Allies in Recovery: Use and Overuse of Collateral Support
Our allies, collateral contacts, and both natural and artificial supports are all susceptible to burnout.
Max E. Guttman, LCSW
Max E. Guttman is the owner of Recovery Now, L.LC, a private mental health practice in New York City. Through his work as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, therapist, and disability rights advocate, Max fights for those without a voice in various New York City care systems. He received a ‘2020 Bearcats of the Last Decade 10 Under 10’ award from the Binghamton University Alumni Association.
‘I knew my illness was so complex that I’d need a professional understanding of its treatment to gain any real momentum in recovery,’ Guttman says. ‘After undergraduate school and the onset of my illness, I evaluated different graduate programs that could serve as a career and mechanism to guide and direct my self-care. After experiencing the helping hand of my social worker and therapist right after my ‘break,’ I chose social work education because of its robust skill set and foundation of knowledge I needed to heal and help others.’
‘In a world of increasing tragedy, we should help people learn from our lived experiences. My experience brings humility, authenticity, and candidness to my practice. People genuinely appreciate candidness when it comes to their health and Recovery. Humility provides space for mistakes and appraisal of progress. I thank my lived experience for contributing to a more egalitarian therapeutic experience for my clients.’
Chronic Illness & Recovery: Setting the Pace for Sustainable Healing
I highly recommend taking every chance to heal to expect good rejuvenating outcomes.
No Flowers for People with a Mental Health Disorder
People with mental health conditions don’t get flowers
A Tennis Ball, The Trash Compactor Room & A Bucket of Shit
I don’t usually blog about my day, but today was unusual for a Sunday. It started very typically. I woke up and made some breakfast. I turned on the game and went to the bathroom for my morning constitution. Flush. Nothing happens. At that very moment, things got […]
The Rise of the Health Czar
The Health Czar is the final solution to the mental health crisis in modernity The age old debate of governance extends into mental health and its administration, policy making, and implementation of state and federal regulations. Some argue for democracy, and its careful review, however political, of the […]
Psychiatric Advanced Directives
I have put out flyers and solicited friends & family to fill out applications for my Health Care Proxy
Disrupting the Cycle of Anger & Explosive Behavior
I can never figure out why people choose to be angry. It is a choice. As a therapist, I diagnose people with Intermittent Explosive disorder from the DSM 5. I also provide treatment for the person carrying the diagnosis, help in terms of psychoeducation for the person diagnosed […]
The Admission of Guilt
We all have our regrets. I have suggested time and again our darkest hours can be re-framed as learning moments. This is impossible unless we admit we are wrong or have contributed to the problem. People make all kinds of mistakes. Some small, some big, and sometimes catastrophic […]
How to Self-Manage Breakthrough Symptoms
Breakthrough symptoms can be very disturbing and demoralising
Breakthrough Symptoms
People can be on the best medication targeting a mental health disorder and still experience disruptive symptoms. Breakthrough symptoms can be voices, delusions, paranoia or even depressive features that go unchallenged by medication and persist either chronically or when triggered by something external. This phenomenon usually occurs when […]
Addressing Symptoms (P): Thought Broadcasting
The most ornate and complex set and manifestations of symptoms exist in the Schizophrenia and related psychosis family of mental health diagnoses. Schizophrenia has both positive and negative symptoms. The symptoms are labeled differently to address and explain the experience of the person symptomatic. To identify which is […]
Relapsing: Surrendering Privileges
The best part of recovery is gaining access to new responsibilities, materials, information, and all the good things that come with stable living. Since relapse is an inevitable part of recovery, I plan to explore the loss of material, access, and resources attributed to relapsing and mental status […]
Clausewitz as a Recovery Model: Preparing for Definite Failure
At some point during your recovery you will be up against insurmountable odds pitted against your chances of success. This may be your doing, the aftermath of poor decisions, or it may be a new situation you are hurled into which was poorly planed and needs revision. In […]
The Living Room Model in Practice: Inside HDSW of Westchester
The Living Room model suggests that people in crisis are going to go the Emergency Room (ER/ED) if they cannot resolve the emergent dilemmas overwhelming them in the moment. These emergent dilemmas can be anything from new or worsening symptoms to a change in life circumstance, or a […]
Recovery is a Privilege
Slowly, I learned not everyone shared in my philosophy of recovery.
The Commodification of Empathy: How Authenticity is Packaged for Consumption in the Mental Health System
There are rules for participation in treatment on the level of common Article 31 clinic regulations for practices
Living in Two Worlds: Navigating the Intersections of Health and Healing
Before I lived in two worlds I lived in a world of persistent illusions, intrigue, paranoia & the seductive pull of my every symptom suggesting my health was compromised. With this said, my world was eclipsed, isolated, seemingly foreign, and unwelcoming to challenges I was facing connecting to the world in a meaningful way.
Community Health re-discovered: Addendum on the New Gold Standard
The rise of the Modern Health Home and fall of the silos gestures to the system’s attempt at integrating care, but, like most new turns treatment, the outcomes reflected the clumsy practices of the care management philosophy and regulations
Addressing Symptoms: Functional Impairments
We all have our limitations. Some of them more visible to the naked eye, others, more covert, and hidden away from the public but regardless still an internal struggle we battle everyday. As a therapist, I have the opportunity to listen to other practitioners talk about their patients […]
TOO BIG TO FAIL
Some things are too important to disappear or die off.
TRANSFORMATIVE PATHWAYS FOR INDENTIFYING CONCERNS IN THE HUMANITIES: CONTESTING ADMISSION
The 10 year Anniversary Edition Max E. Guttman has “no purpose or reason {} for being {} in the department” (The People of New the State of New York VS. Max E. Guttman, 2008) Background: Contesting Admission is one extended metaphor that seeks to capture the events unfolding in […]
The Jüdische and the Jewish Instinct for Survival
The Judenrat has an unmistakable hand in the execution and carrying out of the Final Solution.
Motivation, Planning & Transformation: Reaching our Goals
Some call it growth and others say it’s maturation. Unquestionably any personal or professional advancement necessitates the evolution of the self. We all seem to at some point in our lives need and want to better ourselves. The challenge of self improvement undeniably shares a frontier with the […]
Addressing Symptoms: Mania
Mania can seem like the best high in the world. Mania is all intoxicating. Mania can make you believe and buy into fantasies of all shapes, sizes and forms. During a manic episode, you can transcend historical points of reference and religious symbolism/iconography prescribed by your belief system […]
Learning to Identify and Self-Manage Mania
Ultimately, there will be times when you have to live with unresolved symptoms.
Mental Health Affairs 
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