Michelle Skeen, PsyD, introduces her new book, The Critical Partner, which uses Schema Theory as a framework for learning new things about yourself and your partner. Check it out:

Quick Tip for Therapists by Martin M. Antony, PhD, author of Overcoming Health Anxiety and Jenny Rogojanski, MA

Changing behavior can be extremely challenging for clients, and finding ways to reinforce progress between sessions can be critical for successful therapy. In particular, the client's environment, culture, or social context may act as a barrier to making changes outside of the therapy session. One strategy that may be helpful for overcoming this is to include a supportive family member or close friend as a "helper" who can motivate the client to make changes between sessions. At times, a client's partner may not support the client's efforts to change, which can interfere with progress. In these cases, it is particularly important to get the client's partner on board.

by guest blogger Olga Trujillo, author of The Sum of My Parts

My father, or Popi, as I called him when I was a child, did not speak English, only Spanish. My mother (Mame) also spoke Spanish as her first language, but she could speak English, too--even though she had a strong accent. My brothers and I learned Spanish first and only later learned English in school. We grew up in a traditional Latino home - well, sort of. We spoke only Spanish at home, ate foods that reflected my mother's Caribbean roots, believed in God, went to Catholic Church every Sunday, and our earliest teachers were the nuns of our local Catholic School.

My parents taught us about familia ("family"). According to my father, only one thing was more important than familia, and that was God. It wasn't until much later in my life that I noticed that my dad didn't really have any family besides us, really.

by guest blogger Suzanne Phillips, Psy.D., ABPP, co-author of Healing Together

No one just shows up for a good relationship and relationships don’t just get better because time passes. It is what we do during that time that helps heal and enhance our relationships. Over the last few years I have written many blogs for couples. Here are six simple resolutions drawn from them that many have found enhance the bond they share with their partner.

by guest blogger Elisha Goldstein, PhD, author of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook

Here’s what I’m thinking about when starting this next year of 2012:

"May we all recognize in this New Year that the moments of our lives are rare and precious. Open to them, Bask in them, We are alive."

The reality is we often hold things that are rare in our world to be precious. These rare things are held to a high value, whether it’s gold, an unbroken sand dollar on a beach, or the short time that a baby is a baby before growing up.

If you peel the lens back for a moment you can see our lives in this very same way. We’re a blip in time in relation to the life of this planet we stand on and this Universe we live in. All the moments of our lives are rare and precious and it’s incredibly important to bring that awareness back to our lives.

by guest blogger Stephanie Sarkis, PhD, author of 10 Simple Solutions to Adult ADD, 2nd ed.: How to Overcome Chronic Distraction and Accomplish Your Goals

Here’s what I’m thinking about when starting this next year of 2012:

There's a trick to keeping your resolutions. It's amazingly simple, yet so effective. Ready?

Tell people about your resolutions.

That's it.

Why is this so effective? Because you've now taken your resolutions from private to public. Now people know.

excerpt from Present Perfect by Pavel Somov, PhD

Imagination is always at least one step ahead of reality. When we appraise the world, ourselves, or others, we compare what is (the real) with what theoretically could be (the imagined).

Say you got a B on a test. You look at this grade and you think that you could have done better, that you could have gotten an A. But that’s theory. The reality is that you got a B, not an A, and this B represented your practical (not theoretical) best.

With this in mind, let me ask you this: what do you mean by perfection—the theoretical best or the practical best? When you think about perfection, are you thinking about the imaginary perfection of what could be or about the perfection of what actually is? Of course, this is something of a rhetorical question. I know the answer: as a perfectionist, you define perfection as a theoretical best. That’s exactly why you are never satisfied with reality as it is.

by guest blogger Elisha Goldstein, PhD, author of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook

In the past couple of weeks I've been asked by a few different people in leadership positions how they can work with inherent and constant interruptions in their workday. One minute you're engaged with an important project, and the next someone calls you up or walks into your office with an urgent matter that needs attention. This constant moving back and forth interrupts focus and creates frustration that makes it difficult to concentrate. It's a vicious cycle.

What is important to recognize is that being yanked back and forth and getting caught up in an autopilot of increased frustration isn't going to make you more effective at work (or at home). We can also accept the reality that this is inherent in our workdays, especially now that we live in a 24/7 world where people expect us to be available at all times.

Want to give a gift that someone you love is likely to keep forever and will be meaningful to them for the rest of their lives? Regardless of the relationship, a validation letter is one of the most meaningful gifts you could choose. Sending a validation letter each year creates a tradition that will serve as a chronicle of the person's life as shared with you. Writing validation letters for young children serves as another way to communicate their importance to you and how much you love them. When they are older they will enjoy reading about your experience of their taking their first step, for example.

Read the rest of the piece here.

Quick Tip for Therapists by Randy J. Paterson, PhD, author of Private Practice Made Simple

It's sometimes difficult to get hardworking clients to contemplate the value of life outside work. One option is simply to recite the old maxim, "No one reaches the end of their life and says 'I wish I'd spent more time at the office.'" Based on my experiences sitting by a lot of deathbeds in my time, this seems to be true. I've never seen a shred of regret about not working harder.

Another option is to lead the client into the discussion like this: