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Conditions and Therapies Specialized by CCPsychological
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Child Behavior, School Problems, and Parenting
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Psychotherapy for Adults, Families and Couples
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Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
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Neurofeedback vs. Biofeedback
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Panic Attacks, Anxiety, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
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Psychotherapy for Adolescents and Children
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Special Accommodation for Testing
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Glossary of Conditions and Therapies
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Term
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Definition
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Achievement Testing
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A standardised test used to measure acquired learning, e.g., competence in a specific subject area such as reading or arithmetic, in contrast to an intelligence test which is a useful index of potential ability or learning. |
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Acute Stress
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Acute stress disorder (ASD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by a cluster of dissociative and anxiety symptoms occurring within one month of a traumatic event. (Dissociation is a psychological reaction to trauma in which the mind tries to cope by "sealing off" some features of the trauma from conscious awareness). |
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ADHD
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ADHD is a diagnosis applied to children and adults who consistently display certain characteristic behaviors over a period of time. The most common core features include:
• distractibility (poor sustained attention to tasks)
• impulsivity (impaired impulse control and delay of gratification)
• hyperactivity (excessive activity and physical restlessness)
In order to meet diagnostic criteria, these behaviors must be excessive, long-term, and pervasive. The behaviors must appear before age 7, and continue for at least 6 months. A crucial consideration is that the behaviors must create a real handicap in at least two areas of a person's life, such as school, home, work, or social settings. These criteria set ADHD apart from the "normal" distractibility and impulsive behavior of childhood, or the effects of the hectic and overstressed lifestyle prevalent in our society.
According to the DSM-IV (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition) some common symptoms of ADHD include: often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes; often has difficulty sustaining attention to tasks; often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly; often fails to follow instructions carefully and completely; losing or forgetting important things; feeling restless, often fidgeting with hands or feet, or squirming; running or climbing excessively; often talks excessively; often blurts out answers before hearing the whole question; often has difficulty awaiting turn.
Please keep in mind that the exact nature and severity of AD/HD symptoms varies from person to person. Approximately one-third of people with ADHD do not have the hyperactive or overactive behavior component, for example. |
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Adjustment problems
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The relative degree of harmony between an individual's needs and the requirements of the environment. |
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Anger
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In modern society, anger is viewed as an immature or uncivilized response to frustration, threat, violation, or loss. Conversely, keeping calm, coolheaded, or turning the other cheek is considered more socially acceptable. This conditioning can cause inappropriate expressions of anger, such as uncontrolled, violent outbursts or misdirected anger, or, at the other extreme, repressing feelings of anger (or lacking them altogether) when those feelings are an appropriate response to the situation. Also, anger that is constantly “bottled up” can lead to persistent violent thoughts or nightmares, or even physical symptoms like headaches, ulcers, or hypertension. |
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Anger Management
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The term anger management commonly refers to a system of psychological therapeutic techniques and exercises by which one with excessive or uncontrollable anger can control or reduce the triggers, degrees, and effects of an angered emotional state. Courses in anger management are sometimes mandated to violent criminals by a legal system. Typical anger management "techniques" are the use of deep breathing and meditation as a mean to relaxation. As the issue of anger varies from person to person, the treatments are designed to be personal to the individual. |
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Anxiety
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Anxiety is a complex combination of the feeling of fear, apprehension and worry often accompanied by physical sensations such as palpitations, chest pain and/or shortness of breath. It may exist as a primary brain disorder or may be associated with other medical problems including other psychiatric disorders. A chronically recurring case of anxiety that has a serious affect on your life may be clinically diagnosed as an anxiety disorder. The most common are Generalized anxiety disorder, Panic disorder, Social anxiety disorder, phobias, Obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). |
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Assertiveness
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Assertiveness is a skill taught by many personal development experts and psychotherapists and the subject of many popular self-help books. It is linked to self-esteem and considered an important communication skill. As a communication style and strategy, Assertiveness is distinguished from Aggression and Passivity. How people deal with personal boundaries; their own and those of other people, helps to distinguish between these three concepts. Passive communicators do not defend their own personal boundaries and thus allow aggressive people to harm or otherwise unduly influence them. They are also typically not likely to risk trying to influence anyone else. Aggressive people do not respect the personal boundaries of others and thus are liable to harm others while trying to influence them. A person communicates assertively by not being afraid to speak his or her mind or trying to influence others, but doing so in a way that respects the personal boundaries of others. They are also willing to defend themselves against aggressive incursions. |
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Assisted Living
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Assisted Living usually refers to a facility that is used by people who are not able to live on their own, but do not need the level of care that a nursing home offers. People who live in assisted living facilities usually have their own private apartment. There is usually no special medical monitoring equipment, nor full time nursing staff, that you would find in a nursing home. The private apartment generally are self contained; ie; having their own small kitchen, living area, and bedroom. However, there is a central social area and a central kitchen and dining area. Someone who lives at an assisted living facility would not have to be concerned with having to prepare meals every day because there is a central kitchen and dining facility that they can take advantage of. The central dining facility also allows for visiting with others without having to leave home. This greatly reduces the isolation that elderly, disabled or handicapped people suffer when living alone and who are afraid (usually for physical reasons) to leave their homes.
