In 1994 and 2001, Mervin R. Smucker gained recognition as one of the top psychologists, according to a peer review in Milwaukee Magazine. Headquartered in the Historic Third Ward district of downtown Milwaukee, the magazine boasts a readership of more than 200,000 and refers to itself as “Southeastern Wisconsin’s most authoritative source for events and dining.” Printed once a month by Quad/Graphics, Milwaukee Magazine belongs to the City and Regional Magazine Association. The dining section of Milwaukee Magazine offers comprehensive reviews of restaurants in the Milwaukee area and tip on where to find the best daily discounts. Visitors to the website enjoy access to the Milwaukee Magazine restaurant finder, which sorts restaurants by cuisine, location, or other keywords. Milwaukee Magazine also publishes an Events section, which provides detailed calendars and descriptions of events occurring in the area. The Events section contains a wide variety of entertainment destinations, including theater, music, and art.
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Mervin Smucker. The Phenomenology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Obsessions are by definition unwanted and intrusive thoughts, images and impulses generally regarded by a person as unacceptable, embarrassing and difficult to dismiss. The more personally unacceptable an intrusive thought is, the more uncomfortable one will be with its continued occurrence. When an obsession is present, it is accompanied by strong feelings of discomfort or anxiety, and the urge to „neutralize“ the obsessional thought, image, or impulse. Neutralizing behaviours can take the form of a compulsive behaviour (e.g., repetitive washing or „checking“).
These behaviours tend to be carried out in a stereotyped way, or according to idiosyncratically defined „rules“, such as engaging in a hand-washing ritual designed to neutralize a contamination obsession, and are associated with temporary anxiety relief. Neutralizing behaviours may also include changes in one’s mental activity – e.g., deliberately thinking a different thought in response to an upsetting obsessional thought. Individuals with OCD may also develop avoidance behaviors in order to avoid situations that could trigger obsessions.
Dr. Mervin Smucker is an international trauma consultant and author of numerous articles and books on trauma and cognitive-behavioural therapy interventions.
Mervin Smucker. The basic assumptions of cognitive therapy.
The cognitive therapy model developed by Prof. Aaron T. Beck contains several core assumptions regarding how our thoughts are linked to our emotions:
- Our emotions at any given point in time are largely determined by our active cognitions (thoughts and imagery);
- The „lenses“ through which we view ourselves, the world, and the future largely determine how we think, feel, and act;
- Changing our perceptions (i.e., changing the way think) significantly changes the way we feel about ourselves as well as the way we act, interact, and react to the world around us.
Mervin Smucker. The combination of exposure and cognitive restructuring interventions when the predominant posttraumatic stress (PTSD) emotions are other than fear.
When an individual who is suffering from a posttraumatic reaction, reports non-fear emotions (e.g., guilt, shame, anger) as the predominant PTSD emotion(s), cognitive restructuring interventions that employ imagery rescripting can often be very useful. This involves identifiying challenging, and transforming the traumatic imagery into adaptive-coping imagery, and replacing related maladaptive trauma-related beliefs with adaptive beliefs. As such imaginal exposure interventions are used, not for habituation, but for enhancing cognitive restructuring via the activation of the traumatic images so that the trauma-related cognitions can be identified, challenged, and modified. Once the intrusive images have either ceased or have lost their emotional impact and the individual is able to create adaptive imagery at will (e.g., mastery imagery, self-calming imagery), one needs to assess whether or not malaptive trauma-related beliefs remain that will require further cognitive and emotional processing. Frequently, Type II trauma victims will continue to be plagued with maladaptive beliefs (e.g., faulty attributions, self-deprecating schemas) about their traumatization long after the disturbing, intrusive images of the traumatic event have abated.
Mervin Smucker, Suppression of Undesireable, Unwanted Thoughts.
