User:Robert Tarzwell

Hi all. Comments and discussion about psychotherapy are welcome, particularly around ISTDP (Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy).

Brief biographical blurb: I'm finishing up my psychiatry residency in Halifax (Canada) and will be relocating to Vancouver with my fiancée next spring to begin work. My key area of interest is in the use of psychotherapy with individuals suffering from medically unexplained symptoms.

I have found that, clinically, a frequent cause of unexplained symptoms is autonomic dysregulation of emotions. In plain language, people get quite anxious about experiencing certain emotions, often because those emotions are thought to be too threatening or overwhelming. Instead, the emotion is anxiously blocked off from being experienced. Some of the ways emotions get blocked off get translated into symptoms. One common example would be a headache at work in the context of a very frustrating situation.

The good news is, with a brief course of psychotherapy, previously feared emotions can be directly experienced, and people who previously had a very poor quality of life can have dramatic improvement.

--Robert Tarzwell 14:24, 27 November 2005 (UTC)