THE ‘NO MEDICATION’ MYTH

 

Back in the day, when I first started practicing psychotherapy, most psychological therapists considered psychoactive medication to be a ‘no-no’. That’s why, back then, most of us usually tried to persuade our clients not to take psychotropic drugs. However, that was never an easy thing to do. That’s because in those days it was popularly believed that there was a ‘pill for every ill’. [Read more…]

MINDFULNESS – ANOTHER ‘FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH’?

 

Nowadays, you are a therapeutic nobody if you are not into ‘Mindfulness’. It is psychotherapy’s latest ‘miracle cure’. However, before you get too carried away, don’t forget that just like any other human enterprise, psychotherapy too is subject to the whims of fashion. Up until recently Cognitive Behavioural Therapy was the flavour of the month – now it’s so ‘last year’. These days, Mindfulness is the latest ‘must have’ therapy. Didn’t you know?  Are you ‘behind the curve’? Has Mindfulness passed you by? Don’t worry – in a year or two, therapy’s Fashionistas will all be into something else. You can catch up then. [Read more…]

GETTING YOUR LIFE IN BALANCE

 

A very important psychologist called Albert Ellis, once noted how lots of people get themselves into quite a tizzy, indeed often into quite a panic, as they try to get all their jobs properly completed, all of their challenges resolved, all of their objectives reached. And that’s just in the immediate, in the here-and-now. In the long-term, such restless people find themselves so continuously driven by life’s demands that they can never be still, never at rest, never take a real break. [Read more…]

COUNSELLING – PROFESSIONALS vs CHARLATANS:

Can the public easily tell who are properly qualified counsellors and psychotherapists and who are charlatans? Sadly, the answer is a resounding ‘No’. Unfortunately, the Government has refused to do anything that might help weed out the fake practitioners. It seems that the government’s ‘anti-red tape’ policies are all about pruning the official rule books. They want fewer regulatory bodies; they certainly don’t want to create any new ones. That’s why there isn’t an official Therapists Registration Agency and why there isn’t any way of keeping out the quacks. There is no such thing as a properly vetted list of genuinely qualified counsellors and psychotherapists. Buyer beware! [Read more…]

COUNSELLORS AND PSYCHOTHERAPISTS – PROFESSIONALS OR MAGICIANS?

Whenever we contact a professional we usually have a fair idea about what we are likely to get. Doctors doctor, teachers teach, priests preach, and so on. They, and all the other professionals know what they are supposed to do and the public knows what to expect. This is because every profession, every trade, every calling, has its own accepted area of expertise. Lawyers know the law; surveyors know buildings; bankers know finance. They and all the other professional experts know what they are supposed to know. Equally importantly they know what they don’t know. Furthermore, the established professions all require new entrants to be properly trained and to have reached a basic minimum standard before they can start practicing. Can counsellors and psychotherapists say the same? Are they all properly trained, educated, and qualified? Do their customers know what to expect from them. [Read more…]

IT’S HARD TO ASK FOR HELP

Most of us get depressed from time to time or we might get a bit stressed or anxious. However, sometimes these sorts of feelings can all seem a bit too much. Put simply, we might be finding that our worries are getting on top of us. We have got a problem; possibly one of the common, low-level, mental health issues that life occasionally throws up. It can happen to any of us. However, all too often, people are reluctant to admit that have a mental health problem or ask for some professional help. Somehow, seeing a counsellor or a psychotherapist is something to be ashamed of. It is a ‘bit of a stigma’. [Read more…]

HOW CBT WORKS

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, (CBT), is based on a very simple concept. It is this – Cognitive-Behavioural therapists believe that how we think, (COGNITION) affects how we act, (BEHAVIOUR), and conversely, how we BEHAVE, (actions), affects how we THINK, (cognition). In other words, they claim that it is our individual ways of thinking and behaving that makes each of us who we are and what creates our individual ways of being. [Read more…]

HELPING HEROES

I make a practice of providing free help and advice for anyone who has developed a psychological problem as a result of active service in our UK armed forces. It doesn’t matter to me whether they are active or veterans – in my view we all owe them more than we can ever repay. [Read more…]

DEPRESSION

Christmas is over, the New Year celebrations a fading memory, it’s cold, dreary, and freezing – welcome to winter, UK style! Sometimes, when we are struggling through these, the most depressing months of the year, it can be hard to find an upside to life. It’s no wonder that so many of us occasionally feel a bit low, a bit depressed. [Read more…]