In over 30 years of conducting CBT, I’ve most often heard these 3 myths from people struggling with insomnia. Many don’t realize that these myths can actually keep people STUCK in insomnia. The good news is that when people see that they are truly just myths, they start to get better – even after many many years of insomnia!
OnAir Post: 3 Insomnia Myths
Particularly on this Covid Thanksgiving, I’m thankful (and hopeful) for the increasing spread of positive health & well-being for all.
I’m sharing my 2 top favorites – Psychologist Seligman and Cardiologist Ornish. Each in their own compelling way explains how their extraordinary mind-body scientific contributions can help us to be and age well.
OnAir Post: Thanks-Giving for well-being
Values are the best motivators, according to Acceptance & Commitment Therapy research. So, it’s a good idea to assess your values periodically, to know how to motivate yourself to reach your most important goals.
OnAir Post: Crystalize your core values
The NIH sponsored a fantastic 2-day Research Conference in October 2018 where thought leaders shared their latest research on SLEEP and WOMEN’S HEALTH. It’s a wakeup call about the importance of sleep for the health of women.
Dr. Dinges shared his top 12 reasons to have consistent, restorative sleep. Many other panelists showcased a decade of federally-funded research advances in understanding health risks, societal burden, and treatment options associated with sleep deficiency and sleep disorders in women and families.
You can watch the 2-day event in its entirety - if you missed it!
OnAir Post: The Wake Up Call for Women & Sleep
I recently gave the following presentation about the benefits of CBT, what's involved in the CBT treatment protocol, as well as numerous online resources - many of which are free to the public.
OnAir Post: Managing Chronic Pain with CBT
We hope to make it easy and fun for healthcare learners to train interprofessionally, by providing an open, curated, non-profit network of knowledge sharing Hubs. Educators - anywhere - could train their learners to compete to 'share & spread what works and where to find it' ... to have the most impact - together, via shared service-learning. Anybody game?
OnAir Post: Can we compete together?
Copyright Michael Simmons Medium.com
I just wanted to quickly share an INFOGRAPHIC I recently came upon by Michael Simmons. I’m finding the idea of ‘Mental Models’ to be fascinating.
OnAir Post: Reading about … Mental Models
No other conference I've attended has been so effective at demonstrating evidence based practices - right on site!
By the way ... the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) is offering research grants for $500,000 ... in comparison to ... $50,000 in the past.
Here are 6 reasons that made this a spectacular conference ... for consumers and their loved ones, researchers, and clinicians alike...
OnAir Post: An amazing OCD conference – for all!
For anyone who doesn’t like their job (90% of us!) … please listen and take note of the 5 important concepts shared by Dr. Lopez, a leading positive psychology researcher.
OnAir Post: Change your job!
If you’re having trouble turning your mind off at bedtime … have a set of YouTube videos ready to watch … to gently remind yourself to focus on neutral, relaxing stimuli.
OnAir Post: Videos for ‘wind down’ time
These courses used the best methods, materials, and measures to train in the most essential assessment, therapy, and supervision core competencies:
Actors, with diverse demographics, were coached to portray patients Empirically validated treatment and supervision manuals Empirically validated measures of therapeutic relationship and skills Up to 14 45-minute sessions with 4 patients having multiple co-occurring conditions Complex therapeutic and ethical (military & civilian-related) challenges 360’ feedback from actors, peers, teaching assistants, & post-doc’s Seasoned clinical faculty supervisors (military & civilian) Specific self assessment ratings using minute-by-minute video reviewThe National Training Director invited us to the flagship Army Psychology Internship (Tripler in Hawaii) to train his faculty and other internships across the country how to adapt our methods & measures to their training.
The Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP) invited us to their 2011 annual meeting, to showcase our training model – having seen our poster at the 2010 Association of Behavioral & Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) conference.
It was great fun to work with talented actors. We wrote weekly stories for the 4 different ‘Simulated Patients’ they portrayed. We choreographed & coached the actors for each weekly encounter. Each session was like an episode out of ...
OnAir Post: Lessons from Teaching at a Simulation Center
Americans spend up to $107 billion a year on sleep, including 60 million scripts. Did you know that sleeping pills often don’t work or can be dangerous? Most of the 1 in 3 with insomnia don’t know that Doctors’ Guidelines say to first try the non-drug therapy (CBT-I). It seems like only the hype is heard – like ‘Ask your Doctor’ ads.
All in healthcare professions are urged to promote best practices using social media. Imagine if the entire community of sleep professionals spoke up together in one place – over the hype … for what’s proven to work and where to find it.
On the Insomnia Hub … together, we hope to spread ‘what works & where to find it’ … We LEAD
Leverage the Insomnia Hub & other social media to Effectively promote ‘what works’ to Accelerate consumer demand for best practices & Disseminate the best science about Insomnia.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is a highly effective treatment that works for many, many conditions. All too often, my patients express that they wished they would’ve known about CBT many years before – when they first began treatment. They feel that they’ve lost time, money, relationships, opportunities, as well as better health … not knowing about CBT. As well, many clinicians lament that if only we had something like a pharmaceutical industry to promote CBT, we’d help so many more ...
OnAir Post: What are Health Hubs?
Prescription for Health showed that patients get healthier when providers ‘share’ resources via their website.
So, imagine a health communication campaign that makes it easy for ANY clinician to ‘share’ via a curated network of Health Hubs – open to everyone – that spotlight proven practices and resources.
An interdisciplinary George Mason collaborative has begun a health communication campaign … see ‘Share CBT-I … using the Insomnia Hub.
Professional schools train in Clinical Prevention & Population Health competencies … but, they DON’T train in digital health promotion skills!
Why not create ‘ONE’ (Open Networked Education) health comm course (or practicum) that shares ‘ONE’ platform (Open Health Hubs) to train students interprofessionally to … (1) Translate & promote best practices, (2) Bridge to best resources, and (3) Compete to have an impact?
Worldwide, students learn quality improvement (QI) skills at the IHI Open School. Hundreds of schools in the health professions (medicine, nursing, etc.) require their students to train there – online. For credit, students learn online & apply QI skills locally. Their service saves lives; it’s known as ‘open’ service learning.
Likewise, what if an open course (or open practicum) taught social media skills ...
OnAir Post: Why have Health Hubs?
At the time I taught at the Uniformed Services University, I watched the entire military transform its definition of health to include the ‘whole person’ in the whole community (watch the video for more). They used a train-the-trainer model to teach over 30,000 Army soldiers to train 10’s of 1000’s of other soldiers to be totally fit.
At the 2012 Living and Leading with Resilience Conference, Colonel Bates and I presented a way for George Mason University to LEAD … kickstart an intercollegiate competition – for communities to compete to be the most totally fit – using that military training.
Dr. Seligman at U Penn led the Total Fitness train-the-trainer program. He stated, at the Mason Resilience conference, “If we can train Drill Sergeants to lead resilience training in Army units, I don’t see why students can’t train their peers to be more resilient.”
Mason’s Distinguished Communication Professor, Dr. Kreps thinks it’s a testable hypothesis … The science says that if a health communication campaign makes it POPULAR, EASY, & FUN for students and faculty to join … we can create a culture of ...
OnAir Post: Imagine Mason’s March Madness for Total Fitness
