Supervision is a term that often causes much debate within counselling and psychotherapy circles. It was once considered to be something you ‘got landed with’ by virtue of being the most experienced practitioner within an organisation. Implicit in this view was that therapy should be conducted in a right way and, therefore, not in a wrong […]
Have you heard of fidget spinners? If not, you might be surprised to hear then that they top the lists of the best-selling toys on Amazon UK. They are the latest craze amongst school children and are being hailed as a learning tool to help kids suffering from inattentive states of mind. Today I was
I often wonder how the whole field of counselling and psychotherapy could help to better address the needs of those who are essentially most in need of psychological support. Men, for instance, who suffer from depression often present as angry individuals but the anger is often hiding the pain of depression. Depression in men is
I believe that transformation in psychotherapy is when insight is achieved into one’s historical ways of operating in the world, that are not serving well, and personal qualities are harnessed to bring about change and a different way of behaving with other individuals. Therapists from different modalities will often seek to accuntuate the theoretical differences
A major research study from the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) and the University of Cambridge reported on its findings earlier this week. The study involved tracking over 16000 Britons over a period of 15 years and found that men who suffered from anxiety were more at risk of dying from cancer as those men
I always find it interesting when people not trained in psychology adopt tools, techniques and insights from the field and start to practice them in their particular area. Sports coaches are increasingly using psychological insights to improve elite performance in individual and teams sports. Another area is the investment sector to boost one’s ability to
I have often wondered whether the compiling of to-do lists merely fuel our anxiety or help to ease our worry in an era of information overload. If you are anything like me you might fret about the unfinished tasks on a list rather than rejoice about the accomplishment of the tasks that you do manage to
Incorporating existential thinking into an integrative approach to psychotherapeutic practice has always been a huge influence for me. An existential approach may have its limitations but there are a number of ideas within the approach, not that the approach is always coherent and uniform, that can be of enormous benefit when seeking to view the whole person
Do you regularly find yourself blaming others for your plot in life? Do you often feel helpless and powerless in your dealings with other people? Do you struggle to make decisions and enjoy pleasurable experiences in life? If these questions resonate with you then you may be triggering the victim mentality when dealing with other people.
The term bad boy could be seen as a cultural archetype and in the movies James Dean’s 17-year-old character Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause would be a bad boy archetype. A modern Jungian perspective would view an archetype as a primitive mental image inherited from our earliest human ancestors, and is present in the collective unconscious.