Counseling in Chicago with Bill Martin, LCSW

In his website article, “Victory for Bloggers: Illinois Blog Wins Lawsuit”, Warner Todd Huston, reports:

“In a good sign for blogger free speech, a lawsuit against a high profile conservative blog in Illinois has just been tossed out. A political contributor brought the lawsuit over a story about property tax reassessments and political contributions. This is a victory for free political speech as well as a victory for the status of blogs in the world of “journalism.”

So, more evidence and close to home for all those Illinois bloggers who are reporting on controversial topics. They have the same protection as mainstream journalists.

Examining the religious right wing activism defending catholic clergy sex abusers and the response of the church, it’s pretty easy to understand why Joe Paterno didn’t do anything to protect the children being raped by Jerry Sandusky.

He’s Joe Paterno and probably feels entitled to do whatever he wants, just like Bill Donohue, Bishop Finn of Kansas City, the catholic pope, and the entire catholic church hierarchy.
Bill Donohue, Executive Director of Catholic League Center for Religious and Civil Rights,

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If you were raised a Catholic in the 50’s and 60’s as I was, you will also be shocked to find out the Catholic clergy have been sexually abusing children, adolescents and adults since the early days of the church.

The notion that sexual abuse by Catholic clergy is a modern phenomenon is the public relations and legal strategy used today to explain and defend against responsibility for this betrayal of children and families.

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When Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, called and left a voice mail message asking you to apologize, I was shocked, but not surprised.

Like many others, I wondered what in the world she was thinking. Then I realized she probably believes what her husband testified under oath and then wrote in his book…that you are a liar.

Really, does anyone else believe Clarence Thomas besides his wife?

I know there were opinion polls showing that many people did believe Clarence Thomas at the time, but I understand how power works.

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Ken Pope, PhD is a widely respected psychologist and author. His website offers one of the best discussions of dual relationships and I highly recommend it.

To read it, click here.

A Columbia University research project using functional MRI scanning has mapped the two brain systems responsible for empathic accuracy, the parietal and premotor cortex.

These two brain systems help humans understand the intentions of simple gestures, interpret the meaning of those gestures and place them into context.

The researchers used a group of volunteers (objects) to talk about emotional events in their lives while being videotaped. Later, these volunteers watched themselves on video and evaluated whether they felt positively or negatively while talking about these live events.

Then, a second group of volunteers (perceivers) watched the same videotapes and were asked to evaluate the positive or negative experience of the initial volunteers as they described their life events while also hooked up to functional MRI scanning devices to measure which brain systems were activated.
When the perceivers were accurate about the emotional experience, the same brain systems, the parietal and premotor cortex were activated.

Interestingly, when the perceivers were wrong, a third brain system was activated that involves the control and management of one’s own feelings.

This suggested to the researchers that a persons attention to their own feelings may cause them to miss the gestures and other behaviors linked to the feelings of others.

Read the summary of the study here.

Read about it here.

A video of Reynolds talking about his gullibility and feelings of betrayal by James Arthur Ray. Watch it here.

Would you stay in a sweat lodge where people around you are vomiting, passing out, and you are beginning to feel yourself losing consciousness?

It’s easy for us to say “no”, but people just as smart as us did not out in Arizona. Three of them died, and almost half of the other participants became very ill.

Mind control. These people weren’t taken into a room and hypnotized. They still had the ability to think and make decisions.

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You may know by now the police are treating the three deaths in the Arizona sweat lodge led by James Arthur Ray as homicides.

Ray is not a licensed therapist of any kind, so he did not have the help of any professional ethical code to guide his behavior.

Whether he will ultimately be viewed as a huckster operating a sweat lodge wildly out of control or a thoughtful professional who led an experience where three people were killed accidentally remains to be seen.

There seems to be a lot of evidence right now pointing to the former possibility. Here are just a few of the ethical principals (see NASW Code Ethics) he may have violated:

• Helping people in need to solve problems

• Respect for the integrity and worth of human beings

• Acting with integrity and competence as a professional

Also, here are a few ethical standards which he may have violated:

• Commitment to the well-being of clients

• Provide full explanation of services so client can make an informed decision about their participation

• Competence in whatever service offered as demonstrated by completion of educational, training, and professional experience

Based on the information gathered from police, participants, James Arthur Ray and his

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