THE STATE OF AMERICAN SOCIETY

Through capitalistic greed and corporate power, the United States is slowly being sold out to foreign interests and powers. We are allowing our nation's assets to be given away. Our freedoms and rights are being eroded often under the guise that 'it is for our own good and protection." We lack choices in government, we are controlled by an oligarchic system, a rulin elite, where the very wealthy are the only players. Third party candidates stand no chance, for example in Pennsylvania, The McCain camp knows that the Libertarian candidate Bob Barr could take votes away and lead to an Obama win in Pennsylvania. However, rather than allowing choice, the Mccain camp is fighting for the removal of Barr from the ballot. So as it is in most political equations today, we are not given any real choices, and the politicians hold all the cards, and seek to keep it that way. With the current dynamics and a generation of apathy, we must seriously look at our future. The current institutions are decaying and eroding, and they are driving people mad. It is not that the systems will admit failure. If you do not like the system, too bad, we will force your conformity, hence a large proportion of American children labeled and drugged.
We must change our minds, and we must do it quickly.

-D.L. Edmunds, Ed.D.
www.humanepsychiatry.info

I recall a story of Buddha Shakyamuni where one of his monks desired to go forth to teach to a cruel and harsh people. The Buddha tested him with various questions as to what he would do if various cruelty came upon him. The monk described how he would seek the good in them and be patient no matter the ways they sought to treat him. The Buddha eventually blessed him to proceed stating that maybe hw would reach a few. This is the true work of the therapist. The therapist must be strengths based, focusing on the potential of benevolence in all beings, to realize the delusions we all possess, and to patiently join with another, but to respect their autonomy.
-Dr. D.L. Edmunds,Ed.D.
www.humanepsychiatry.info

The Mental Health Edge Radio Program

Dr.D.L.Edmunds will be speaking on the program THE MENTAL HEALTH EDGE on the topic of the impact of current psychiatric practice on children. The program will air Wednesday August 20 from 8 to 9pm EST on WTAN1340AM in Clearwater, Florida and can be heard on the internet at www.tantalk1340.com

Autonomy and Responsibility

If therapists are to truly respect the autonomy of persons they must allow the person to make decisions on their own, even if these are poor decisions. The therapist should focus the person on seeking their own solutions, taking responsibility for their own actions and choices. The therapist should not allow for overdependence and should not feel 'guilt' if the decisions of their client do not meet to their own or societal approval. If we think this way, then we are not respecting autonomy.
We must also consider that we cannot change the minds of others, only they can do that. -D.L. Edmunds, Ed.D.
www.humanepsychiatry.info

THEORETICAL INFLUENCES IN MY WORK

Boszormenyi-Nagy developed contextual therapy and as a part of this was the concept of destructive entitlement. He felt that many patterns of thought that were problematic and strains in relationship had to do with issues of justice and that people felt a sense of entitlement. This does not mean that feelings of entitlement means that the person is entitled. However, from this destructive entitlement came patterns of revenge. He saw this concept in conduct problems, substance abuse, and as far reaching as world political conflicts. Nagy focused on building conceptions of fairness and believed that ethical conceptions formed a part of the therapeutic process. I have to some degree been influenced by the work of Boszoremenyi-Nagi, particularly this concept of the impact of destructive entitlement.
In my practice, I have sought to develop a synthesis of Nagy's ideas of the needs for ethical principles to be a part of the therapeutic process, while incorporating the ideas of Laing in that extreme states of mind can be understood. In addition, I have brought into practice the thought of existentialism having realized that many distressed person's dilemmas are often problems of meaning and purpose. I am also in agreement with Adlerian ideas on feelings of inferiority being a motivating factor of the development of some destructive behaviors. My friend and colleague, psychologist Jorg Dao from Germany brought forward to me a different way of looking at therapy. His idea is that the therapist does not seek to analyze or 'fix' the problem but to guide the person to identifying the problem clearly and finding their own answers. I believe that all persons have innate strengths and the potential to come to resolution of their own dilemmas. We need to respect the autonomy of the individual and realize the great resiliency that exists within human beings.

