kuu pihuhpuo o yuhu |
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Weekly news round-up
15/5/15
Notable news from the world of therapy: Med alert: Anti-depressants and other psychiatric drugs do more harm than good, says expert • Time to wean ourselves off the drugs • Mindfulness: an effective mental health treatment • U.K. news: Surge in young people seeking help for exam stress • Cuts are 'driving people to the edge' • Mental health awareness week 2015 • “I work in mental health but colleagues don't understand my depression” • Call for international LGBT psychology and counselling standards • Mental health mission for Leicestershire officer • U.S.A. news: Man who shot Ronald Reagan seeks release • A prescription for mental health in America • New York’s first lady ties mental health to income inequality • World news: Canada: ‘Sad but rad' fashion brand • Australia: $200 voucher for troubled couples to use for relationship counselling dumped. Read more
15/5/15
Notable news from the world of therapy: Med alert: Anti-depressants and other psychiatric drugs do more harm than good, says expert • Time to wean ourselves off the drugs • Mindfulness: an effective mental health treatment • U.K. news: Surge in young people seeking help for exam stress • Cuts are 'driving people to the edge' • Mental health awareness week 2015 • “I work in mental health but colleagues don't understand my depression” • Call for international LGBT psychology and counselling standards • Mental health mission for Leicestershire officer • U.S.A. news: Man who shot Ronald Reagan seeks release • A prescription for mental health in America • New York’s first lady ties mental health to income inequality • World news: Canada: ‘Sad but rad' fashion brand • Australia: $200 voucher for troubled couples to use for relationship counselling dumped. Read more
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B.B. King 1925-2015
15/5/15 There Must Be A Better World Somewhere Sometimes I wonder Just what am I fighting for? I win some battles But I always lose the war I keep right on stumblin' In this no-man's land out here But I know Mmmmm yes, I know There must be a better world somewhere |
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Weekly news round-up
8/5/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: General Election blues: A psychotherapist's recovery guide • Cameron: ensure our NHS is safe • Only less austerity will improve our mental health • Post-election playlists to suit every mood • Elections are bad for your health • U.K. news: The crisis in children's mental health: an NHS insider speaks • Pressure on A&E • U.S.A. news: May Is Mental Health Month • Millenials tearing down the stigma • The troubling link between the economy and mental health • Reviews: 'Welcome To Me' shows humor, heartbreak • 'Creatures of a Day: And Other Tales of Psychotherapy' by Irvin D. Yalom • World news: Earthquake-devastated Nepal struggles to heal its emotional scars • Nigeria: Hundreds freed from Boko Haram require counselling • Turkey: Obligatory counseling for domestic violence perpetrators • Saudi Arabia: Using art therapy to open the minds of jihadists. Read more |
Weekly news round-up
1/5/15
Notable news from the world of therapy: General Election: Where parties stand on issues relating to counselling and psychotherapy • U.K. news: Mental health charities can help people where the NHS cannot • U.S.A. news: Crunch on campus • Majority of Texans affected by mental health issues • Effects of bullying even worse than effects of abuse by adults • A stroll in Ikea: The ultimate test of a relationship • World news: United Arab Emirates: Employees fear disclosing mental health issues to bosses • India: Early counselling key in helping youth combat stress: Read more
1/5/15
Notable news from the world of therapy: General Election: Where parties stand on issues relating to counselling and psychotherapy • U.K. news: Mental health charities can help people where the NHS cannot • U.S.A. news: Crunch on campus • Majority of Texans affected by mental health issues • Effects of bullying even worse than effects of abuse by adults • A stroll in Ikea: The ultimate test of a relationship • World news: United Arab Emirates: Employees fear disclosing mental health issues to bosses • India: Early counselling key in helping youth combat stress: Read more
Weekly news round-up
24/4/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: Depression Awareness Week: “As a mental health nurse, I never thought that depression would happen to me” • Agony Aunt Virginia Ironside • The double life of someone with depression • U.K. news: Out of the shadows: The diminishing stigma of mental ill-health • Another Tory government will lead to a mental health services crisis, warn top health staff • Mental health and learning disabilities statistics monthly report • U.S.A. news: A surge in federal funding for Mental Health First Aid • World news: Vanuatu: Churches train for disaster counselling. Read more |
Weekly news round-up
17/4/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: U.K. news: The death of the “headclutcher” picture of mental ill-health • Wristbands for the mentally ill?! • Hundreds of mental health experts rally against austerity • New review recognises the importance of counselling in those affected by infertility • TfL spends millions on counselling for 'stressed' staff • U.S.A. news: Obama calls for end to 'gay conversion therapies' • Baseball teams nurture players' mental health • Lena Dunham’s mental health “workout selfie” • World news: Germany: Psychotherapy proven to normalize brain activity • Australia: Refugee experiences of mental health services • Botswana: Pre-marital counselling critical • Read more |
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More Instagram postings: best of #mentalhealth
6/4/15 The pick of recent pics. Don't forget, world of therapy is now on Instagram, too--you can follow world_of_therapy at instagram.com/world_of_therapy and receive a steady stream of soothing images for the soul. Feel free, too, to share your inspiring pictures, or photographs that describe your distress, by tagging them with the hashtag #worldoftherapy. See more |
Weekly news round-up
