Hey, Pass The Cookies!

A study published today in the NY Times states that fewer Vietnam veterans have Post-traumatic Stress Disorder than previously thought.

Talk about a complicated issue.

On the one hand, it's great that fewer people are suffering with the hell of combat PTSD.

Yet, these findings could be used to justify a lot of things I don't agree with. For example, the Neo-cons could use these data with the same logic as "It's fat free. That means I can eat twice as many!"

I hope this research article will not be used to take more unnecessary human life.

~Mike Harris

Leveraging Technology in Private Practice

How do blogs, podcasts, and eBooks fit into professional psychotherapy? (I mean, what’s the point really?)

The beginning of the answer lies in Seth Godin’s concept of Permission Marketing. In summary, blogs, podcasts, and eBooks are three ways of bringing ideas into the world while not interrupting people. It’s hard to interrupt someone with a blog. Psychotherapists generally don’t like to interrupt people. People usually don’t like to be interrupted. However, someone interested wants to learn more. Next thing you know, a relationship is formed. The professional has permission to tell someone more and answer questions—this is a great opportunity.

A client knowing the professional’s conceptual framework holds value for both parties. People want to make informed buying decisions. Professionals are supposed to hold clients’ best interests in mind, right? A word of caution: This approach won’t work from a self-negating place.

My argument is that part of building a practice today is through disseminating ideas into the world. People who want to know more become clients. I don’t know of a more ethical way of marketing a practice than giving clients access to the professional’s conceptual understanding. Conceptual understanding where the therapist herself has control over what she discloses. Therefore, blogs, podcasts, and eBooks are powerful vehicles to let potential clients make informed buying decisions. Ultimately, they are what’s best for clients, and how professionals attract their ideal client base. Of course, selling a good product always helps!

Marketing happens through resonance not through a photo of you with your cheesy smile in some New Age magazine.

~Mike Harris

DKD

Here are a couple shots of the cabin I stayed in during my solo retreat at DKD back in May.

~Mike Harris

Blogging Intent

There doesn't seem to be much collaborative interest in this blog at this time. Hopefully, this will change.

I'm going to turn this blog into a resource tool. I would like for it to be a place to share ideas and help each other get started in the mental health field. Maybe it will help someone along the way.

Let me know if you have any link ideas for the sidebar.

~Mike Harris

First Post

Really a test to see what this guy looks like.

And it looks cool.

~Mike Harris