Top 5 Panels at the 2013 Trichotillomania Conference

Image via TLC

One of my favorite professional meetings of the year is the Trichotillomania Learning Center’s annual conference. TLC brings together researchers, clinicians, individuals with trichotillomania, and those who love them in one place for a three-day event. It’s a rare treat to be able to interact with so many different types of people in an informal, casual setting. This year’s conference kicks off today here in the NYC area.

If you are a first time attendee, here are my top 5 must see panels:

1. Picking and Pulling 101 with Fred Penzel, PhD & Charles Mansueto, PhD: Both psychologists have a casual and approachable style that makes it easy to get oriented to the conference. 
2. Separating Snake Oil from Penicillin with Douglas W. Woods, PhD: Dr. Woods will teach you how to save your time and money by avoiding junk treatments and finding help that is supported by science.
3. Overcoming BFRB Urges When Facing Interpersonal Stress with Sherrie Vavrichek, LCSW-C: Ms. Vavrichek’s panels are always interactive, experiential, and skill-focused – you leave having learned a lot of practical skills.
4. Strategies for Impulse Reduction: a Mindfulness-Based Approach with Christina Pearson: Ms. Pearson is the founder/rockstar of TLC and a lifelong advocate for people with body-focused repetitive behavior problems. 
5. Animal Models with Joseph Garner, PhD: Dr. Garner is one of the most engaging, passionate, and bold scientists I’ve met. His research on the neurobiology of animal hair pulling has huge potential applications for our treatment of trichotillomania.

I’ll be talking about “A Hard Day’s Night: How to treat to BFRBs combined with anxiety or depression” Saturday morning and “Boldly go into the next generation of CBT: Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy for BFRBs” Saturday afternoon. Be sure to come say hi!

Update: Handouts for my "A Hard Day's Night" panel are available here. You can also download my "Boldly go" handout here. 

Psychology at WonderCon 2013

I had a blast at WonderCon 2013 talking about the psychology of science fiction, fantasy, and comics. Check out my other website, Brain Knows Better, for details on my psychology of Star Trek versus Star Wars panel. 

Using Social Media to Promote Psychology

As a followup to my earlier post on new media for psychologists, I contributed to this month's gradPSYCH magazine cover story on You: The Brand by Anna Miller. The article overviews the pros and cons of using the internet to promote yourself, your work, and the field of psychology.

There are some great words of wisdom from Drs. Pamela Rutledge and David Ballard and doctoral candidate Jason G. Goldman, the author of Scientific American's The Thoughtful Animal blog. Here's an excerpt:

Goldman's choice to write about animal behavior — as opposed to organizational psychology or autism, for instance — was simple: It's what interests him most. "Everything I write about is because I want to, and I'm glad that other people find it interesting," he says. "But if it's not interesting to me, then it's not going to be good." Online audiences are receptive when that genuineness comes through, says Ballard. On the other hand, if the only reason you engage in social media is for personal gain, you will get caught. "People are going to pick up on it if you're only doing it to get business, to get the job, to make money, to rack up contacts," he says. "That backfires because people find it distasteful."

Check out the full article for more. 

The Future of Professional Psychology

As a followup to last year's controversial session, Dr. David W. Ballard invited me to serve on a panel discussing the future of professional psychology at this year's APA State Leadership Conference.

A word cloud created by Dr. Ballard based upon discussion by the panelists. Image Credit: tagxedo.com / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Highlights from the session included the need for psychologists to adopt new technologies, become involved in legislative and regulatory developments, and understand marketplace trends. 

Here's an excerpt:

[Dr. Jo Linder-Crow] says psychologists need to learn the language of persuasion to talk to other provider communities. Be able to say “this is what psychologists do” to demonstrate the value of the profession and differentiate psychology from other health care professions. Psychologists always need to be learning – whether it’s business skills or technology, or just knowing what you don’t know, according to Linder-Crow.

[Dr. Jennifer Kelly] emphasizes that psychologists must be both health care professionals and business people, and that they may need to change in order to meet emerging needs. Training to work with changing demographics and an aging population can help psychologists begin meeting some of the new demands of the marketplace.

For more from this session, read a full summary by clicking here.