3/4/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: Autism awareness: World Autism Day, Week, Month • U.K. news: General Election 2015: Improving mental health should be a priority • Children with mental health problems can wait for more than three years to be assessed • Veterans' mental health: Referrals rise by 26% • Wales: Counselling service launched for clergy • Ben and Marina Fogle and 'marriage MOT' • U.S.A. news: Texas state trooper ordered to undergo counselling over Snoop Dogg photo • Trauma-informed psychotherapy puts the body – and love – back in mental healthcare • Chicago therapist mixes dance, psychotherapy • Phone counseling after back surgery • World news: Jamaica: relatives of those killed need special attention • Sri Lanka: common mental disorders among adult members of ‘left-behind’ • Uganda: Group support psychotherapy for depression treatment in people with HIV/AIDS • Last word: No, psychiatry could not have prevented the Germanwings disaster • Read more |
Weekly news round-up
10/4/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: Kurt Cobain remembered • U.K. news: Myths and realities of mental health • Jump in counselling for UK transgender children • Protecting mental health must begin in Britain's schools • Education doesn't guarantee happiness • U.S.A. news: Will the Germanwings crash affect how employers approach mental health? • 9% of Americans are angry, impulsive...and have a gun • California to provide counseling to mentally ill inmates • Children of undocumented immigrants face crisis • Michelle Obama, Kerry Washington and Sarah Jessica Parker talk mental health • World news: Saudi Arabia: Treating jihadists with art therapy • Jamaica: Signs you need to get divorced now • Read more |
On sex and sexuality:
Are you “normal"? 24/3/15 Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. This famous dictum, variously attributed to Laurie Anderson, Frank Zappa, Elvis Costello and Thelonius Monk, to name a few, could also be applied to museum exhibits about sex: They are destined to dissatisfy, to miss the point, to prove hopelessly inadequate compared to the experience of the thing itself. Nevertheless, undeterred, notebook in hand, world of therapy went to investigate the Wellcome Collection’s Institute of Sexology exhibition, where you are invited to “undress your mind.” You may, if you wish, do the same. Where do you stand, for example, on BDSM, kink, 50 shades? What are your "rules" of sex? Are you “normal”? Read more |
Weekly news round-up
27/3/15 Notable news from the world of therapy The plane crash: Andreas Lubitz's mental health • U.K. news: Deputy Prime Minister launches mental health in sport initiative • Mental health service budgets 'cut by 8%’—patients detained in a police cell • Children's mental-health funding boost • Male victims of sexual abuse • Psychotherapy practice uses animal magic • Blur: “We Went For Counselling” • Bogus psychology doctor exposed • Danny Dyer’s secret counselling • Coronation Street star training to be a psychotherapist • Trauma for One Direction fans • U.S.A. news: Measuring empathy • Popular club drug for the terminally ill • World news: Chad: refugees receive counseling • Ghana: mainstreaming mental health • India: prisoners to enjoy 'magical' counselling • Singapore: 24-hour help for problem gamblers • China: mental health issues triggering insomnia • Read more |
World of Therapy launches on Instagram
17/3/5
It's an obvious thing to say, but many things are therapeutic besides therapy. All the senses are involved: A beautiful piece of music, a meal, a massage. A sunset, a beach, a poem. The sound of rain—and the smell of grass afterwards. Woodsmoke. Waking from a deep, satisfying, dream-filled sleep. A human exchange of one sort or another. Sometimes such things can offer some kind of fleeting spiritual transcendence, as if it is the exact, perfect thing for you, in that particular place, at that a particular moment. Read more
17/3/5
It's an obvious thing to say, but many things are therapeutic besides therapy. All the senses are involved: A beautiful piece of music, a meal, a massage. A sunset, a beach, a poem. The sound of rain—and the smell of grass afterwards. Woodsmoke. Waking from a deep, satisfying, dream-filled sleep. A human exchange of one sort or another. Sometimes such things can offer some kind of fleeting spiritual transcendence, as if it is the exact, perfect thing for you, in that particular place, at that a particular moment. Read more
Weekly news round-up
20/3/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: International Day of Happiness • Children's mental health to get £1.25 billion boost • Mind matters: the politics of mental health • Wales: older men action call by Mind Cymru • USA: “President Obama has elevated the conversation about mental health to the national stage” • Mental health: A new priority in Corporate America • India: call for better focus on mental health in Kerala • Australia: mental health services spending on the rise • Other stuff: The computer will see you now • Run from your problems: why counselling during a workout is an effective form of therapy • Happiness is a needle and thread away: new data on benefits of knitting • Read more |
Weekly news round-up
13/3/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: Psychedelic drugs ‘not linked to mental health problems’ • UK: Open approach to mental healthcare • Strengthening rights for people with learning disabilities • Dreading Mother’s Day? Advice from counsellors on how to cope • Cameron Diaz (pictured) in marriage counselling?! • Mental healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa: challenges and opportunities • Liberia: with new graduates, African nation now has 144 trained mental health clinicians • Read more |
The colour of love
10/3/15 You've read the story on The 6 relationship types. Now we'd really like to know: what colour is yours? Here are the 6 types: • Yellow: When “avoidant” meets “avoidant” (cold+cold), eg. Terry & June • Red: When “preoccupied” meets “preoccupied” (hot+hot), eg. Burton & Taylor • Blue: When “avoidant” meets “preoccupied” (cold+hot), eg. Charles & Diana • Purple: When “avoidant” meets “secure” (cold+warm), eg. Bogie & Bacall • Green: When “preoccupied” meets “secure” (hot+warm), eg. Bill & Hillary • Black and White: When “secure” meets “secure” (warm+warm), eg. John & Yoko VOTE NOW! |
Weekly news round-up
6/3/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: Facebook’s bid to help prevent suicides • Julie Andrews (above): Counselling led me to love • The future of mental health in the UK: an election manifesto • Children's services hit rock bottom – so what's next? • Scotland: child wait increases 'are horrifying' • “The Troubles” linked to half mental health cases in Northern Ireland • USA: Michelle Obama promotes awareness of mental health care • Kenya: How one woman is “fighting the funk” by helping others • Israel: 350 soldiers received psychiatric counseling after Gaza War • Saudi Arabia: counseling helps 2,950 extremists mend ways • Australia: Large gap between rich and poor areas in use of services revealed • The developing world: When mental health is the best investment • Therapy: Two opposing viewpoints • Read more |
