Silence in talk therapy? At first glance, highlighting silence in a treatment that relies on conversation may seem odd. Yet anyone who has had therapy knows that silence is an integral part of many sessions. The saying “silence is golden” may be a cliché, but the sentiment is accurate: silence—while sometimes uncomfortable—can be a powerful … Read more

Because sound travels much more slowly than light, we frequently see distant events before we hear them. That is why counting the seconds between a lightning flash and its thunder gives a rough estimate of how far away a storm is. Research from the University of Rochester shows that our brains can detect and use … Read more

How the Brain Selectively Remembers New Places Summary: MIT researchers have identified a brain circuit that enables rapid storage of memories for newly encountered places. Source: MIT When you step into a room, your brain immediately receives a flood of sensory information. For familiar places much of that input is already stored in long-term memory; … Read more

Self-expressive writing—also called expressive or therapeutic writing—is widely used in mental health settings. It asks people to write honestly about their thoughts and feelings related to stressful, traumatic, or deeply emotional events. When done consistently and safely, this kind of writing provides a confidential way to process emotions and reduce the harms of bottling feelings … Read more

Summary: A new PET imaging technique offers a way to measure synaptic changes in living brains, improving research into neurological and psychiatric disorders. Source: Yale. Researchers led by Yale have developed a novel imaging method to measure synaptic density in the living brain. The approach could improve diagnosis and monitoring of a wide range of … Read more

Are you beginning a career in counseling or looking to deepen your knowledge? Whether you are new to the field or an experienced practitioner, books remain one of the most reliable and portable resources for professional growth. Below is a curated list of 28 essential counseling books — including audiobooks — spanning marriage and couples … Read more

Summary: Researchers have built a new conversational AI agent that learns from human input. Named Evorus, the system is trained alongside people, and the team reports it becomes progressively less reliant on humans as it learns. Source: Carnegie Mellon University. Modern conversational agents such as Siri, Alexa and Cortana handle routine requests well but can … Read more

New research shows that playing Tetris for as little as three minutes can reduce cravings for drugs, food and activities—such as sex or sleep—by about one fifth. In the first study of its kind conducted in everyday environments rather than a laboratory, researchers monitored participants’ cravings throughout the day and randomly prompted them to play … Read more

Summary: Up to 90% of people with Parkinson’s disease experience a reduced sense of smell, often years before motor symptoms appear. New research from Yale identifies biological changes in the olfactory system that explain this early loss of smell: mice engineered to model Parkinson’s show severe pathology in the projection neurons of the olfactory pathway … Read more

We all know someone who seems unusually tuned into emotions — they read others well, understand their own feelings, and handle tense situations calmly and effectively. What explains this capacity? What do they possess that others might lack, and can it be measured? One common explanation is high emotional intelligence (Mayer & Salovey, 1993). Emotional … Read more