-Dan L. Edmunds, Ed.D.
www.humanepsychiatry.info

Our society does not reward effort and determination, rather we have often developed an idea of entitlement. Our universities are failing because of this. Professors are chosen based on issues of connections and political correctness. The education of our children as well because of this contagion of entitlement. Taxes skyrocket because of this idea. How far do we go to help those who have no desire to help themselves? Should we pay for the medical treatment of one who given knowledge of making poor health choices persists in them? We are a society that feels entitled, wishes not to take responsibility, and prefers to stay numb. Psychiatry provides the concepts to exonerate persons and society of responsibility, and gives them the drugs to escape and be numb, to never have to really address any dilemma. Is it possible we are headed in the direction of the Soviet era where any critical thought was suppressed, often through psychiatric means? Will our society awaken and take responsibility and ownership for its choices and actions? God only knows.

-D.L.Edmunds,Ed.D.
www.humanepsychiatry.info

Speaking Engagements and Consultation to School Districts- Special Education Departments

Dr.D.L Edmunds has received numerous requests for media interviews and speaking engagements. Dr. Edmunds has presented at professional conferences, school districts, parent organizations, and other organizations addressing mental health reform, existential approaches, relational approaches, spirituality, self transformation, ethics in practice, diversity, comparative religion, child development and other topics. Fees for speaking engagements within Pennsylvania and New York is $650. The fee for events in other locations within the US is $1000. Please see the website of ICHP for more information and to arrange a speaking engagement.
www.humanepsychiatry.info

In addition, Dr.Edmunds has provided consult to school districts in regards to behavioral assessments, individualized education plans, autism and developmental differences, drug free relational approaches for distressed children. To arrange a consultation, please contact via e-mail at:
DoctorEdmunds@DrDanEdmunds.com

HOW DID I COME TO CHALLENGE THE PSYCHIATRIC ESTABLISHMENT?

When I first began academic training as a counselor, I was not exposed to any critical works at all. Part of the training was to accept that mental illness was cased by biological processes, basically chemical imbalances, and that psychiatric drugs were the main avenue of treatment combined with psychotherapy which was seen to be of lesser importance. I did not initially challenge any of this. I like most of my colleagues fell into this pattern of thought. However, it was my experiences visting children's psychiatric facilities, seeing situations of children being abused by staff and staff seeking to cover it up, as well as seeing the devastating effects of some psychiatric drugs (such as a 9 year old with tardive dyskinesia), that many questions were raised in my mind and conscience. From this point, I became exposed to some critical works and began to do thorough research on psychiatric drug effects. Later, I began working with a number of children, some given serious psychiatric labels, and I soon realized that the system really was not listening to their experience, it was not even treating them as human beings. As I began to listen and learn of the experience of many of my clients, I developed a sense of great compassion and vowed that I would take a stand from within the system. This has often been at great cost, but I know that it is my duty to stand up for the vulnerable and to promote social justice and humane treatment.

-Dan L. Edmunds, Ed.D.
www.humanepsychiatry.info

PSYCHIATRISTS PRESCRIBE PILLS, DO NOT MAK USE OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

CHICAGO - Cartoons about the psychiatrist’s couch were recently the subject of a museum exhibition. Now, the couch itself may be headed for a museum.

A new study finds a significant decline in psychotherapy practiced by U.S. psychiatrists.

The expanded use of pills and insurance policies that favor short office visits are among the reasons, said lead author Dr. Ramin Mojtabai of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.



“The ’couch,’ or, more generally, long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy, was for so long a hallmark of the practice of psychiatry. It no longer is,” Mojtabai said.

Today’s psychiatrists get reimbursed by insurance companies at a lower rate for a 45-minute psychotherapy visit than for three 15-minute medication visits, he explained.

His study found that the percentage of patients’ visits to psychiatrists for psychotherapy, or talk therapy, fell from 44 percent in 1996-97 to 29 percent in 2004-05. The percentage of psychiatrists using psychotherapy with all their patients also dropped, from about 19 percent to 11 percent.

Psychiatrists who provided talk therapy to everyone had more patients who paid out of pocket compared to those doctors who provided talk therapy less often. And they prescribed fewer pills.