Trauma: the aftershocks of human inhumanity
4/3/15
A sad story last week about the suicide of a British soldier who suffered terrible injuries from a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan. For Private Bradley Paul, the psychological wounds became impossible to live with. The government sends people like Paul off to the dark places of the earth, often for highly questionable purposes. They witness death, destruction, massacres, unspeakable acts of barbarism. They suffer great injuries. They see friends killed right in front of them. They kill. Then they’re supposed to come home, keep calm and carry on as normal. “As you were, soldier.” Thanks a lot for your years of service, your courage, your sacrifices—now go away.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) doesn’t just happen in war zones, far away. It is an unbearable, horrific fact of life. It is among us. How many deeply traumatised people are walking on the earth today, right now, in pain, having received no treatment at all? Read more
4/3/15
A sad story last week about the suicide of a British soldier who suffered terrible injuries from a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan. For Private Bradley Paul, the psychological wounds became impossible to live with. The government sends people like Paul off to the dark places of the earth, often for highly questionable purposes. They witness death, destruction, massacres, unspeakable acts of barbarism. They suffer great injuries. They see friends killed right in front of them. They kill. Then they’re supposed to come home, keep calm and carry on as normal. “As you were, soldier.” Thanks a lot for your years of service, your courage, your sacrifices—now go away.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) doesn’t just happen in war zones, far away. It is an unbearable, horrific fact of life. It is among us. How many deeply traumatised people are walking on the earth today, right now, in pain, having received no treatment at all? Read more
The “tortured genius" theory of creativity
22/2/15 The most famous, most iconic tortured artist—the original—is Vincent van Gogh. Today, he would probably be diagnosed as bipolar, or possibly schizophrenic. He had psychotic episodes, he was sectioned, and he allegedly cut off part of his ear. He spent his final year in an asylum. He committed suicide. His paintings seem to telegraph his inner turmoil. The stars on the canvas burn too brightly. Each brushstroke appears laden with madness. Does a true artist have to suffer, drowning in angst and absinthe in a lonely garret? Must there be some psychological crossed wiring, some gaping brain lesions, or a too-hot neurotransmission system to allow such acute sensitivities to the outer world and the inner world of the imagination? No, not at all. Creativity is not some kind of special neurosis. It is instead like love, or a form of play—a good, healthy and universal part of being human. Anyone can access that incandescent, transcendant energy that can fuel our every waking moment—and lots of our sleeping moments, too. You don’t need to be a genius—nor class A drugs—to see with kaleidoscope eyes and create. Read more |
Weekly news round-up
27/2/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: The Oscars: Suffering on and off screen • “Stay weird!” • Celebrity couples • Mental health deaths in detention ‘avoidable’ • Putting UK mental health services on the road to recovery • Mental health and learning disabilities statistics report • Computers to replace counsellors? • Australia: New app to prevent suicides among youth • Mexico: Women with mental health problems pressured into sterilisation • China: Chongqing counseling center helps marriages recover from affairs • Psychotherapy now and in the future • Read more |
Suffer little children
17/2/15 We’re in the middle of the U.K.’s first-ever Children’s Mental Health Week, launched by the charity Place2Be, which for 20 years has provided counselling in schools (the 30 percent of parents who are “embarrassed” by the idea of child counselling need to get over themselves). The Government, too, claims to be committed to improving mental health provision and services for children, but what governments say and do can be exact opposites. Massive cuts in services, coupled with the legacy of continue-flogging-until-morale-improves former education secretary Michael Gove, is creating a generation of highly anxious, unsupported kids. A report released today announces an attempt to paper over the gaping stress fractures by introducing weekly “happiness” lessons. Much too little, much too late. Children need to be allowed to be children—to play, to make a mess, to be spontaneous, to create (grown-ups should try it sometime, too). And above all, starting long before school, what children most need is love. Read more |
Weekly news round-up
20/2/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: Alastair Campbell: I urged couples counselling for Blair and Brown • Service provision in the UK: time to think again • Armed forces suffering crisis as 28,000 are diagnosed with problems since 2007 • Suicide in Wales • USA: Where are the mental-health providers? • Funding for mental health services in Australia to quadruple • Mental health care in Nepal • Headline of the week: “Non-married couples on motorcycles will not be arrested, but given counselling” • Read more |
Valentine's Day: The demand for romance
14/2/15 It’s Valentine’s Day. The day when there is some kind of Big Brother (or Big Sister) command from on high that today you must be romantic, offer cards and pink fluffy things to the person of your dreams, make grand gestures intended to demonstrate the extent of your commitment, and perhaps go out for an evening meal in a red rose-strewn restaurant offering a “special” (ie. monumentally overpriced) menu. Valentine’s Day can be great of course, a celebration, a renewal. But love, romance and sexual arousal don’t tend to respond to command. Perhaps overall, on the balance sheet of human joy versus human misery, Valentine’s Day is a net contributor to the latter rather than the former. Read more |
Weekly news round-up