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Bi-Polar Disorder
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Bipolar Affective Disorder, "BPAD", or "BP" is a mood disorder catagory, consisting of Bipolar type I, Bipolar type II, cyclothymic disorder, Bipolar NOS (not otherwise spcified). Each varies with intensity and length of the varing manic or hypomanic and depressive episodes. These episodes result in unusually extreme highs and lows of an individual's mood, i.e. affect, over time. The high part of the mood is called "mania" (often times a euphoria) and the low part of the mood is depression. Bipolar disorder is now generally considered to be a biochemical disorder of the brain and its associated hormonal systems. Without proper treatment bipolar disorder can destroy families, friendships, careers, and even lives. Bipolar disorder can be so profoundly distressing for those that suffer from it that 15% of people diagnosed with bipolar will eventually commit suicide. It is found in disproportionate numbers in people with creative talent such as scientists and poets, and it has been speculated that the mechanisms which cause the disorder may be related to those responsible for creativity in these persons. Some persons with bipolar may even want to feel manic or hypomanic. That is where they feel their best and can best be creative and productive. |
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Coping Skills
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A coping skill is a behavioral tool which may be used by individuals to offset or overcome adversity, disadvantage, or disability without correcting or eliminating the underlying condition. Coping skills are also sometimes called work-arounds. Virtually all living beings routinely utilize coping skills in daily life. These are perhaps most noticeable in response to physical disabilities. An easy example of the use of coping skills in the animal kingdom are three-legged dogs, which typically learn to overcome the obvious disability to become as agile and mobile as their four-legged counterparts, whether born with the disability, or having received it due to an injury. When helping humans deal with specific problems, professional counselors have found that a focus of attention on coping skills (with or without remedial action) often helps individuals. The range of successful coping skills varies widely with the problems to be overcome. However, the learning and practice of coping skills are generally regarded as very helpful to most individuals. Even the sharing of learned coping skills with others is often beneficial. |
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Dementia/Alzheimer’s
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) or senile dementia of Alzheimer's type is a neurodegenerative disease which results in a loss of mental functions (dementia) due to the deterioration of brain tissue. Its exact etiology (cause) is still unknown, but environmental as well as genetic factors are thought to contribute. The usual first symptom is progressive memory loss. Alzheimer's disease can include behavorial changes, such as mental, disorientation, sudden periods of defiance, abusive behavior and violence, in people who have no previous history of such behavior. Thus, Alzheimer's disease presents a considerable problem in patient management. Average duration is approximately 7-10 years. |
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Depression
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Although nearly any mood with some element of sadness may colloquially be termed a depression, clinical depression is more than just a temporary state of sadness. Symptoms lasting two weeks or longer in duration, and of a severity that they begin to interfere with daily living, can generally be said to constitute clinical depression. Using DSM-IV-TR terminology, someone with a major depressive disorder can, by definition, be said to be suffering from clinical depression. Clinical depression affects about 16% of the population on at least one occasion in their lives. The mean age of onset, from a number of studies, is in the late 20s. About 2 times as many females as males report or receive treatment for clinical depression, though this imbalance is shrinking over the course of recent history; this difference seems to completely disappear after the age of 50 - 55, when most females have undergone the end of menopause. Clinical depression is currently the leading cause of disability in the US as well as other countries, and is expected to become the second leading cause of disability worldwide (after heart disease) by the year 2020, according to the World Health Organization5. |
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Disability Assessments
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Disability Assessments mainly deal with the effects of a person's illness or injury on their ability to function, rather than with the condition itself. Disability Assessment uses a diagnosis to provide pointers towards the effects that the medical condition may be expected to exert on a person's functional ability, as well as prognostic indicators. |
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Dissociation