'Aura of invincibility' around meds
As talk therapy declined, TV ads contributed to an “aura of invincibility” around drugs for depression and anxiety, said Charles Barber, a lecturer in psychiatry at Yale University and author of “Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry is Medicating a Nation.”

“By contrast, there’s almost no marketing for psychotherapy, which has comparable if not better outcomes,” said Barber, who was not involved in the study.

The findings, published in Monday’s Archives of General Psychiatry, are based on an annual survey of office visits to U.S. doctors. Of more than 246,000 visits sampled during the 10 years, more than 14,000 were to psychiatrists. The researchers analyzed those psychiatrist visits.

Autism and Developmental Differences

Dr.D.L.Edmunds has developed one of few drug free relational programs for autistic and developmentally different children. Dr.Edmunds provides consultation to children, families, and school districts in Northeastern Pennsylvania and is available for phone consultation to those residing in other areas. Dr. Edmunds has worked with over 80 children with developmental challenges, developed a support group, was involved with a therapeutic equestrian program, and has delivered numerous lectures and seminars. His approach encourages autonomy, development of increased independent skills, the forging of emotional connections, and self advocacy. The program is not coercive and respects the dignity of the child. For more information, please see:
www.humanepsychiatry.info

WE ARE WHAT WE THINK

Problems in life are inevitable, we cannot escape them, we do have no choice in this. What we do have a choice in is how we wish to address these problems. We have the choice to decide to allow these problems to make us anger, bitter, depressed, anxious, etc. Our other choice is to become patient, to transform our minds towards total acceptance. When problems befall us we can also think of the causes that we may have created or misguided deeds or actions that may have led to our present experience. We must realize that birth, death, aging, and sickness are events we cannot escape. So many people indulge in various distractions and temporary pleasures to not have to think of these events. However, all pleasures lead to suffering. For instance, we may have one drink that is pleasant and relaxing, but multiple can cause us to become ill or hungover. We must begin to examine our minds. Even if we are not raging, we must examine the angry minds we possess. Simply being impatient is an angry mind, it is a mind based on not being able to come to acceptance, of seeking to change that which cannot be changed. One of my clients, age 14, commented that he felt he has always had 'anger problems' and that he feels that he has always 'had problems in my life." I discussed with him the root of his anger, patience, and the concept of total acceptance. I told him that he can change his mind to not look upon himself as the 'kid with problems' but realize that we all undergo problems, it is the human condition, and that he can transform his mind to accept this fact and develop patience and total acceptance.

-Dan L. Edmunds, Ed.D.
www.humanepsychiatry.info

TROUBLED TEENS AND ISSUES OF MEANING

In many of the instances of troubled teens I have encountered in my work, I have noticed that a common theme is that they are lacking meaning and purpose. This does not imply that they must have a particular religiosity. What I am referring to is that they have become lost along the way, somewhat apathetic, and their zeal for life has been squashed. Many of these kids are solely of the attitude that 'whatever happens, happens." Because current psychiatric practice is focused on the medicalization of experience, it may be missing a key component to the resiliency and recovery of these troubled teens. Many of them I have worked with have been involved in numerous psychiatric programs, they go through the motions, or they become distrustful, questioning genuineness and sincerity in the system, and still on a quest for something more. The defiant interactions of these children are only fueled more by these problems inherent in current psychiatric practice. When persons feel they are unheard and become desparate, they often adopt a defiant stance. If we sought to create places of sanctuary, places of understanding, places where experience is heard, we may be on a better track to meeting the needs of troubled teens. I have been confused many times how that drug addicted teens are weaned off of street drugs only to be psychiatrically hospitalized and given prescribed drugs. I wonder what message we are sending.