Individuals who find themselves in intensive, negative emotional states (e.g., depression, anxiety, panic) desire to get rid of their emotional thoughts, but often have difficulty doing so. In particular, people will often try to suppress thoughts that are undesirable, unwanted or violate their philosophical or moral beliefs. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, thought-suppression is generally ineffective and even counter-productive, in that it serves to reinforce the strength of the unwanted thoughts in the following ways:
- suppressing a thought during emotional states associates the thought with that particular emotion,
- suppressing emotionally-laden thoughts increases their potential to elicit emotion when they return,
- suppressing emotional thoughts during stress or mental overload increases their accessibility,
- suppressing emotional thoughts increases the likelihood and frequency of the thought’s reoccurrence (the more one tries to push away the undesireable thought, the more the thought pushes back and remains in the forefront of one’s conscious level of awareness)
Dr. Mervin Smucker is an international trauma consultant and author of numerous articles and books on trauma and cognitive-behavioural therapy interventions.
Mervin Smucker. Phenomenology of the borderline personality
A borderline personality may develop in response to multiple traumatic experiences to which an individual was subjected as a child in the form of emotional, sexual, or physical abuse. Experiencing childhood traumas impair one’s ability to organize and synthesize information logically, impeding the development and maturation of cognitive functions involved in emotional self-regulation. Such individuals have difficulty symbolizing, fantasizing, and sublimating psychological skills necessary for coping with the small injuries of daily life. Instead, they develop a hyperarousal to emotional and sensory stimuli that interferes significantly with their ability to work through ordinary, day-to-day conflicts and prevents them from accumulating restitutive and gratifying experiences. They may experience intrusive recollections (e.g., flashbacks, nightmares), partial reenactments of situations reminiscent of early traumas, and an overwhelming sense of anxiety and vulnerability. As a result, they continue to live in the emotional environment of their childhood traumas, as if they were occuring today, and remain terrified of people, all of whom are perceived as potential aggressors.
Dr. Mervin Smucker is an international trauma consultant and author of numerous articles and books on trauma and cognitive-behavioural therapy interventions.
Mervin Smucker. Specific Treatment Goals of Imagery Rescripting & Reprocessing Therapy (IRRT) in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The general goal of IRRT with trauma victims suffering from PTSD is to facilitate successful emotional processing of their traumas. The specific IRRT treatment goals include:
- decreasing physiological arousal;
- eliminating intrusive traumatic recollections and distressing imagery;
- replacing traumatic imagery with coping/mastery imagery;
- transforming traumatic imagery into narrative language;
- modifying traumagenic beliefs
- replacing maladaptive schemas with adaptive schemas
- developing an enhanced capacity to self-calm and self-soothe, especially during times of heightened emotional distress
- developing more effective coping strategies for dealing with daily life stressors
Mervin Smucker. Self-defeating Behaviours and Mood Disorders.
Self-defeating thoughts and behaviours are frequently targeted for identification and modification in psychotherapy, especially with individuals struggling with mood disorders. Below is a list of self-defeating behaviours commonly linked to depression and related mood disorders:
- habitually putting the needs or wants of others ahead of your own
- repeatedly entering into relationships with people who are cold, rejecting, or unavailable
- being a perfectionist (intolerant of your own flaws or shortcomings)
- habitually being either passive or aggressive in relationships rather than assertively expressing your needs
- approaching problems as insurmountable obstacles rather than as opportunities for growth
- allowing your mood to be determined by the emotional states of others
- ignoring your basic physical needs (e.g., sleep, good nutrition, exercise)
- being addicted to the approval of others
- depending on alcohol, drugs, food, or other addictive substances or activities to elevate your mood
- being a workaholic while not taking adequate time for yourself or to nurture important relationships
- overreacting to the „minor bumps“ of daily life (poor emotional shock absorbers)
Mervin Smucker Ph.D. is an international trauma consultant and author of numerous articles and books on trauma and cognitive-behavioural therapy interventions.
Mervin Smucker. A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Amish and non-Amish children’s attitudes towards their families.
