“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ~Aristotle This resource page is a collection of articles designed primarily as password-protected psycho-educational material for use exclusively by my patients who currently attend sessions weekly. It also contains some open-access pages, some of which may help people who are looking into personal development or psychotherapy work…
Psychotherapy Support During the COVID-19 ‘Lockdown’
The government 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 we have been told by government not to leave our homes unless absolutely necessary, leaving millions of people disconnected from friends, family, employment, and support services they would normally…
Affirmation
Existential Affirmation Affirmations are statements of a supportive or motivational nature that we repeat to ourselves throughout the day as a means of changing our thoughts, steering our mind in a positive direction. Existential affirmation is not the same as affirmation statements. It is a fundamental need we all share and is a source of…
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 mental health service and medical service encounters conveyed to me by patients over the years. I will add more in time. I thought I would start putting some of them together merely as an illustration of some of the bad practices that continue to go…
Mental distress: a sane response to an insane world
Is there something wrong with me? Or am I responding sanely to something wrong with the world?
Wireless Devices: Your Mental and Physical Health
Information about the damaging effects of wifi, mobile phones, smartmeters and other wireless devices that emit cancer-causing microwave radiation can help you protect you and your family
Personal Authenticity Part 10: faith and self-belief
updated June 29, 2020 Everyone has an opinion and many people don’t mind sharing their opinions from a normative standpoint. Namely, often we declare our views as if they hold authority over others’ opinions and validity for all. Within the group, the power of the consensus begins to grow in its influence upon the individual…
Protected: Have You Ever Been Seen? Part 2: Anxiety, Nothingness and the Existential Survival Kit
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Protected: Have You Ever Been Seen? Part 1: 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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Awakenings: a patient’s account of toxic parenting Part 2
As children, we do not have a developed sense of self; an ability to discern our being treated badly from our being bad; interpersonal boundaries that can protect us; a physique that can defend us from harm, or a developed sense of morality. In such a state of genuine vulnerability we are then open to…
Stigma: a patient’s account of toxic parenting
Toxic parenting is the term I use to describe a broad range of poor parenting, childcare, school and community practices that impact upon children in ways that are detrimental to their long-term mental and emotional wellbeing. This is not to suggest that coddling children is a solution either, as per the millennial trend of ‘child…
Protected: My Space: reclaiming and protecting my psyche, body, and world
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This Cold Hollow: children born to parents who don’t want them
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 I learned to…
Protected: Psychotherapy: going beneath the surface
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Protected: Darkness Travels: how we allow ourselves to be shaped by others
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Protected: The Vulnerable Self
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Object Relations: Self and Other
Cameos, written in irony, illustrating how human beings routinely and habitually relate to Self and Other as objects.
Protected: The Trauma of Betrayal
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Protected: Relationship Skills Part 2: equal investment
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Protected: The Reduction of Being: relating to others as objects
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Protected: Reactive Abuse: kicking the dog
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Protected: Internal Obstacles: conflict and introjects
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Protected: Present Awareness
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Protected: Grounding and Affirmation Guided Practice
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Protected: Emotions: understanding and expressing their purpose
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Protected: Holding Fast: the Lighthouse Plan
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Protected: Destructive Envy and the Hungry Family
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Authority Part 3: Falseness and Authenticity
How subservience to toxic authority erodes individual freedom, power and authenticity.
Authority Part 2: Welfare and Wellbeing
How subservience to toxic authority erodes individual freedom, power and authenticity.
Protected: Boundaries Part 3: information sheets
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Mindset: Entitlement, Empowerment and Cooperation
Three discreet, contrasting mindsets evident within psychotherapy and society are entitlement, empowerment and cooperation. Taking a compassionate, non-judgmental approach, it is worth clarifying each of these mindsets and their implicit values and their relevance to psychotherapy work in the interests of helping patients appreciate and enhance their contribution to the therapeutic relationship with the overall…
Protected: Shame
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Protected: Existential Awareness: a thread of despair
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Protected: Worry is the Beginning, Not the End
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We Are Affected by the World
“A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that’s just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it’s a joke.” ―…
Protected: Relationship Skills in Black and White
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Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 6: Responsibility
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Protected: Existential Void: beyond an empty belly
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Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 8: when no-one’s looking
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Protected: Depression Part 6: The Narrowing Way
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Mindset: Ambivalence in Psychotherapy
ambivalence 1. simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings (such as attraction and repulsion) toward an object, person, or action 2. a. continual fluctuation (as between one thing and its opposite) b.uncertainty as to which approach to follow Merriam-Webster Ambivalence as an Asset Ambivalence – the urge to go in two directions at once; to…
Protected: The Labels We Use on Self and Other
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Psychiatric Diagnosis Part 2: help or hinderance?
