Psychotherapy can be an effective means of addressing the aftermath of abuse and all forms of interpersonal mistreatment and can help us develop the life skills necessary for protecting ourselves and meeting our needs in all kinds of relationships. However, it isn’t intended to be used for crisis intervention. The following is a list of…
Using The Resources Section
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ~Aristotle This resource section contains a large collection of articles I’ve written as psycho-educational material for use exclusively by patients who attend weekly after they complete assessment. The articles in general are information-dense, providing learning and psycho-educational material free of charge that ordinarily could easily take hundreds…
Psychotherapy Support During the COVID-19 Restrictions
The global response to the Corona Virus (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in severe restrictions on the citizen’s rights to freely move and travel. In the UK, at the highest level of restriction, we have been told by government not to leave our homes unless absolutely necessary, leaving millions of people disconnected from friends, family, employment,…
Protected: Being-in-the-World Part 8: fragile
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Protected: Mindset Part 14: meaningful discomfort
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Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 11: people pleasing
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Protected: Emotions Part 12: the good parent
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Protected: Psychotherapy Part 10: transference
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Protected: Body Work Part 1: Makko-Ho
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Protected: The Outsider Part 7: belonging
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 15: recovering from abuse and trauma
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Protected: Boundaries Part 6: attachment
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 9: whipping the horse
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Protected: Emotions Part 6: self-care
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Protected: Boundaries Part 3: practice
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 6: Grounding Practice
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 4: beings and objects
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 3: labels
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 5: Self and Other as Objects
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 1: a primer for being
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 2: Self-Esteem
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Protected: Emotions Part 8: Aggression Work
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Protected: Emotions Part 7: Anger, Aggression and Passive-Aggression
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Protected: Emotions Part 3: suffering, craving, and aversion to feelings
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Protected: Emotions Part 5: practice
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Protected: Emotions Part 2: Splitting
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Protected: Emotions Part 4: understanding and expressing their purpose
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Protected: Emotions Part 1: they mean us no harm
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 14: our power to refuse abuse everywhere
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Protected: Mindset Part 9: Reason for Being
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Protected: Experiential Work: integrating the psyche
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 10: resolving inner conflict and toxic introjects
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 13: recovering from narcissistic exploitation
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 10: Suffer the Little Children
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 8: Shame
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 7: reactive abuse and kicking the dog
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 6: Seeking Justice
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 5: refusing the role of victim
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 4: How Darkness Travels
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 12: narcissism’s heart of darkness
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 1: oppression and the hidden origins of suffering
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 11: the trauma of betrayal
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 9: the toxic victim
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 2: recognising darkness
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle in Context 3: Authority, Falseness and Authenticity
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle Part 2: Destructive Envy and the Hungry Family
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Protected: Mindset Part 3: clarity, purpose, direction
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle in Context 1: Authority, Common Sense and Freedom
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Protected: Boundaries Part 7: Relationship Imbalances and the Co-dependency See-Saw
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Protected: Mindset Part 7: transforming insecurity, anger and vulnerability
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Protected: Mindset Part 4: from fear to courage
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Protected: Boundaries Part 8: playing nice
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Protected: Emotions Part 10: child work 1
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Protected: Emotions Part 11: child work 2
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Protected: The Outsider Part 5: ‘the Crowd Conscience’ and the Individual
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Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 0: Living Against Ourselves
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Protected: Mindset Part 5: Stability, Power, Response
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Protected: Psychotherapy Part 8: The Talking Trap
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Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 10: faith and self-belief
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 8: Anxiety, Nothingness and the Existential Survival Kit
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 7: Anxiety, Nothingness and Surviving the First Lie
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Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 9: your fork in the road
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Protected: Being-in-the-world Part 7: psyche, body, and world
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Mindset Part 10: Self-healing and Loving Kindness
Entitlement and Lack of Generosity I looked that the entitlement mindset in an earlier article, which examined how this mindset is a symptom of unmet infantile needs that carry the expectation that other adults owe us something. Freud referred to the Anal stage of child development in his early theories whereby interruption of the stage…
Being-in-the-world Part 1: children born to parents who don’t want them
This Cold Hollow How did I know that you had left me before I knew the words for empty, lost, bereft? Before my birth scar? Before I witnessed the guillotine of your contempt? Before I could control my bowel, or tie my shoe, or awakened trembling in the night. Before you scoffed at me as…
Protected: Psychotherapy Part 9: going beneath the surface
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Protected: Boundaries Part 5: equal investment
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 14: Present Awareness
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Protected: Mindset Part 6: the Lighthouse Plan
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Protected: The Abuse Cycle in Context 2: Authority, Welfare and Wellbeing
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Protected: Boundaries Part 2: information sheets
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Protected: Mindset Part 2: Entitlement, Empowerment and Cooperation
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Protected: Being-in-the-world Part 3: love and loss
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Protected: Emotions Part 13: The Traumatised Psyche
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Protected: Mindset Part 11: Worry is the Beginning, Not the End
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Protected: Being-in-the-world Part 2: the world affects us
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Protected: Emotions Part 9: The Vulnerable Self
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Protected: Boundaries Part 4: Relationship Skills
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Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 6: Responsibility
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Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 11: the void
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Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 8: when no-one’s looking
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Protected: Depression Part 5: The Narrowing Way
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Protected: Mindset Part 1: Ambivalence in Psychotherapy
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Protected: Psychiatric Diagnosis Part 2: help or hinderance?
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Protected: Boundaries Part 1: your values and rules of engagement
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Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 7: living an authentic lifestyle
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Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 5: genuine relationship
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Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 4: being and becoming
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Protected: Being-in-the-world Part 4: When Past is Present
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A Poverty of Help: inadequacies of support to vulnerable persons in the UK healthcare system
This is the start of a collection of experiences of government-funded mental health service and medical service encounters conveyed to me by patients over the years. I will add more in time. Because of their prevalence, I thought I would start putting some of them together as an illustration of some of the bad practices…
Protected: Psychiatric Diagnosis Part 1: a guide and caution for the weary
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Protected: Being-in-the-world Part 6: Existential Crisis
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Protected: The Outsider Part 4: the scapegoat, and surviving the dysfunctional group
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Mindset Part 13: Mental Distress and Suicide
Statistically, suicide is the highest cause of death in men between age 20 and 49. The suicide statistics are shocking, with greater numbers of men taking their own lives than are killed in road accidents, or by cancer and coronary heart disease. Of the 6 233 suicides in the UK in 2013 (male and female),…
Protected: The Outsider Part 3: whistleblowers, and surviving the inauthentic culture
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Protected: Depression Part 6: Listening to Elvis
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Emotions Part 14: Dissociative Identity Disorder
Dissociation is our way of coping with experiences that overwhelm our capacity to manage ourselves, our needs and sense of selfhood in relation to the experiences. We are familiar with the idea of trauma being compartmentalised in the psyche; put away for another day when the experiences, emotions and needs can be addressed. In my…
Protected: Existential Affirmation Part 13: developing a spiritual practice
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Ways of passing the time
Indifference Here I am and there you are. And there’s the clock on the wall. I pretend I don’t want anything from you. You pretend you don’t want anything from me. Our pretending binds us like a form of artificial intimacy. And keeps us hungry, a million miles apart. Conversation I pretend I’m listening to…