13/2/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: The NHS: “The psychiatric system is in meltdown” • Mind responds to “Policing and mental health” report • More online abuse cases for charity • UK detention policy worsens migrants' mental health • Annual report on US college students' mental health • Higher mortality linked with mental ill-health • Stress caused by discrimination linked to mental health issues among Latino teens • Indian helpline in UAE receives 70000 calls in 4 years • New Zealand: High demand for new online counselling service • Psychotherapy works, but not for everyone • 8 ways to use your phone to benefit your mental health • Read more |
The end of “conversion therapy"
10/2/15 “My death needs to mean something” wrote 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn in her suicide note in December. Well, it does: It further highlights the plight of transgendered people, and has dramatically accelerated the demise of the ludicrous “pray the gay away” practice known as conversion therapy, which has long been inexorably heading for retirement in the therapy curio cabinet, along with skull drilling, lobotomies, leeches, and various treatments for “female hysteria.” Therapy (and life) isn’t about trying to make yourself become someone you’re fundamentally not. It’s not about trying to change other people, either. Whether we’re part of the mainstream or we live more towards the margins of one bell curve or another, don't we all want acceptance and freedom? Isn't a fair, inclusive and peaceful society better than a prejudiced, oppressive and violent one? Read more |
Weekly news round-up
6/2/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: Despair goes digital • Suicide in America • Corrie star “abandoned by friends over mental health” • “Meaning-Centered” group therapy in advanced cancer • Bicycles aid counselors at Kakuma refugee camp • Mental health in Lebanon • Read more 
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The General Election: Anyone but "Camilibegg"
27/1/15 The General Election is now just 100 days away. How will you vote on May 7? Which fortysomething white heterosexual male from the south of England do you support: David Cameron, Ed Miliband or Nick Clegg? Does it matter? They have morphed into one, “Camilibegg,” a horrific, animatronic parody of clean-shaven, regular-guy wholesomeness that wants to please all the people all the time. Let’s ditch them. And while we’re at it, let’s not be limited by our own “false selves,” either. Read more 
The 6 relationship types: What colour is yours?
10/1/15 Our early attachment experiences as babies and infants direct all our relationships in later life. The way we learned to relate—hot, warm or cold—is the backdrop to every romantic entanglement and disentanglement, to every Machiavellian workplace manoeuvre, to how we operate as parents. Attachment, too, provides an X-ray vision into relationship patterns, which as a result can be broadly broken down into 6 different types. What colour is your love? Read more |
Asylums revisited
1/2/15 Politically, economically and emotionally, there’s probably little appetite for the return of lots of asylums, but a new paper in America argues there is something appealing about the possibility of refuge in “safe, modern, and humane” patient-centred facilities, where the original meaning of the term asylum—a place of sanctuary, support and treatment—is honoured. And where the staff aren’t like Nurse Ratched. Read more 
Weekly news round-up
30/1/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: R.I.P. Fido: Grief groups grow as American society views pets as family members • Children: mental health in the U.K.; child adversity and psychological troubles may speed up aging; the needs of gang-affiliated young people • Scottish ministers under fire over huge drop in mental health research • Los Creativamente Inadaptados: The alternatives to psychiatry movement in Chile/Argentina • Read more |
Blue Monday: How was yours?
24/1/15
How was your week? Did you survive “Blue Monday”? The third Monday of January has supposedly been “scientifically” proven to be the most depressing day of the year. The warm glow of Christmas (another myth) is now a distant memory, the credit card bills have arrived, your New Year’s resolutions have all fallen by the wayside. You’ve lost your mojo. There’s nothing on TV. It’s raining. The Blue Monday equation, however, has been debunked. There is some evidence that springtime/early summer is actually a much sadder time of year. Read more
24/1/15
How was your week? Did you survive “Blue Monday”? The third Monday of January has supposedly been “scientifically” proven to be the most depressing day of the year. The warm glow of Christmas (another myth) is now a distant memory, the credit card bills have arrived, your New Year’s resolutions have all fallen by the wayside. You’ve lost your mojo. There’s nothing on TV. It’s raining. The Blue Monday equation, however, has been debunked. There is some evidence that springtime/early summer is actually a much sadder time of year. Read more
On change: turn and face the strange
23/1/15
We’re born, we grow, we blossom into gorgeous ripeness. But sometimes our growth can be stunted, stuck or skewed. What prospects for change in these circumstances? Jung wrote: “We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate; it oppresses.” This paradoxical idea of change says: We can only become more like the person we want to be by first fully cherishing the person we are. Acceptance arises from two factors that therapy offers: self-knowledge, and, for want of a better word, love. Read more
23/1/15
We’re born, we grow, we blossom into gorgeous ripeness. But sometimes our growth can be stunted, stuck or skewed. What prospects for change in these circumstances? Jung wrote: “We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate; it oppresses.” This paradoxical idea of change says: We can only become more like the person we want to be by first fully cherishing the person we are. Acceptance arises from two factors that therapy offers: self-knowledge, and, for want of a better word, love. Read more
Weekly news round-up
23/1/15
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Goals in the political game of mental health: Clegg calls to end suicide, Milliband to end child mental health neglect • Mental health “first aid” • Online mindfulness training • Ditch the Prozac, take up crafting? • Every two seconds somebody Googles ‘depression’ in the UK • Read more
23/1/15
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Goals in the political game of mental health: Clegg calls to end suicide, Milliband to end child mental health neglect • Mental health “first aid” • Online mindfulness training • Ditch the Prozac, take up crafting? • Every two seconds somebody Googles ‘depression’ in the UK • Read more