-Dan L. Edmunds, Ed.D.
www.humanepsychiatry.info

TIMELINE

Dr.D.L.Edmunds is the leader of the worldwide movement for a more humane mental health system. An existential therapist working mainly with children and teens, he has developed approaches focused on restoring relationships, developing meaning, and resolving conflicts. His focus has also been in regards to consciousness, extreme states of mind, developmental differences, and exploring the human condition. He has been a strong advocate for social justice issues.
1991- Edmunds serves as a legislative aide to State Senator Robert W. Schaffer. He later serves as the youngest registered professional lobbyist and involves himself in various political campaigns. He becomes a member of Students for Peace and Justice.He serves as a volunteer for the Larimer County Veterans Affairs Office.
1992- gains approval for the creation of a Youth Commission in Ormond Beach,FL. He serves as a campaign coordinator for a congressional campaign. Meets Martin Luther King III.
1993- volunteers with Peninsula Medical Center and as part of the REACH program for developmentally challenged children at St.Brenden's Catholic Church in Ormond Beach.
1994- organizes a student ministry at the University of Florida.
1995- completes coursework in Chinese Buddhism with Dr. Chih wa Chan as well as Comparative Religion and Christian Mysticism with Drs. Dennis Owen and Gene Thursby.
1996- is ordained as a deacon in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
1997- earns a BA in Comparative Religion, minor in Socilogy from the University of Florida. Receives ordination to the priesthood in Greek Old Calendar Orthodox Church.
1998- publishes journal article on the State of the Soul After Death in University of Scranton's Journal for Eastern Christian Studies.
1999- receives MA in Theology from the University of Scranton. Received into National Honor Society for Theological Studies.Begins doctoral program in Community Counseling at University of Sarasota.
2000- completes doctoral level coursework in Dispute Resolution via Nova Southeastern University. Spends a period attached to an Eastern Orthodox monastery.Begins practice as a therapist with a private agency.
2001- hosts local radio program addressing family issues and needs of children.
2002- begins autism support group and publishes articles on relational approaches.
2003- begins delivering lectures on autism and developmental differences as well as drug free relational approaches to ADHD.
2005- presents at ICSPP conference.serves as clinical coordinator for therapeutic equestrian program. Begins work as a psychological evaluator.
2006- delivers a number of speeches and presentations on human rights in the mental health system. Receives Doctorate of Education in Community Counseling from University of Sarasota. Publishes text- Children Our Treasure.
2007- appointed Dean of Faculty and Professor of Religion and Human Services for St. James Theological Seminary. Receives honorary Doctorate of Education.
2008- appointed as faculty and member of Advisory Board for European American University. Received as a clergyman in the Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church. Performs ordination to minor orders of a person with Down's Syndrome. Begins work on development of Lazarus House project.

www.humanepsychiatry.info

The Forces That Drive Us Mad and Being Human Again

There are powerful social forces which are heeped upon us. We cannot escape them. Children are told to behave 'appropriately'. Yet, what is appropriate? What does this mean? It is a social construct, and the most powerful of these social forces is the family. From the earliest point, a child is taught what are the 'appropriate' responses- when and what to laugh at, when to cry and when not to, and often how to feel.The family defines what is 'appropriate' but is it? One family may condone violence, another abhor it. The dynamics of the family shape us for life. What has been the experience of the parents may be forced upon the child to be their experience. Hence why adolescence is often a turbulent time as the teen seeks to become autonomous and create an experience apart from their parents experience or what they have been told to experience. But what of those who are stifled to the point where they can experience nothing but what the other has told them to experience? Here lies some of the root of what we may term 'insanity'. Being that each seeks a level of autonomy, each seeks to have their own experience, when this does not arise, then the person must cast off the shackles of these familial and social forces, often to the extreme of departing from all accepted notions of reality or what is termed by the mainstream as 'acceptable'. Once again, what is 'acceptable'? The message can be contradictory. We may be taught through our familial faith to not harm another, yet we are exposed to the forces of violent society, the prevalent self centeredness and greed, and we may then ask, what is 'acceptable'? Is the 'acceptable' necessarily what we have been taught? Is it necessaerily what we have learned? What is it that we have learned? Is it possible that we may have to unlearn? Behavior results from our experience. If a behavior is deemed by some as maladaptive, it can only be seen in light of experience. But can we really know the experience of another? Will we only choose to judge the experience of another by our own experience? Will we invalidate the other because they do not share our perception of experience? Will we force them to have 'our experience' and thus behave as we do? Are we right? Are we wrong? Who is to say? Could there be commonality in our experiences that we can recognize? Can we journey with each other? To find what is 'acceptable' is to find our humanity, to find our inner being, to find those links of experience which remain in spite of the social forces that cause us to sway this way and that, and for some tear at their core being and identity. When we are free, we can experience the other, when we are free, we can be ourselves. If we are free, we can reshape these social forces, and they will not be storms, but unifying forces helping us to recapture our sense of what it means to be human and to truly love again. How do we be free? Must be become 'mad' to be free? But are the 'mad' really free or have they been driven to this barren place? We can only be free once we have come to a state of unlearning, of unknowing, a rebirth where we are not bound by blame and shame and the darkness of past traumas or of ideas we have learned and carried forward because it is all we knew.

