The Eyes Have It: People have always been fascinated by eyes. Quotes such as “the eyes are the mirror of the soul” and “you are the apple of my eye” remind us how mysterious and powerful eyes can be. Researchers know that eyes are important perceptual signals as well. We act differently when we are being watched and we often …
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Jun
2006
Isms are Everywhere: Sexism, Racism, Audism
By: Deaf Counseling Center
Category: Audism, Gender, Racism, Research
Would They Ask This About an All-Male Anchor Team?: ABC’s Good Morning America announced yesterday that Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts will co-anchor the morning news, making them either the first or one of the very first all-female anchor teams. This announcement was followed by a news story questioning whether television viewers would be willing to watch two women give …
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Jun
2006
Mental Health and Deaf People: For interested colleagues and Deaf individuals, click here for information about an upcoming international online conference focusing on Deaf People and Mental Health. Here’s hoping a good number of Deaf professionals will answer the call for papers and presentations. Videos are also being accepted. The deadline is September 1st.
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Jun
2006
A Positive Move: There is good news for Deaf foster children in San Diego, California. The County has announced that it will set up a group home for Deaf foster children. We are crossing our fingers that this group home will be Deaf-centered and staffed by Deaf people. We also hope that this group home will consider including KODAs. In …
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Jun
2006
Who Decides What is Normal and What is Not?
By: Deaf Counseling Center
Category: Assessment, Books, Psychology
The Big Book: Following up on this week’s earlier postings on labeling, today we thought we’d take a look at the DSM, the hefty 943-page widely used Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association. The DSM is used by mental health professionals as a diagnostic tool. Every mental disorder, from autism to depression to …
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Jun
2006
What’s in a label?: Labels are everywhere. We label people by gender, race, sexual orientation, body size, personality, politics, and so on. With every label comes an image, and with this image comes a prescribed set of behaviors. Girls should be polite and follow the rules; boys have lots of energy and sometimes can’t help their unruliness. People with bodies …
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Jun
2006
Intersex and Cochlear Implant Surgeries
By: Deaf Counseling Center
Category: Children, Counseling, Gender
What Do Intersex and Cochlear Implant Surgeries Have in Common? Last summer we had a learning experience when we attended the American Psychological Association’s annual conference and found ourselves in the audience of an intersex workshop. Intersex refers to certain conditions that occur when someone is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to meet society’s expectations …
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Jun
2006
Identity and Privilege: Understanding White Privilege is a book that has made us think a lot about our own privileges and power as white people. Like the author says, white people don’t often realize how much we take for granted, how easy it is to overlook what it means to be white. We basically assume, for example, that the people …
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Jun
2006
A Desire to be Deaf: Here is an interesting case of a hearing woman with such a compelling desire to be Deaf that she resorted to putting cotton balls soaked in oil into her ears. See the article. In this case, the woman experienced negative reactions to sounds and reported feeling so much more “at home” in the Deaf community, …
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Jun
2006
What Does “Qualified” Mean Anyway?: Yesterday’s post brings us to another gripe with insurance companies and their in-network lists. When therapists decide to join a company’s in-network list, they fill out a stack of papers, listing their background, specialties, qualifications, etc. There is usually a list of languages that you can check off, to indicate your “fluency” in any number …
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