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Dissociation is a psychological state or condition in which certain thoughts, emotions, sensations, or memories are separated from the rest of the psyche. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders considers symptoms such as depersonalization, derealization, and psychogenic amnesia as core features of dissociation. However, in the normal population mild dissociative experiences are highly prevalent, with 80% to 90% of the respondents indicating that they experience dissociative experiences at least some of the time. |
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Dysthymia
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Dysthymia, or dysthymic disorder, is a form of the mood disorder of depression characterised by a lack of enjoyment/pleasure in life that continues for at least six months. It differs from clinical depression in the severity of the symptoms. While dysthymia usually does not prevent a person from functioning, it prevents full enjoyment of life. Dysthymia also lasts much longer than an episode of major depression. Dysthymia may or may not respond to traditional anti-depressant medication and to other forms of therapy. Dysthymic individuals are often perceived as being 'dour' and humourless or as martinets. |
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Epilepsy
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Epilepsy (often referred to as a seizure disorder) is a chronic neurological condition characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. The condition is named from the Greek epilepsia ("a taking hold of or seizing"). It is commonly controlled with medication, although experimental surgical methods are slowly gaining acceptance. The causes of epilepsy are not known, but some scientists believe that seizures can result from a number of unrelated conditions, including damage resulting from high fever, stroke, toxicity, or electrolyte imbalances. Generalized tonic/clonic seizures may occur in any person under certain circumstances, including fevers and drug overdoses, but these patients are not typically classified as epileptics. Epilepsy connotes that an individual has seizures which recur over time in an unpredictable fashion. In 70% of all cases, there is no cause for epilepsy that is currently detectable at the state of the art. Some claim that it can occur in anyone at any age with no apparent etiological basis. In the other 30% of cases, a brain injury, scar or malformation is found. In most cases abnormal electrical activity can be detected in the brain with an electro-encephalograph or EEG. |
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Family & Parenting Interventions
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Intervention an orchestrated attempt by family and friends to get a family member to "get help" for addiction or other similar problem. |
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Head Trauma
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Head trauma is injury to the head from any cause. An important distinction is between blunt and sharp trauma. Immediate assessment is by checking the level of conciousness and the Glasgow Coma Scale, as well as monitoring the GCS over time and observing the pupillary reflexes. Assessments of the neurological system are vital in cases of head trauma. Brain injury can be at the site of impact, but can also be at the opposite side of the skull due to a contrecoup effect. Moreover, pressure against the skull by the brain, caused by hematomas or hemorrhages at the site of impact, can further damage more brain tissue. Craniotomy surgeries are used in these cases to lessen the pressure. |
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Impulsivity
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Impulsivity has been variously defined as human behavior without adequate thought, the tendency to act with less forethought than do most individuals of equal ability and knowledge, or a predisposition toward rapid, unplanned reactions to internal or external stimuli without regard to the negative consequences of these reactions. Impulsivity is implicated in a number of psychiatric disorders including Mania, Personality Disorders, and Substance Use Disorders; yet, there is significant disagreement among researchers and clinicians regarding the exact definition of impulsivity and how it should be measured. Impulsivity is also a key construct in many social decisions. For example, in jurisprudence, forensic psychiatrists often testify in mens rea decisions. If an alleged criminal act like murder is shown to be impulsive, the penalty is different than if it is premeditated. |
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Intellectual Ability
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Intellectual ability commonly refers to the ability measured by performance on an intelligence test. It is also sometimes used in the context of discussing the performance of someone in an academic or real world setting. |
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Learning Disorders
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Learning Disorders occur in three major categories: reading, mathematics, and written expression. Reading problems generally occur before the age of 7. This is followed usually by problems with spelling and written language expression by the age of 8. Mathematical learning disorders often are not detected until after rote memorization mathematics work has ended, and application of more abstract skills is necessary. These diagnoses are given only after standardized testing in the particular area is significantly below that expected by the child's chronological age, IQ, and educational level. |
