Please visit my new website, take this poll, and please comment at the website about what you think.

http://nateprenticetherapy.com, my previous business website, is now moving to what used to be my blog and is now http://vantagepointtherapy.com, my new business website.  A lot has been added.  I’ll consider all suggestions.

Thanks, guys.

I’ve put together a list of the more important books for clients of mine that I have run across over the years.  I hate the format of the page, but that’s what Amazon gives us.  Please feel free to take a look and ask me questions about any that pique your interest.  However, I know many people will appreciate having some of these books vetted first by me.  Have fun reading!

Feel free to comment.

Hi all.

I’m going to be experimenting with a new way to interact with my clients, prospective clients, people who are interested in things related to psychotherapy, and people who just want a fresh perspective on things: through podcasting!

What is podcasting? Podcasting is like having a radio show available to you wherever and whenever you want to listen to it. If you have a computer, or, better yet, a mobile device such as an iPod, MP3 player, or smartphone, you probably have the ability to listen to online shows which you can download to listen to (or in some cases, watch). For more information about podcasting and how to listen to it, look at: http://podcasting101.pbworks.com/w/page/17352849/FrontPage.

So, what am *I* doing with podcasting? At this point, experimenting with it to see if there is a demand for what I have to present. At this point, I have a rough outline of 8-10 15 minute or so long shows which will go over my approach as a psychotherapist, which I call Vantage Point Therapy. I am a clinical social worker and pastoral counselor with almost 25 years of experience, and I have honed my skills into something I call Vantage Point Therapy. I’m currently working on a book to put it together, but I thought I’d share some of it now to see if it helps people and to see what interest is like in it.

If you can change your vantage point for your reality, you can change your reality. I’ll show you how during this series.

I hope that you enjoy what you listen to in the series, and I aim that you leave each episode with at least one take-home skill that you can employ in every day.

If there is further interest, I’ll add other podcasts on similar issues related to growth, self-help, surpassing boundaries in life, and improving communication.

So, keep your eyes peeled for the first episode, coming soon!

Even Santa has bad days…

However, I’m hoping that you are enjoying your holidays, whether they be Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Christmas, Forefather’s Day, Pepper Pot Day, or even Seinfeld’s Festivus. Enjoy your time with family or friends, and know that I’m wishing you the best.

Photo of Adam Lanza

If you spent time on the Internet this weekend, you probably read or saw mention of the article, “I am Adam Lanza’s Mother”.  If you have not, you need to read it.  Now.  I have seen her and her kid often over the years.

http://thebluereview.org/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother/

I am posting to share this new article that came out, written anonymously, titled, “I am Adam Lanza’s Psychiatrist”.  I think it speaks to many of the issues involved that this country has neglected for so many years.

http://www.xojane.com/issues/a-response-to-i-am-adam-lanzas-mother-from-a-doctor-in-the-trenches-i-am-adam-lanzas-psychiatrist?utm_medium=facebook

I was so grateful to hear President Obama even MENTION mental health professionals in his memorial speech on Sunday night.  Maybe there is hope that mental health and substance abuse will actually be given more of a priority, and that lives will be saved.  I’m skeptical, but I am open to the possibility of change.

If you are Adam Lanza and are thinking about acting on your impulses, get help, it works if you keep faith and do the work.

If you are Adam Lanza’s mom, have hope, see the good in your child, and get support.

If you are Adam Lanza’s Psychiatrist, Social Worker, Pastoral Counselor or other mental health professional, I raise a glass to you in solidarity.  Think of your successes, and keep advocating for fair treatment and recognition of yourselves and your clients.

If you are unaware of any of these issues, well, it is time to wake up, America.  This is a reality you can’t push aside any longer.

You are Adam Lanza’s community.  Do something about it.

Flag at half-mast on the Newtown, CT village green. From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/14/newtown-connecticut-school-shooting_n_2302520.html

When I was a teenager, I spent a number of years living in New Milford, CT. New Milford is about two towns away from Newtown. I used to listen to the radio station that people in Newtown listen to. One of my best friends went to church in Newtown, so I spent many Sundays there with him and with other friends from the area.

Newtown, CT is a wonderful, quaint, Norman Rockwell kind of New England town, with a village green and the works. Not a place where I would expect this to happen. IS there a place where an atrocity of this nature would be really expected to happen??? So, even as a therapist who has dealt with horrific tragedy over the years in other people’s lives (sometimes to this magnitude and beyond), this one is a bit close to me. When I wrote this post, I was considering a nice, fluffy way to express what could be helpful, etc. However, I’ve been doing therapy regarding the effects of violence for over 23 years, and I am not going to be silent.

What can you do? I can think of a couple of things.

First off, since this was a crime involving the slaughter of children by an obviously mentally ill man, please vote and advocate for enhanced services for behavioral health care, especially services that enhance affordable access to care and services which reduce the stigma associated with seeking care.

The national debate will, predictably, focus on gun rights/control, which will, predictably, go nowhere. It will sell news magazines, however, and galvanize voters who will donate to political causes both pro- and anti-gun. I respectfully don’t care who has what position on that. The truth of the matter is: the man with the gun clearly had mental health issues.

Debating what to do to enhance access and reduce stigma is the real debate that needs to happen. We can tackle the other one about gun rights/control either in the background or afterwards, and we will. You don’t need a gun to massacre scores of children, as we saw in China today. We’ll get to the gun debate, but avoiding the mental health debate behind it just continues the problem.

The second thing involves what you can do with your own children. I could go into detail, but I think Mr. Rogers, a very wise man, covered it well. http://www.fci.org/new-site/par-tragic-events.html.

Please pass this on to anyone you think could benefit from it. Thank you, and know that I am praying for all of us and especially you and the Newtown family as we go through this.

Sorry if this wasn’t a fluffy psychotherapy post about finding your inner child, bliss, or the like. If you work with me, you will be asked to accept your own humanity, just as I accept the anger in mine tonight, and as I will accept your own humanity. All of it.

Please take a moment and pray for the victims, and the ability of each of us and this country to eventually forgive the shooter (because that is the right thing to do, and is a sign of our real humanity).

I’d say more, but please excuse me, I’m busy trying to reach my childhood friends from CT to check on them.

God bless us all.

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