TONGLEN MEDITATION

Tonglen is a Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice. Tonglen means 'giving and taking". It is a selfless meditation where the person envisions and takes in the suffering of another person and gives back compassion and thinking of the happiness of others. This is a practice in virtue and is very useful in our developing not only a greater sense of our own happiness, but further empathy for others. The practice is similar to homeopathy or vaccination in that we take in a small mount of poison that helps to innoculate us from future misery.


-Dan L. Edmunds, Ed.D.
www.humanepsychiatry.info

ADHD, BIPOLAR,SCHIZOPHRENIA, PSYCHOSIS- Drug free psychosocial approaches and counseling

Dr. Edmunds is expanding his consultation to school districts, families, and organizations in Eastern and Central Pennsylvania and the Southern Tier of New York.Please see the following sites for more information:
www.scrantoncounseling.com

www.humanepsychiatry.info

If I could but change your heart...

If I could but change your heart- to leave behind attachment and greed- If I could but change your heart- to love your fellow man and perform a good deed- If I could but change your heart- to accept with compassion all in need.

Talking with Papouli

To the town, he is the local 'crazyman' who wonders about, at times engaged in conversation with himself. An elderly man with olive complexion, he is seen by some as a hopeless reject. Tonight I sat with him who I refer to as 'Papouli'. We chatted about religion, politics, and his past in the Vietnam War. What a beautiful man, but with such a broken spirit. The psychiatrists and others have said here is a man beyond reason, a schizo with no hope. Yet, I approached him with compassion, and found our conversation most relevant and of interest. Here is a man who has seen the pain of the world and felt it too! We had a wonderful exchange and as he parted he thanked me and said thanks for being there and for a good conversation. Would many even dare speak to him? Would any dare to be his acquiantance, much less his friend? I do not see a crazy man but a man who knows suffering, a man who knows loneliness, a man who knows what man inflicts upon his fellow man. But in him, I see hope. In our conversation, he gives me the vision of what we must change to truly be human and to love again.

WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?

In today's American society, we form about 5% of the world's population yet 80% of drugs used for persons given the diagnosis of ADHD are prescribed in the US. Recently, it was reported that the psychiatrist Biederman was reported to have withheld information about his receiving vast amounts of financial incentives from pharmaceutical companies. This same Biederman has promoted the diagnosis of bipolar and it was his work that the psychiatrist for Rebecca Riley relied upon. Rebecca Riley died from the massive drug cocktail she received. She was only 4 years old. There has been increases in the use of untested anti-psychotic drugs in children. These drugs can cause diabetes, tradive dyskinesia, and even lactating breasts in males. Persons are rarely given informed consent and most are unaware of these dangers. Psychiatry has become one of the most greedy and dangerous forces in our culture. It is being looked upon as a new religion and a means to address the human condition. Yet, it ignores the human condition, it ignores person's experience. We have come to the point of pathologizing much of human experience. There has recently been suggested that compulsive shopping and internet addiction are now 'diseases' in need of drug treatment. Psychiatry has become a money making machine geared at social control. American society is becoming a drugged society, a numb society. As a result, America is plummeting within the world scene. Americans are becoming less motivated, less driven, apt to believe the lies told to them, led to believe that there is something wrong within their brains rather than seeing our society as disordered. There has become an apathy, an acceptance of this disordered society as 'the way things are'. Persons are giving away their freedoms, expecting that the State will protect them or that psychiatry's 'technologies" (drugs) will make able to cope with the societal trends. Rather, it is forcing them into compliance to a system needing radical change. People are being made into victims, taught to feel helpless. As Noam Chomsky states, "All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume." We have become a society which shuns individual responsibility. The rich become richer and ride the backs of the poor, yet the poor have accepted their slavery and become apathetic. There is no critical thinking, no questioning of the way things are. Rather than question, there is ready acceptance of what the 'experts' tell us. Some of the disadvantaged see no way to survive but to accept the fact of slavery. It has become profitable for schools, families, foster parents, and others to have a child labeled and drugged. It is a means to keep everyone in their place. Make the child sit down and shut up, so they may be 'educated'. But what has education become? Critical thinking is not part of our current education system, rather it is based on a rote system of once again keeping people in their place and having them continue to keep the machine operating. People are being treated as machines, without thoughts and feelings, merely dispensible objects that are really but a conglommerate of chemical processes, nothing more. We spend billions to intervene in the affairs of other nations and with the guise that this is for our own good, that we are being 'protected'. But if we were to use our own definitions of terrorism to apply to our own policies and actions, we would find that our governmental policies may be some of the worst terrorism of all. But let's play semantics- when we kill, it is war, when they kill, it is terrorism. Change the language and we can deny responsibility and make it 'justifiable.'
When do we decide to wake up? When do we decide to no longer be controlled? When do we decide that we must again think critically? When do we decide to be human again?