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Learning Disabilities
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A learning disability exists when there is a significant discrepancy between one's ability and achievement. Usually this discrepancy equals a 1.5 standard deviation, typically 22 points between the IQ and an academic area such as math, reading, or written language. Someone with a learning disability does not necessarily have low or high intelligence, it just means this individual is working far below their ability due to a processing disorder, such as auditory processing or visual processing. Learning disabilities are usually identified by School Psychologists through testing of intelligence, academics and processes of learning. |
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Memory/Concentration
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Much of the current knowledge of memory has come from studying memory disorders. Loss of memory is known as amnesia. There are many sorts of amnesia, and by studying their different forms, it has become possible to observe apparent defects in individual sub-systems of the brain's memory systems, and thus hypothesize their function in the normally working brain. |
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Obsessive-compulsive
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Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a brain disorder, and more specifically, an anxiety disorder. OCD is manifested in a variety of forms, but is most commonly characterized by a subject's obsessive drive to perform a particular task or set of tasks, compulsions commonly termed rituals. Modern research has revealed that OCD is much more common than previously thought. An estimated two to three percent of the population of the United States is thought to have OCD or display OCD-like symptoms. Because of the condition's personal nature, and the lingering stigma that surrounds it, there may be many unaccounted OCD sufferers, and the above percentages could be even higher. The typical OCD sufferer performs tasks (or compulsions) to seek relief from obsessions. To others, these tasks may appear simple and unnecessary. But for the sufferer, such tasks can feel critically important, and must be performed in particular ways for fear of dire consequences and to stop the stress build up. Examples of these tasks: repeatedly checking that one's parked car has been locked before leaving it; turning lights on and off a set number of times before exiting a room; repeatedly washing hands at regular intervals throughout the day. |
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Panic Attacks
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A panic attack is a period of intense fear or discomfort, typically with an abrupt onset and usually lasting no more than thirty minutes. Symptoms include trembling, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, sweating, nausea, dizziness, hyperventilation, paresthesias (tingling sensations), and sensations of choking or smothering. The disorder is strikingly different from other types of anxiety, in that panic attacks are very sudden, appear to be unprovoked, and are often disabling. Most who have one attack will have others. People who have repeated attacks, or feel severe anxiety about having another attack are said to have panic disorder. |
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Parkinson’s
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Parkinson's disease (PD; paralysis agitans) is a neurodegenerative disease of the substantia nigra (an area in the basal ganglia of the brain). The disease was first discovered and its symptoms documented in 1817 (Essay on the Shaking Palsy) by the British physician Dr. James Parkinson; the associated biochemical changes in the brain of patients were identified in the 1960s. Some genes were identified only recently; others remain unknown. The disease involves a progressive movement disorder of the extrapyramidal system, which controls and adjusts communication between neurons in the brain and muscles in the human body. It also commonly involves depression and disturbances of sensory systems. |
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Phobias
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The term phobia, which comes from the Greek word for fear (fobos), denotes a number of psychological and physiological conditions that can range from serious disabilities to common fears to minor quirks. Phobias are the most common form of anxiety disorder. An American study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found that between 5.1 and 21.5 percent of Americans suffer from phobias. Broken down by age and gender, the study found that phobias were the most common mental illness among women in all age groups and the second most common illness among men older than 25.
Most psychologists and psychiatrists divide phobias into three categories:
Social phobias - fears to do with other people and social relationships such as performance anxiety, fears of eating in public, etc.
Specific phobias - fear of a single specific panic trigger, like dogs, flying, running water and so on.