Weekly news round-up
16/1/15
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Art therapy for troubled kids • Headteachers: pupils are “let down” • Bisexual women more likely to suffer than lesbians • Why is America’s mental health the worst in the world? • Tears of Ishtar: women’s psychological suffering in Iraq • Study challenges notions of Australian men’s openness to counseling • Voodoo priests, doctors on frontline of Haiti’s mental healthcare • Download New Year, New You • Read more
16/1/15
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Art therapy for troubled kids • Headteachers: pupils are “let down” • Bisexual women more likely to suffer than lesbians • Why is America’s mental health the worst in the world? • Tears of Ishtar: women’s psychological suffering in Iraq • Study challenges notions of Australian men’s openness to counseling • Voodoo priests, doctors on frontline of Haiti’s mental healthcare • Download New Year, New You • Read more
Weekly news round-up
9/1/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: • Did you survive “Divorce Day”? • Deputy PM launches search for “Mental Health Heroes” • Children's mental health services ’cut by £50m’ • Online counselling: easier for students to seek help • One woman's fight for mental healthcare in China • Good diet, good mind? What you need to know • Read more |
Weekly news round-up
2/1/15 Notable news from the world of therapy: • Children with mental health issues ‘should learn the violin’ • 7 resolutions for 2015 • Couples counselling: The envy of lost youth • Demi Lovato campaigns for bipolar awareness • Meeting Africa’s mental health needs • How Argentina's 'Loony Radio' is changing attitudes • 10 essential psych studies of 2014: Making narcissists empathise, memory boosting spice and 10 proven habits for happiness • Read more |
On motivation—or why resolutions don't stick
1/1/15
We emerge from 2014, unsteady and slightly hung over, blinking at the harsh light of a new year. A clean slate. A fresh start. But those new year resolutions will be forgotten by February. Human motivation is a complex business. We’re not always sure what we want, or why we do what we do. We are all perfectly capable, in a certain light, of being craven, weak, cruel—or even criminal. Perhaps we might resolve in the coming year to be more accepting of all our various imperfect selves—and of those around us, too. Happy new year. Read more
1/1/15
We emerge from 2014, unsteady and slightly hung over, blinking at the harsh light of a new year. A clean slate. A fresh start. But those new year resolutions will be forgotten by February. Human motivation is a complex business. We’re not always sure what we want, or why we do what we do. We are all perfectly capable, in a certain light, of being craven, weak, cruel—or even criminal. Perhaps we might resolve in the coming year to be more accepting of all our various imperfect selves—and of those around us, too. Happy new year. Read more
Weekly news round-up
19/12/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: • First “Mental Health Taskforce” meeting • “Time to Talk Day” 2015 • Police brutality and killings in America • Expert calls for better military mental health services • Irish counselling service sees dramatic rise in abuse victims • Vulnerable mothers-to-be need more support • Doctors in Massachusetts required to offer end-of-life counseling • What is “Coyote Psychotherapy”? • Which Jung archetype best describes you? • Read more
19/12/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: • First “Mental Health Taskforce” meeting • “Time to Talk Day” 2015 • Police brutality and killings in America • Expert calls for better military mental health services • Irish counselling service sees dramatic rise in abuse victims • Vulnerable mothers-to-be need more support • Doctors in Massachusetts required to offer end-of-life counseling • What is “Coyote Psychotherapy”? • Which Jung archetype best describes you? • Read more
Suicide decriminalised in India
19/12/14
In India, a failed attempt to take your own life might have landed you in jail. Now it has apparently dawned on Prime Minister Narendra Modi that some care and support for those who are suicidal might be more helpful than punishment. Anyone with suicidal feelings—a broke farmer in Kerala, a bereft celebrity in Hollywood, a relative, a friend, a colleague, a neighbour, you, me—needs support, reassurance, care and contact. What they emphatically do not need is condemnation and incarceration. Read more
19/12/14
In India, a failed attempt to take your own life might have landed you in jail. Now it has apparently dawned on Prime Minister Narendra Modi that some care and support for those who are suicidal might be more helpful than punishment. Anyone with suicidal feelings—a broke farmer in Kerala, a bereft celebrity in Hollywood, a relative, a friend, a colleague, a neighbour, you, me—needs support, reassurance, care and contact. What they emphatically do not need is condemnation and incarceration. Read more
Weekly news round-up
12/12/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Mental health manifesto: 5 things to change • A global depression-fighting strategy • The “Skype therapy illusion” • A social network from Mind for the mental health community • Abuse victims await therapy • Counselling and cooking: a perfect recipe. • Read more
12/12/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Mental health manifesto: 5 things to change • A global depression-fighting strategy • The “Skype therapy illusion” • A social network from Mind for the mental health community • Abuse victims await therapy • Counselling and cooking: a perfect recipe. • Read more
The “good enough" Christmas
8/12/14
That holiday period butt-end of the year known as “Christmas” can be a time of great celebration; a send off for the year gone by and a welcome to the new. But all too often it’s instead a time of abject misery, a welter of disappointment, a year’s worth of sorrowful Sundays rolled into one. Santa Claus isn’t coming to town after all. There are no chestnuts roasting on an open fire. We get the Christmas blues. Here are 6 survival suggestions. Read more
8/12/14
That holiday period butt-end of the year known as “Christmas” can be a time of great celebration; a send off for the year gone by and a welcome to the new. But all too often it’s instead a time of abject misery, a welter of disappointment, a year’s worth of sorrowful Sundays rolled into one. Santa Claus isn’t coming to town after all. There are no chestnuts roasting on an open fire. We get the Christmas blues. Here are 6 survival suggestions. Read more
