12. May 2010 by John Schinnerer.

Cool news! I was just included in a continuing education series on positive psychology with Dr. Jonathan Haidt, Dr. John Drimmer, Dr. James Pawelski, Dr. Dacher Keltner, and Dr. Judy Saltzberg. I’m flattered and honored. This is a series of radio interviews done by Dr. David Van Nuys, professor emeritus from Sonoma State University. Here is the description…

GENERAL COURSE DESCRIPTION

Mental health professionals have traditionally devoted themselves to the treatment of unhappiness in all its many forms. We’ve been good at developing models of psychopathology but we also need to have a clear model of the healthy human psyche. In his 1998 APA presidential address, Martin P. Seligman, an eminent University of Pennsylvania psychology professor, announced that he was founding a new science of “positive psychology.” According to Seligman, psychology had too long focused on the negative side of human nature and it was time to rigorously study the positive. Of course, humanistic psychologists (e.g., Maslow, Rogers, Tillich, Frankel, Bugental, and others) had done pioneering work along these same lines at least 40 years earlier. However, Seligman was calling for a more rigorous, empirical approach than he felt had previously existed. He was able to jump start the field with a $100,000 prize from the John Templeton Foundation for the best research project in this new area by a young researcher. Positive Psychology. At this point, there have already been more than 64,000 research studies on Positive Psychology. This foundational work has important implications for psychotherapists of every stripe.

This course consists of eight interviews with Positive Psychology luminaries conducted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. Each interview will add to your understanding of the field and its clinical implications. 5 of the 8 interviews are also accompanied with full transcripts of the interview. The first interview features Dr. James Pawelski, who heads up the first positive psychology graduate program in the country, housed at the University of Pennsylvania, under the guidance of Dr. Seligman. The second interview is with Dr. Judy Saltzberg, who is a graduate of that program and now an instructor in it and focuses on clinical applications. The third interview, with Dr. John Drimmer, explores how one psychologist shifted his work to become a practitioner of positive psychology. The fourth interview with psychologist, Dr. Sylvia Boorstein, focuses on mindfulness and compassion as key components of happiness. The fifth interview is with Dr. Jonathan Haidt, psychology professor, TED.com presenter, and a key figure in the Positive Psychology movement. The sixth interview, with Dr. Cathy Greenberg, hones in on positive psychology and happiness, particularly as they apply to women’s issues. The seventh interview is with Cal Berkeley professor, Dr. Dacher Keltner, and focuses on his research on happiness and health. Finally, Dr. John Schinnerer is one of a growing number of psychologists who prefer to practice under the rubric of “coaching,” and he describes how he made that transition.

Educational Objectives:

* This course will teach psychotherapists to Apply insights of positive psychology to their work.
* Critique the research findings/claims of positive psychology.
* Define relevant terms, e.g., positive psychology, happiness, resilience, mindfulness, and so on.
* Cite relevant research literature to justify applying positive psychology principles to their practice.
* Construct their own approach to implementing principles of positive psychology to their practice.

Course Syllabus:

* Discovering Positive Psychology
o History of Positive Psychology
o Philosophical underpinnings of Positive Psychology
o Developing the first Positive Psychology graduate program
* Clinical Applications of Positive Psychology
o Integrating CBT with Positive Psychology
o Case examples of Positive Psychology therapy
o Therapeutic exercise drawn from Positive Psychology
* From 60 Minutes Producer to Positive Psychologist
o The three pillars of positive psychology
o Commonalities between documentary film making and practice of positive psychology
o Taking clients beyond symptom relief to optimal fulfillment
* Buddhist Happiness
o Mindfulness meditation as a therapeutic intervention
o The long-term benefits of clients developing warm relationships
o Developing compassion as a component of mental health
* The Happiness Hypothesis
o Interplay of cognition and emotion in Positive Psychology
o Exploration of “Wisdom Traditions” hits and misses
o Why meditation is easier than medication
* What Happy Women Know
o The disconnect between worldly success and happiness
o Combating happiness trap of perfectionism
o Dealing with female revenge fantasies
* Happiness, Kindness and Health
o Emotional intelligence and happiness
o Role of vagus nervous system and oxytocin in trust
o Health and longevity correlates of happiness
o Evidence from Darwin supporting that we are wired for happiness
* Positive Psychology Coaching and Psychotherapy
o Importance of developing “inward looking” in clients
o Interplay of positive and negative emotions
o Mastering the negative emotions of the “lizard brain”

For more information on the series, check out the Zur Institute at http://www.zurinstitute.com/positivepsychologycourse.html.

If you are interested in contacting Dr. John Schinnerer for keynote speaking engagements, visit the website for contact info at http://www.guidetoself.com.

Keep on smiling!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

San Francisco Bay Area

National speaker

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12. May 2010 by John Schinnerer.

My purpose in life is to teach others the benefits of emotional management skills to enable clients to reach their potential. I teach the latest ways to mitigate destructive emotions and to cultivate positive emotions to executives, students and sports teams and I love it. With enhanced emotional management skills, my clients are happier, more productive, more satisfied with life and have better relationships.