In a sample of over two-hundred rural school children in grades four through eight in southeastern Pennsylvania, Amish fourth graders viewed their families on a Semantic Differential Family Rating Scale more negatively than same-aged non-Amish fourth graders. By contrast, Amish seventh and eighth grade children viewed their families significantly more positive than non-Amish eighth grade children. These findings suggest that problems of familial and cultural adjustment may begin, and end, earlier in life for the Amish child than for the non-Amish child. It is conceivable that the young pre-pubescent Amish child is somewhat more critical and resentful of the work demands placed upon him by his family than the same-aged non-Amish child. However, by age fifteen when the Amish child is finished with his formal schooling – a time when many American adolescents feel overwhelmed by family, peer, and societal pressures – the Amish child may have already resolved his “crisis” vis-à-vis his social environment.
Mervin Smucker, Langkaas, Tomas, Nore, G. & Borge, F-M. When Change is not on Time – Troubleshooting Protocol-Based Treatment of PTSD.
Symposium presented at the 38th Annual Congress of the European Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Therapies, Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Recurring and distressing thoughts and images of a traumatic event are key characteristics of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The disorder leads to significant distress and loss of functioning for those who suffer from it. Developing effective treatment for PTSD has received increased interest in the CBT field in recent years, and several protocol-based CBT approaches now exist. However, employing a treatment protocol on a specific case does not always lead to the desired change and expected progress, and a significant proportion of PTSD clients in naturalistic settings fail to respond to our CBT treatments. The central theme for this symposium is “How to progress with protocol-based PTSD treatment when change does not happen as expected?”
The speakers of this symposium present case examples undergoing different protocol-based PTSD treatments that failed to progress as expected. Various attempts to troubleshoot these cases are discussed.
Smucker, Mervin. The creative application of imagery in cognitive therapy to enhance adaptive change.
The use of imagery interventions in cognitive therapy has been an emerging topic among theorists and clinicians in recent years. Clinicians are finding that intrusive, affect-laden images can contribute to significant distress in a variety of psychological disorders, and that using creative imagery interventions to confront and modify upsetting images can be a powerful approach that leads to alleviation of emotional distress. Research has found that emotional memory tends to be visual in nature, and conversely, mental imagery is generally more emotional than verbal processing of the same material. As such, directly challenging and modifying distressing images appears to be a powerful means of promoting emotional change. In recent years, a number of different cognitive-oriented treatments have emerged that use imagery to promote change with a range of anxiety disorders, depression, and personality disorders.
Mervin Smucker (2016). Meaning, Story and Psychotherapy-2.
Psychotherapists such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Aaron Beck classify and categorize the kinds of deep-level narratives we use to interpret events as archetypes, complexes, or core beliefs (schemas). Freud posited the “unconscious” as the realm where such stories reside. Jung posited the “collective unconscious,” which he conceived of as broadly cultural and even cross-cultural, while Beck’s pioneering work in cognitive therapy draws on the work of earlier psychoanalytic thinkers to posit “schemas” as a form of cognition. When these schemas are maladaptive, they often predispose people to interpret events through stories shaped by deep-seated fears relating to core beliefs of abandonment, mistrust, inherent unlovability, worthlessness, incompetence, and/or vulnerability. Psychotherapy helps people to uncover their narratives and confront underlying maladaptive schemas, with the goal of developing more adaptive schemas and healthier narratives.
Mervin Smucker (2016). Interface between psychobiology and imagery rescripting?
There is a growing body of empirical evidence that corroborate the efficacy of imagery rescripting therapy, especially in the treatment of posttraumatic stress. Increasingly, questions relating to the possible effects on the neural substrates compromised in persons with posttraumatic stress have emerged in the scientific community. Recent neuroscience research has reportedly found alterations in the neuro-humeral response, as well as in interregional brain activity (functional connectivity) and neurological development, among persons who have been exposed to significant trauma. These findings could enhance our understanding of how processing of traumatic experience may later directly impact neuroprocessing with respect to trauma memory storage and recall, affect regulation, and physiological response during trauma memory activation in individuals with posttraumatic stress.