Weekly news round-up
5/12/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Dire lack of hospital beds for patients with mental health problems • America’s hunger for executing people with mental illness: Scott Panetti gets a stay of execution • Counselling and psychological distress around the world: Depression alone will be the leading global cause of disease by the year 2030. Low- and middle-income countries have 86% of the world's almost million yearly suicides, but just one psychiatrist for up to every two million people • Study: Meditation as effective as psychotherapy for depression • The Guardian and Observer Christmas appeal. Read more
5/12/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Dire lack of hospital beds for patients with mental health problems • America’s hunger for executing people with mental illness: Scott Panetti gets a stay of execution • Counselling and psychological distress around the world: Depression alone will be the leading global cause of disease by the year 2030. Low- and middle-income countries have 86% of the world's almost million yearly suicides, but just one psychiatrist for up to every two million people • Study: Meditation as effective as psychotherapy for depression • The Guardian and Observer Christmas appeal. Read more
Multiple personalities revisited
29/11/14
“Eve” had three faces. “Sybil” had 16 different personalities, each of which was unknown to the others. Was “multiple personality disorder” for real? Don’t we all have lots of “selves,” lots of disparate strands in the tapestry of our being? Our community of fragmentary selves is like a rather rubbish football team—and sometimes it falls into disarray. Read more
29/11/14
“Eve” had three faces. “Sybil” had 16 different personalities, each of which was unknown to the others. Was “multiple personality disorder” for real? Don’t we all have lots of “selves,” lots of disparate strands in the tapestry of our being? Our community of fragmentary selves is like a rather rubbish football team—and sometimes it falls into disarray. Read more
Weekly news round-up
28/11/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Short-term counselling reduces suicide • Nurses warn of strain from cuts in mental health services • Clegg to establish cross-government taskforce for mental health provision • Pulling together to extend the lives of people with serious mental illness • Human rights abuses leave a third of Libyans with mental health problems • Canada: men's psychological wellbeing in the workplace—addressing an unmet need • Psychiatrist to the Taliban tells all • Counselling offered to cricketer whose bowl led to death. Read more
28/11/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Short-term counselling reduces suicide • Nurses warn of strain from cuts in mental health services • Clegg to establish cross-government taskforce for mental health provision • Pulling together to extend the lives of people with serious mental illness • Human rights abuses leave a third of Libyans with mental health problems • Canada: men's psychological wellbeing in the workplace—addressing an unmet need • Psychiatrist to the Taliban tells all • Counselling offered to cricketer whose bowl led to death. Read more
Gun supporters target mental health
25/11/14
Sandy Hook mass murderer Adam Lanza had mental health issues which had largely gone untreated: He had been diagnosed with autism, anxiety, and OCD, and at the time of his death was said to be suffering also from anorexia and depression. Mental ill-health is a poor predictor of violence, but the prejudice persists. In a land where guns are so much part of the culture—and such a big business—more people blame the mental health system than the abundance of firearms. Read more
25/11/14
Sandy Hook mass murderer Adam Lanza had mental health issues which had largely gone untreated: He had been diagnosed with autism, anxiety, and OCD, and at the time of his death was said to be suffering also from anorexia and depression. Mental ill-health is a poor predictor of violence, but the prejudice persists. In a land where guns are so much part of the culture—and such a big business—more people blame the mental health system than the abundance of firearms. Read more
Weekly news round-up
21/11/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Pregnancy and childbirth: mental health care for parents • Free relationship counselling to rescue marriages • Deciding whether to disclose mental disorders at work • Unabomber’s brother makes plea for better mental health services • Counselling proves most effective in meaningful weight loss • Are you sitting down? Some bad news for you: sitting may harm your mental health • Opinion: Is therapy just a really expensive best friend? (Answer: no.) Read more
21/11/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: • Pregnancy and childbirth: mental health care for parents • Free relationship counselling to rescue marriages • Deciding whether to disclose mental disorders at work • Unabomber’s brother makes plea for better mental health services • Counselling proves most effective in meaningful weight loss • Are you sitting down? Some bad news for you: sitting may harm your mental health • Opinion: Is therapy just a really expensive best friend? (Answer: no.) Read more
The great CBT debate
18/11/14
CBT has faced heavy criticism over the years. Now author and psychologist Oliver James is calling on the government to take a more holistic approach that embraces other talking treatments such as psychodynamic therapy. Why? Because, says James, CBT doesn’t work. At its worst, CBT is an absurdly simplistic, quick-fix approach—the idea that a person’s complex distress will be resolved after a few sessions of having their thoughts and actions challenged is laughable, like putting a tiny sticking plaster on a deep, long-standing and festering wound. Read more
18/11/14
CBT has faced heavy criticism over the years. Now author and psychologist Oliver James is calling on the government to take a more holistic approach that embraces other talking treatments such as psychodynamic therapy. Why? Because, says James, CBT doesn’t work. At its worst, CBT is an absurdly simplistic, quick-fix approach—the idea that a person’s complex distress will be resolved after a few sessions of having their thoughts and actions challenged is laughable, like putting a tiny sticking plaster on a deep, long-standing and festering wound. Read more
Weekly news round-up
14/11/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: Sex three times a day or no sex at all? Down Under sexologist FAQ: Is my sex life normal?