I am currently collaborating with Aaron Jarden at the University of New Zealand on the International Wellbeing Project. This is a longitudinal study to look at what is right with us and how we can increase life satisfaction over the long haul.

I wrote the award-winning book, Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought in 2007 which has helped many people to realize the power of the emotional mind and ways to work in harmony with it. My blog, Shrunken Mind, has been named top 3 among positive psychology blogs and top 10 among general sports psychology blogs on the web. My Ph.D. is in educational psychology from UC Berkeley (2000).

What is your purpose in life?

I challenge you to come up with a short written description of your purpose in life. Then share it with others as a way of holding you accountable.

Have a wonderful week!

John

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

www.GuideToSelf.com

P.S. I’m currently working on some new seminars for the web. Keep checking back in for the latest updates and new announcements!

Posted in Emotion & learning, Danville CA, National speakers, Assertiveness, Men's emotions, Emotion & productivity, International Wellbeing Study, Alamo CA, Well-being, Emotion & Athletics, Optimal Human Functioning, Executive coach, Managing Sadness, Anger Management, Dr. John Schinnerer, Life coach, Managing stress, Business & psych, Positive Psychology, Emotional IQ, Anxiety, Emotional management, Managing Anxiety, Emotional mind, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Happiness, Counseling | Print | No Comments »

18. March 2010 by John Schinnerer.

Amazing new research is coming out showing the fundamental importance of your sense of touch. It is the first sense available to you as a baby. A variety of positive and negative emotions can be understood through brief one second touches to the forearm, even when you cannot see the person touching you.

It may be that touch sends more information than gestures, body language or facial expressions. Touch varies widely in its expression - a hug, a gentle touch on the shoulder, a scratch on the face, a hip check, a high five, a punch to the bicep, a desperate clutch to the forearm. All of these are expressions of touch filled with social and emotional meaning for the person whom receives the touch.

While I follow the latest research on emotion and psychology, I was surprised and delighted to see a study on touch appear in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated (The Metaphysical Significance, Staggering Ubiquity and Sheer Joy of High Fives by Chris Ballard). The study which looked at the effects of touch on performance in the NBA is entitled Tactile Communication, Cooperation and Performance: An Ethological Study of the NBA and comes out of the greatest university in the world - U.C. Berkeley (okay, I’m biased!). Lead researchers of the project are Michael Kraus and Dacher Keltner.

The researchers observed nearly 300 NBA players (across all 30 teams) over a period of 2 months. They catalogued and recorded every touch between players during games. The touches were classified in one of 12 areas including categories such as high fives, head slaps, and jumping shoulder bumps. The results were nothing short of awe-inspiring. The more touches between teammates, the more wins the team had.

The teams that touch the most? The Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. Both of these teams surpassed the 60 win mark last season. And both teams averaged more than 100 seconds of touching during games. The results held even when the lofty expectations are taken into account for these elite teams.

The teams that touch the least? The Sacramento Kings and the Charlotte Bobcats. They averaged a measly 16.5 seconds and earned only 52 wins last season combined.

How about individual players? Does the power of touch hold at an individual level?

The ’touchiest’ players (i.e., most high fives, chest bumps, head slaps) are also among the NBA’s elite players including Kevin Garnett of the Celtics, Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors, Kobe Bryant of the Lakers, and Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks. Garnett averages 15.7 seconds of touching per game which is over two times as much as the entire Sacramento Kings entire team.

Apparently, it’s the leaders of the team that initiate most of the touching in the form of hugs, low fives, fist bumps and more.

Why is there such a powerful effect for the sense of touch?

We know that massages from loved ones not only reduce pain, they also reduce depressive symptoms. Students who are given a compassionate pat on the shoulder are 200% more likely to volunteer for an in class assignment. When your doctor offers a sympathetic touch, it makes you feel as if he has spent twice as much time with you during the visit.

How can one sense be related to such varied and significant events as wins in the NBA, reduction in depression, perception of time, reduction in pain, and promotion of altruistic behavior?

The primary theory is that touch activates the autonomic nervous system which has two branches - the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).  One helpful metaphor to understand these two is the idea of a car in which the accelerator is like the sympathetic nervous system and the brakes are akin to the parasympathetic nervous system. Positive touches (e.g., kind, compassionate, tender, gentle, sympathetic, etc.) seem to activate the PNS, or the body’s brakes, which helps the body to relax, to experience positive emotions. Negative touches (e.g., a punch, a pinch, scratch or a bite) seems to activate the SNS, or the body’s gas pedal, which prepares the body for the fight or flight response.

In many of us, the SNS is chronically active as if the gas pedal is being pushed continuously. Due to the fast pace of society, the financial demands, the pressure of balancing work, home and personal health, many get into a cycle of chronic low level stress. In this case, the PNS, the relaxation response, is rarely, if ever, activated.

In sports psychology, it is known that the zone, where optimal human functioning occurs, requires a balance between stress and relaxation. In other words, there needs to be a balance between the functioning of the SNS and the PNS. Touch seems to be one way to activate the PNS thereby balancing the pressure of performing in the moment with the relaxation response, allowing athletes to perform at their peak.

