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 …
Read MoreWho Decides What is Normal and What is Not?
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 …
Read MoreWhat’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 …
Read MoreIntersex and Cochlear Implant Surgeries
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 …
Read MoreIdentity 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 …
Read MoreA 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, …
Read MoreWhat 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 …
Read MoreJumping Through Hoops with Insurance Companies
An Unfair Practice: Another day, another round of emails with an insurance company, trying to get an authorization for a prospective client’s psychotherapy sessions. This insurance company, like most insurance companies, is clueless when it comes to providing services to its Deaf members. Because the company doesn’t have any qualifed in-network therapists that the Deaf client can see, the client …
Read MoreAnxiety: Does It Keep You from Seeing Happy Faces?
Happy Faces: A study that shows that the more anxiety people have, the more difficult it is for them to recognize happy faces. This makes sense because anxiety influences how we view the world and others. Keeping our anxiety to a minimum is healthier for us both emotionally and physically. Being able to recognize happy faces is just one small …
Read MoreThe Stoop Effect in Our Daily Lives: Thinking about interference (see Stroop Effect post on June 9th) and what it really means for us in our everyday lives. Jules made a good point in the comments section, noting that it can be hard to look past our first impressions sometimes and that we often need to remind ourselves to pay …
Read More