Agoraphobia - a generalised fear of leaving your home or your small familiar 'safe' area, and of the inevitable panic attacks that will follow. Agoraphobia is the only phobia regularly treated as a medical condition. |
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Posttraumatic Stress
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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a term for the psychological consequences of exposure to or confrontation with stressful experiences, which involve actual or threatened death, serious physical injury or a threat to physical integrity and which the person found highly traumatic. Symptoms can include reexperiencing phenomena such as nightmares and flashbacks, avoidance of reminders and emotional detachment, and hyperarousal with sleep abnormalities, extreme distress resulting from personal "triggers", irritability and excessive startle. There is also the possibility of simultaneous suffering of other psychiatric disorders. Experiences likely to induce the condition include rape, combat exposure, natural catastrophes, violent attacks, childbirth and perhaps its accompanying exhaustion, and childhood physical/emotional abuse. PTSD often becomes a chronic condition but can improve with treatment or even spontaneously. PTSD is primarily an anxiety disorder and should not be confused with normal grief and adjustment after traumatic events. For most people, the emotional effects of traumatic events will tend to subside after several months. If they last longer than that then consideration should be given to diagnosing a psychiatric disorder. Most people who experience traumatic events will not develop PTSD. PTSD may have a delayed onset of years or even decades and may be triggered by a life event such as the death of someone close or the diagnosis of a serious medical condition. Once PTSD reaches the criteria for diagnosis the untreated course is generally for some worsening and then stability of the level of symptomatology over many years. |
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Psychosis
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Psychosis is a psychiatric classification for a mental state in which the perception of reality is distorted. Persons experiencing a psychotic episode may experience hallucinations (often auditory or visual hallucinations), hold paranoid or delusional beliefs, experience personality changes and exhibit disorganized thinking (see thought disorder). This is sometimes accompanied by features such as a lack of insight into the unusual or bizarre nature of their behavior, difficulties with social interaction and impairments in carrying out the activities of daily living. |
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Social Anxiety
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Social anxiety, sometimes known as social phobia or social anxiety disorder (SAD), is a common form of anxiety disorder that causes sufferers to experience intense anxiety in some or all of the social interactions and public events of everyday life. For instance, some sufferers have difficulty attending parties or meetings, making a phone call, walking into a shop to purchase goods, or asking for help from authority figures. Many people have 'butterflies' or minor nerves before a date, party, or some other event that will put them on public display, but that usually does not prevent them from attending. A true social phobia is an overwhelming fear, which in extreme cases can keep the sufferer housebound and isolated for long periods of time. Sufferers are often abnormally afraid of being judged, watched and possibly humiliated in public as a result of their actions, behaviour or appearance. |
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Social Skills Training
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Social skills training is a general term for instruction conducted in behavioral areas that promotes more productive/positive interaction with others. We teach social skills to students and adults who are (at present) socially unskilled in order to promote acceptance by teachers (and other adults) and peers. |
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Stress Management
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Stress management encompasses techniques intended to equip a person with effective coping mechanisms for dealing with psychological stress. |
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Stroke
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A stroke or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly interrupted by occlusion (an ischemic stroke- approximately 90% of strokes), by hemorrhage (a hemorrhagic stroke - less than 10% of strokes) or other causes. Ischemia is a reduction of blood flow most commonly due to occlusion (an obstruction). On the other hand, hemorrhagic stroke (or intracranial hemorrhage), occurs when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the spaces surrounding the brain cells or when a cerebral aneurysm ruptures. A small proportion of strokes are watershed strokes caused by hypoperfusion (usually due to hypotension) or other vascular problems including vasculitis. |
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Substance Abuse
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Substance abuse is a pattern of continued harmful use of a mood altering substance, that results in adverse social consequences, such as failure to meet work, family, or school obligations, interpersonal conflicts, or legal problems. Substance abuse may lead to addiction or substance dependence. Medicaly, dependence requires the development of tolerance leading to withdrawal symptoms. Both abuse and dependence are distinct from addiction which involves a compulsion to continue using the substance despite the negative consequences, and may or may not involve chemical dependency. Dependence almost always implies abuse, but abuse frequently occurs without dependence, particularly when an individual first begins to abuse a substance. Dependence involves physiological proceses while substance abuse reflects a complex interaction between the individual, the abused substance and society. |
Many of these definitions are adapted from the Wikipedia.
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