Hope you enjoyed this one! I sure enjoyed writing it!

All the best,

John Schinnerer Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Positive Psychology Coach

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4. March 2010 by John Schinnerer.

This past weekend, I presented at a Parenting Conference on Strengths-Based Approaches to parenting. At the conference, a new film, The Race to Nowhere, was screened.The movie brought up a number of pertinent issues regarding the educational system in the United States…

The creation of high degrees of chronic stress in all ages of students (but not all students) due to excessive homework demands.

The excessive homework load seems to be largely due to curriculum which has been pushed down to lower and lower grade, often to the point where the academic requirements are mismatched with the developmental stage of the student.

The well being and happiness of students are not considered relevant in the current educational system.

The current system puts students into a constant forward-looking race to get to the next stage of education. For instance, sixth graders are looking at which foreign language classes to take to get into college; 7th & 8th graders are focused on what to do now to get into the advanced track classes in high school; many high school students are continually focused on what they can do in terms of extracurriculars and AP grades to get into the ‘right’ colleges.

Once in college, students are finding they never learned how to think critically on their own. Rather they were taught to regurgitate facts to do well on standardized tests which assess only a fraction of the whole child’s abilities and skills. 

At some point, many of these students are running headlong into a period of purposelessness and some are even dropping out of college due to depression, anxiety and hopelessness. If you are interested in finding out more about the movie, check out their site at RaceToNowhere.com.

Today, I came across a new study out of Penn State which shows a link between adolescent stress, depression and obesity. Below is a review on the study borrowed from a fantastic psychology site PsychCentral.com.

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on February 25, 2010

Obesity is a disturbing worldwide trend. In fact, researchers say the effects are so pervasive that unless the issue is controlled, children born today will not live longer than their parents.

A new research finding provides insight on how a mental health issue may trigger obesity among adolescents. In the study, researchers discovered depression raises stress hormone levels in adolescent boys and girls. And, among girls, the stress hormones may lead to obesity.

Accordingly, early treatment of depression could help reduce stress and control obesity.

[snip]

Cortisol, a hormone, regulates various metabolic functions in the body and is released as a reaction to stress. Researchers have long known that depression and cortisol are related to obesity, but they had not figured out the exact biological mechanism.

Although it is not clear why high cortisol reactions translate into obesity only for girls, scientists believe it may be due to physiological and behavioral differences (in girls, estrogen release and stress eating) in the way the two genders cope with anxiety.

“The implications are to start treating depression early because we know that depression, cortisol and obesity are related in adults,” said Susman.

If depression were to be treated earlier, she noted, it could help reduce the level of cortisol, and thereby help reduce obesity.

“We know stress is a critical factor in many mental and physical health problems,” said Susman.

“We are putting together the biology of stress, emotions and a clinical disorder to better understand a major public health problem.”

Susman and her colleagues Lorah D. Dorn, professor of pediatrics, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and Samantha Dockray, postdoctoral fellow, University College London, used a child behavior checklist to assess 111 boys and girls ages 8 to 13 for symptoms of depression.

Next they measured the children’s obesity and the level of cortisol in their saliva before and after various stress tests.

[snip]

Statistical analyses of the data suggest that depression is associated with spikes in cortisol levels for boys and girls after the stress tests, but higher cortisol reactions to stress are associated with obesity only in girls. The team reported its findings in a recent issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

“In these children, it was mainly the peak in cortisol that was related to obesity,” Susman explained. “It was how they reacted to an immediate stress.”

Source: Penn State University

For full article, click here.

Have a wonderful and stress-free week!

All the best,

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Positive Psychology Coach

Author of the award-winning book Guide To Self:

The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion & Thought Guide To Self, Inc.

913 San Ramon Valley Blvd. #280

Danville CA 94526

(925) 575-0258

GuideToSelf.com - Web site

DrJohnBlog.GuideToSelf.com - Award-winning Blog

@johnschin - Twitter

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10. August 2009 by John Schinnerer.

By Psych Central News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 3, 2009

A new study has found that antidepressant drug use in the United States has gone up 75 percent, from 5.84 percent of the population to 10.12 percent.

The new study, published in the August issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, looked at drug prescriptions from 1996 to 2005 in the U.S. Antidepressant use increased significantly across all age, gender and racial groups, except African Americans.

The data also shows a more than 10 percent decline in the use of psychotherapy amongst people treated with antidepressants, while at the same time showing a significant increase in the use of antipsychotic medications as a co-treatment to antidepressant therapy.

For the whole article, click here

http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/08/03/antidepressant-use-up-75-percent/7514.html

Wow, that’s a big increase in antidepressants with a simultaneous decrease in therapy! A sign of the times, I suppose. We are the quick fix people. In my opinion, the best solution to most severe cases of stress, anxiety and depression is a combination of medication and therapy.

Have a fantastic day!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Posted in Anger Management, Managing Anxiety, Managing Sadness, Assertiveness, Danville CA, Emotional management, Depression, Dr. John Schinnerer, Managing stress, Life coach, Anxiety, Social anxiety disorder, Counseling | Print | No Comments »