• Cognitive therapy, mindfulness for menopausal depression • Africa faces mental health crisis as life expectancy improves • ITV documentary "Broadmoor" part II: riot training, counselling and patients moving out • Evangelicals taking mental health issues seriously • Mental health and the military. Read more
14/11/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: Sex three times a day or no sex at all? Down Under sexologist FAQ: Is my sex life normal?
• Cognitive therapy, mindfulness for menopausal depression • Africa faces mental health crisis as life expectancy improves • ITV documentary "Broadmoor" part II: riot training, counselling and patients moving out • Evangelicals taking mental health issues seriously • Mental health and the military. Read more
On loneliness
13/11/14
Loneliness has always served an evolutionary purpose, ensuring that cavemen sought out other cavemen and created cave babies. Thanks to loneliness—and other unpleasant tendencies like anxiety, which has kept us ever-alert to threats—our species survived and thrived. Thanks to loneliness, our ancestors, stretching back to the dawn of time, got together with each other. Thanks to loneliness, you and I are here, today. Read more
13/11/14
Loneliness has always served an evolutionary purpose, ensuring that cavemen sought out other cavemen and created cave babies. Thanks to loneliness—and other unpleasant tendencies like anxiety, which has kept us ever-alert to threats—our species survived and thrived. Thanks to loneliness, our ancestors, stretching back to the dawn of time, got together with each other. Thanks to loneliness, you and I are here, today. Read more
What is a psychopath?
11/11/14
There has been a lot of talk lately about them. Society applauds the non-axe-wielding kind. They are celebrated. They are idolized. They stalk the corridors of power, finance, culture. They are our sporting heroes. The higher you climb in any field, the more of them you will encounter. Poor ones go to jail, as they say, while rich ones go to business school. But on balance, does the word “psychopath” really mean anything? Are any labels useful? Read more
11/11/14
There has been a lot of talk lately about them. Society applauds the non-axe-wielding kind. They are celebrated. They are idolized. They stalk the corridors of power, finance, culture. They are our sporting heroes. The higher you climb in any field, the more of them you will encounter. Poor ones go to jail, as they say, while rich ones go to business school. But on balance, does the word “psychopath” really mean anything? Are any labels useful? Read more
Weekly news round-up
7/11/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: Mental health of children ‘at risk’ in digital age: Violent video games, sharing indecent images etc is harming young people • Men react worse than women to a cancer diagnosis but do better with counselling • Mental health services for Aboriginal Australians inadequate, inappropriate • Troubled kids in Chile • An app to tell you how you feel. Read more
7/11/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: Mental health of children ‘at risk’ in digital age: Violent video games, sharing indecent images etc is harming young people • Men react worse than women to a cancer diagnosis but do better with counselling • Mental health services for Aboriginal Australians inadequate, inappropriate • Troubled kids in Chile • An app to tell you how you feel. Read more
Broadmoor: a glimpse inside the asylum
7/11/14
After five years of negotiation, for the first-time ever TV cameras were allowed into Broadmoor, the world’s most notorious high-security psychiatric hospital. The result is a two-part ITV documentary; part 1 aired last night. The Victorian asylums of old inspire both horror and fascination. We project all of our fears onto the asylum. We desperately fear our own madness. And yet, one definition of sanity is a recognition of it, an embrace even. Read more
7/11/14
After five years of negotiation, for the first-time ever TV cameras were allowed into Broadmoor, the world’s most notorious high-security psychiatric hospital. The result is a two-part ITV documentary; part 1 aired last night. The Victorian asylums of old inspire both horror and fascination. We project all of our fears onto the asylum. We desperately fear our own madness. And yet, one definition of sanity is a recognition of it, an embrace even. Read more
Seeking refuge from Bhutan's “happiness"
4/11/14
Bhutan, the tiny Himalayan kingdom sandwiched between India and China, is often imagined to be some kind of Shangri-La, an idyllic retreat, an ancient land of lost horizons. “The Land of the Thunder Dragon,” is also a deeply superstitious place, the last redoubt of Tantric Buddhism, home of the yeti. Read more
4/11/14
Bhutan, the tiny Himalayan kingdom sandwiched between India and China, is often imagined to be some kind of Shangri-La, an idyllic retreat, an ancient land of lost horizons. “The Land of the Thunder Dragon,” is also a deeply superstitious place, the last redoubt of Tantric Buddhism, home of the yeti. Read more
The therapeutic space
3/11/14
You go to see a therapist. What kind of environment are you hoping for? A formal office space? A doctor’s consulting room? Or perhaps a comfy, slightly messy lounge? The therapeutic environment has been subject to some research and attention, summarised in this report from Co. Design. For counseling settings, research suggests that softness, personalization, and order might affect the experience of therapy and the therapist. Read more
3/11/14
You go to see a therapist. What kind of environment are you hoping for? A formal office space? A doctor’s consulting room? Or perhaps a comfy, slightly messy lounge? The therapeutic environment has been subject to some research and attention, summarised in this report from Co. Design. For counseling settings, research suggests that softness, personalization, and order might affect the experience of therapy and the therapist. Read more
Weekly news round-up
31/10/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: The Priory in the City • Mental health inequality among black people • Mind: 'unacceptably low' spending on public mental health • Brain function altered by psychodynamic therapy for depression • Outlawing “conversion therapy" • Male suicides in England and Wales hit 15-year high • Sweden: therapy in the back of a taxi. Read more
31/10/14