It is conceivable that imagery rescripting, when successfully applied, redirects patterns of functional connectivity in persons with posttraumatic stress such that trauma processing, neurohumeral response and subsequent behavioral responses more closely resemble traumatized individuals who have not developed posttraumatic stress. It remains to be seen whether such phenomena can ultimately be demonstrated – such as by means of fMRI research – and whether imagery rescripting therapy can potentially lead to subsequent alterations in neural development.
Mervin Smucker (2015). The relationship between the self-transcendence of human existence and self-actualization.
Logotherapy emphasizes that human beings are themselves responsible for actualizing the potential meaning of their own lives, regardless of the external realities or circumstances. As such, the meaning of life can be discovered in one’s direct interactions with the external world, rather than within the human psyche, a process that Viktor Frankl referred to as the „self-transcendence of human existence.“ As such, the more that an individuals’ focus is directed to something or someone outside the self (e.g., a meaningful, heartfelt encounter with another person), the more one is able to transcend the limitations of individual human existence and, paradoxically, the more self-actualized they may become. In short, self-actualization is viewed as a side-effect of self-transcendence.
Mervin Smucker (2015). Panic Attacks and Breathing
An effective cognitive behavioral technique for those suffering from panic attacks makes intentional use of the breath. Persons who suffer from panic attacks tend to hyperventilate (shallow, rapid breathing) when stressed, which may trigger heart palpitations that they then misinterpret in a catastrophic manner (e.g., believing they are dying, are going to pass out, are losing their mind). Engaging in a “focused breathing” exercise – slowing inhaling and exhaling through the nose (with the mouth closed!) – can help to calm the person experiencing sensations of panic. As the hyperventilation is brought under control and the breathing returns to normal, the panic episode may dissipate within several minutes. In this way, individuals prone to panic attacks learn the effectiveness of breath control, and the association between the sensations of panic and breathing.
Mervin Smucker (2015). Logotherapy – an alternative to traditional psychotherapy.
Logotherapy was developed by Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor of Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps. In contrast to psychoanalysis, which is heavily retrospective and introspective, logotherapy is a meaning-centered psychotherapy that is focused on the future and the meanings to be fulfilled by the individual in his or her future, regardless of what the past has encompassed. The term itself has its origins from the Greek word Logos, or meaning. Frankl’s Logotherapy was part of The Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy with its focus on the meaning of human existence and the individual’s search for meaning to his/her existence, and its de-emphasis on the the „vicious-circle formations and feedback mechanism which play such a great role in the development of neuroses.“ Striving to find meaning to one’s existence is thought to be the primary motivational force in humans, which according to Frankl, can contribute significantly to breaking up the self-centeredness of the neurotic.
Mervin Smucker [Summarized from Frankl, Viktor (1984). Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy.]
Treating PTSD and Trauma with Prolonged Exposure plus Stress Inoculation Training (Mervin Smucker 2015)
A combination of prolonged exposure has sometimes been used in combination with stress inoculation training to treat adult trauma victims suffering from posttraumatic stress (Foa et. al., 1991). This combined approach involves an initial 2-hour evaluation followed by eight weekly sessions (1.5 – 2.0 hours each) that include: (1) education about the normal reactions to assault, (2) breathing training, (3) three types of relaxation training, (4) reliving the assault (imaginal exposure), (5) confronting current feared, but safe, situations (in vivo exposure), (6) cognitive restructuring regarding attributions and beliefs about the assault, (7) assertiveness training via role-play, (8) covert modeling and (9) guided self-dialogue. Following the end of each session, homework is assigned which involves instructing the patient to listen daily to the audio recording of the session and to record their subjective units of distress (SUDS) on a homework sheet, which is then brought to the next therapy for review.
Mervin Smucker, Ph.D., is an international trauma consultant and author of numerous articles and books on trauma and cognitive-behavioural therapy interventions.