-Dan L. Edmunds, Ed.D.
www.humanepsychiatry.info

Making peace with teens and creating sanctuary within a family

How do we make sense of the troubled teen? Particularly those who enter the world of addiction, whose family relationships are torn, and who are often seen associating with 'negative' peers? Many will assume that these teens can be easily identified by their style of dress or maybe by their class, but these struggles can be found in many families. Behavior can be seenn but not experience. What the child may interpret as their experience may be very different from the parent and vice versa. What may have been gravely traumatic to the child may not have been seen as such by the family. In our society today which causes us immense stress and pressure to survive (if we are poor) or attain more (if we are well to do) has diverted attention away from understanding experience. Society has now sought to medicalize experience where any thoughts and feelings, any part of our human condition need not be understood but numbed by a pill. We are a numb society responding to societal pressures. These pressures become unleashed on our children. A parent may fear that their child will endure hardship that the parent may have endured so the parent seeks to force and coerce the child 'out of love' to achieve and do what the parent desires. The teen in a state of exerting autonomy feels threatened and thus rejects in toto the guidance of the parent and seeks after peers who will understand their experience and their pain. As I mentioned that we are taught to be a numb society, some teens choose to numb their emotional pain by illicit drugs. This idea has been instilled by our society. The teen may not realize the self destructive course they are taking because they have convinced themselves that they are free. But it is not freedom they possess, for freedom comes with responsibility, rather they have traded one slavery for another. Parents must take the time to understand the world and experience of the teen, to build communication which seeks to understand their desire for autonomy and which respects their experience. An overprotective stance and coercion leads to the breakdown of communication which is vital for any relationship to survive. We often distrust children, we do not allow them the ability to make decisions and when they are poor ones to see the logical consequences. Why is it that adults assume they possess the wisdom when adult society has engaged in numerous conflicts costing many lives? Could children make the right decisions or better decisions if we solely gave them support and listened and journeyed with them rather than seeking to take away their autonomy they so desparately desire? We all seek to be free. When we seek to create the identity and destiny of the teen, we will fail. They will not be able to develop an identity of their own but will grapple with who they are, meaning, and their purpose. We must allow them to find themselves as we as adults function as coaches in this game of life. We cannot think we can play the game for them or can manipulate the results. When we can become involved with children again in a relationship of trust and respect, then it is possible that what is seen as troublesome behavior will diminish. When the child feels validated, supported, heard, and able to have a voice, they will in turn give the same to the parent. We must be cautious of what we model. If we seek to coerce and manipulate the child to meet our desires as adults, we will have manipulative children. Our methods of communication will be the childs methods. If we focus our time on the mundane, we will find children to do likewise or seek to rebel against this system. Because of the imbalance in power, the child's rebellion is never successful but mostly self destructive but they rarely recogbize this. We can restore sanctuary to families, but it is up to each to take ownership and responsibility for creating it.

Dan L. Edmunds,Ed.D.
Dunmore,PA
www.humanepsychiatry.info