Notable news from the world of therapy: The Priory in the City • Mental health inequality among black people • Mind: 'unacceptably low' spending on public mental health • Brain function altered by psychodynamic therapy for depression • Outlawing “conversion therapy" • Male suicides in England and Wales hit 15-year high • Sweden: therapy in the back of a taxi. Read more
Love After Love
28/10/14
The time will come/ when, with elation/ you will greet yourself arriving/
at your own door, in your own mirror/ and each will smile at the other's welcome
This is the first verse of the poem "Love After Love" by Derek Walcott, the Nobel Prize-winning poet from St. Lucia. The poem could be taken literally: it’s about love after love. Perhaps an all-consuming relationship has come to an end. The adventure is over. The pain is unbearable. Read more
28/10/14
The time will come/ when, with elation/ you will greet yourself arriving/
at your own door, in your own mirror/ and each will smile at the other's welcome
This is the first verse of the poem "Love After Love" by Derek Walcott, the Nobel Prize-winning poet from St. Lucia. The poem could be taken literally: it’s about love after love. Perhaps an all-consuming relationship has come to an end. The adventure is over. The pain is unbearable. Read more
Denmark: counselling for jihadists
24/10/14
A novel approach is being taken by Denmark towards young jihadists returning home after a stint spent fighting for ISIS and other rebel groups in Syria and Iraq. Are they stopped at the airport and refused entry? Are they thrown in jail? Passports confiscated? Are they forced to undergo some sort of deradicalisation brainwashing treatment? No: they are offered counselling. Read more
24/10/14
A novel approach is being taken by Denmark towards young jihadists returning home after a stint spent fighting for ISIS and other rebel groups in Syria and Iraq. Are they stopped at the airport and refused entry? Are they thrown in jail? Passports confiscated? Are they forced to undergo some sort of deradicalisation brainwashing treatment? No: they are offered counselling. Read more
Oscar Pistorius' long shadow
21/10/14
I remember August 4, 2012. That was the day when Oscar Pistorius made his debut in the 2012 Olympics, in my home town, alongside so-called “normal” athletes. For many people like me with any kind of physical impairment or disability, he was a massively inspiring figure. Despite being born with no fibula bone in either of his legs and having had both amputated below the knee as a baby, here he was, running like the wind, a true Olympian. Read more
21/10/14
I remember August 4, 2012. That was the day when Oscar Pistorius made his debut in the 2012 Olympics, in my home town, alongside so-called “normal” athletes. For many people like me with any kind of physical impairment or disability, he was a massively inspiring figure. Despite being born with no fibula bone in either of his legs and having had both amputated below the knee as a baby, here he was, running like the wind, a true Olympian. Read more
Animal crackers
18/10/14
The Guardian published a moving extract of Laurel Braitman's book Animal Madness, featuring a homesick gorilla, a heartbroken otter, a bereaved schnauzer, a tiger with a nervous tic, and Braitman's deeply disturbed rescue dog called Oliver. Read more
18/10/14
The Guardian published a moving extract of Laurel Braitman's book Animal Madness, featuring a homesick gorilla, a heartbroken otter, a bereaved schnauzer, a tiger with a nervous tic, and Braitman's deeply disturbed rescue dog called Oliver. Read more
Hard-hitting therapy
16/10/14
News from Russia of a bizarre new form of therapy involving lashing clients with a stick. Paying someone to hit you with a stick might gratify masochistic tendencies but any therapeutic benefits seem extremely dubious. At my school there was a geography teacher who liked to punish students by whacking them with his hockey stick, which he called "my willy" (I swear I'm not making this up). Read more
16/10/14
News from Russia of a bizarre new form of therapy involving lashing clients with a stick. Paying someone to hit you with a stick might gratify masochistic tendencies but any therapeutic benefits seem extremely dubious. At my school there was a geography teacher who liked to punish students by whacking them with his hockey stick, which he called "my willy" (I swear I'm not making this up). Read more
Happy birthday Nietzsche
15/10/14
On this day 170 years ago, the brilliant, contrarian German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born. He is much more famous now, in death, than he ever was in life. It takes a certain radical, fierce Nietzschean courage to live your life your way—to “come out" as you, without apology, in all your glory. Read more
15/10/14
On this day 170 years ago, the brilliant, contrarian German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born. He is much more famous now, in death, than he ever was in life. It takes a certain radical, fierce Nietzschean courage to live your life your way—to “come out" as you, without apology, in all your glory. Read more
Hip hop happy
12/10/14
What's the soundtrack to your life? Is it a happy one? Given the complex, at times paradoxical nature of happiness, it's perhaps no surprise that sometimes sad songs--the blues, Miles Davis, Radiohead--can induce wild feelings of euphoria. Read more
12/10/14
What's the soundtrack to your life? Is it a happy one? Given the complex, at times paradoxical nature of happiness, it's perhaps no surprise that sometimes sad songs--the blues, Miles Davis, Radiohead--can induce wild feelings of euphoria. Read more
Welcome
10/10/14
Today is World Mental Health Day, the annual global celebration of mental health education, awareness and advocacy. Good. This seems like an auspicious day to launch my blog. Over the coming weeks and months, I'll be commenting on news stories and mental health issues; exploring some of the people and philosophies from psychology's rich history; offering up some thoughts and ideas which I hope might be helpful to those in distress; and writing just a little bit about being a novice counsellor. Read more
10/10/14
Today is World Mental Health Day, the annual global celebration of mental health education, awareness and advocacy. Good. This seems like an auspicious day to launch my blog. Over the coming weeks and months, I'll be commenting on news stories and mental health issues; exploring some of the people and philosophies from psychology's rich history; offering up some thoughts and ideas which I hope might be helpful to those in distress; and writing just a little bit about being a novice counsellor. Read more