin even when thinness may be disconnected from any real health benefits.

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Coping Ahead: Working with Clients to Prepare for Disaster Anniversaries

in Clinical, Featured Article, Public News, Therapy

The anniversary of a hurricane or other disaster can provide an important opportunity to review a client’s gains as well as process reactions to the disaster, continue to work through grief responses, and collaborate to cope with unhelpful reactions ahead of time. Anniversary reactions that are more intense may require more targeted treatments for trauma, anxiety, or other significant symptoms.

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From Perspectives on Psychological Science: Reexamining the Findings of the American Psychological Association’s 2015 Task Force on Violent Media: A Meta-Analysis

in Academic, Family, Featured Article, Peer-Reviewed Article, Pop Culture, Public News, Research

In 2015, the American Psychological Association (APA) released a task-force technical report on video-game violence with a concurrent resolution statement linking violent games to aggression but not violent crime. The task-force report has proven to be controversial; many scholars have criticized language implying conclusive evidence linking violent games to aggression as well as technical concerns regarding the meta-analysis that formed the basis of the technical report and resolution statement.

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From Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy: Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing for mental health problems: a systematic review and meta-analysis

in Academic, Clinical, Featured Article, Peer-Reviewed Article, Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) was developed in the late 1980s as a psychological treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Shapiro, 1989). It was based on the observation that the intensity of traumatic memories can be reduced through eye movements.

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President’s Update

in Featured Article, Public News

Louisiana is a resilient community, but we work best when we work together.  Southwest Louisiana is a community that prior to this storm was underserved in mental and behavioral health.  I know that our public affairs committee will be meeting so that we can organize resources as we become aware of needs.  From past experiences, we know that each disaster is unique and that it is often best to listen to impacted communities, allow them to express their needs first, then organize response with what is needed rather than making assumptions. 

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From Journal of Psychiatry Research: Landscape of Cognitive Functioning in Recovered COVID-19

in Academic, Featured Article, Peer-Reviewed Article, Research

It has been reported that most of SARS patients had the common complaints, such as poor concentration, declined memory, and insomnia, as well as anxiety and depression symptoms, indicating cognitive impairments after SARS infection (Sheng et al., 2005a). These psychiatric morbidities might be still significant even when patients infected with SARS recovered physically…

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From Stanford News: Seven Factors that Contribute to American Racism

in Academic, Diversity, Featured Article

The first three factors Roberts and Rizzo reviewed are: categories, which organize people into distinct groups; factions, which trigger ingroup loyalty and intergroup competition; and segregation, which hardens racist perceptions, preferences and beliefs. Simply put, the U.S. systematically constructs racial categories, places people inside of those categories and segregates people on the basis of those categories, the authors argue.

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From APA: Why We Fall For Fake News

in Featured Article, Pop Culture, Public News

Have you heard? Nancy Pelosi diverted Social Security money to fund the impeachment inquiry. President Trump’s father was a member of the KKK. Far-fetched as those statements sound, they were among the most shared fake news stories on Facebook in 2019, according to a report by the nonprofit organization Avaaz, which concluded that political fake news garnered more than 150 million views in 2019.

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From APA: Speaking of Psychology: Coronavirus Anxiety

in Featured Article, Public News

Fear about the coronavirus has gripped the world. While nearly all cases have been in China, that has not stopped people in other countries from worrying. This new illness certainly is frightening and needs attention, but it’s important to note that far more people die from an illness that’s all too familiar — the seasonal flu. Why are we so afraid of this novel coronavirus when we are much more likely to catch the flu?

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