Some things to consider before being assessed for a psychiatric diagnosis or treatment
Protected: Boundaries Part 2: 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: Boundaries Part 1: ways we abuse one another
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Protected: Splitting: the world and others in black and white
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Protected: When the Past is Present
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Protected: The Traumatised Psyche
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Psychiatric Diagnosis Part 1: a guide and caution for the weary
This post seeks to give an overview of how upsetting or distressing human experiences can be viewed and categorised as illness, disease, defect, disorder or dysfunction requiring the special expertise of specific treatments, therapies, interventions and pharmaceuticals for effective ‘cure’. It is not my intention to devalue the choices exercised by patients who elect this…
Protected: Existential Crisis
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Protected: Keeping a Therapy Journal or Notebook
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Protected: The Outsider Part 4: the scapegoat, and surviving the dysfunctional group
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Mental Distress and Suicide
Statistically, suicide is the highest cause of death in men between age 20 and 49. This is not to diminish the female suicide rate, merely to present statistics. And 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…
Authority Part 1: Common Sense and Freedom
How subservience to toxic authority erodes individual freedom, power and authenticity.
Protected: The Outsider Part 3: whistleblowers, and surviving the inauthentic culture
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Protected: Anger, Aggression and Passive-Aggression
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Considering Starting Psychotherapy or Counselling?
“Everything depends on inner change; when this has taken place, then, and only then does the world change.” Martin Buber Facts Here are some brief facts about Psychotherapy and Counselling: You don’t need to have anything ‘wrong’ with you to benefit from psychotherapy A psychiatric diagnosis is not required to understand, work with or overcome…
Mental Health Feedback: help me help you
In a continual effort to expand my understanding of the needs of people who need help, I wanted to invite people to tell me something about their experiences of seeking help or being helped. Your comments are valuable in developing my own psychotherapy and personal development practice and understanding as a person, and if you…
Protected: Depression Part 5: Listening to Elvis
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Dissociative Identity Disorder
Still Like A House Fractured? No, curiously I feel fractured but I see myself in the mirror and I’m whole, standing still like a house. The mirror may be fractured, but my eyes still swivel like windows in this head, guided by a nose that acts as a weather vane. I open and close my…
Protected: Spirituality II: Developing an Existential 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…
Recovering your self in 7 days
Hollowday There’s a hollow in me; an absence. Like a piece of furniture missing from a room I haven’t been in for years. I enter knowing something’s changed and I can’t say what. There’s just the feeling. Hollow. Dumbday I feel dirty on the inside. I scrub the outside; wet hair, towel and soap, and…
Protected: Spirituality I: An Existential Perspective
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PTSD, cPTSD, and Dissociative Experiences
I wanted to write something about the relationship some of us have to traumatic experiences from our past. It seems important that I write this from an intuitive, non-technical place. For me, this is because intution – as opposed to fear – is what we need to develop regarding our power to manage our way…
On choosing a psychotherapist
When choosing the right psychotherapist it’s important to remember some basic facts about psychotherapy if you want it to work for you: Psychotherapy is founded upon a trustworthy, secure relationship. The best evidence from the longest-term study supporting psychotherapy’s effectiveness in helping people make changes in their lives says that the quality of the therapeutic…
Protected: Depression Part 4: downhill or uphill?
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Protected: Depression Part 3: ‘bad’ feelings, alcohol and substance misuse
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Protected: Depression Part 2: a well-worn path
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Depression Part 1: Causes, anti-depressants, and two simple steps on your road to recovery
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one…
Protected: The Outsider Part 2: living off-label
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CBT: a low-cost ‘cure’ for psychiatric ‘Illness’?
“The fact remains that the construct of psychiatric diagnosis and the construct of a psychological model aligning itself to it are both divorced from the actual, more complex and individuated realities of the particular patient and the individual practitioner. The technocratic relationship of the first denies the non-mechanistic, much more complex organic nature of the…
Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 3: the healing power of truth
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Protected: Self-Esteem: Social Worth v Existential Value
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Protected: Suffer the Little Children: neglect, abuse and its legacy for survivors
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Healing Minds: what works for you?
Often we are so socialised into looking to ‘professionals’ for their expertise that we forget that, prior to the boom in professions, we did a pretty good job of taking care of ourselves and one another. Family, neighbours, community, aunts and uncles, grandparents: all of these community bonds have been eroded by massive shifts in…
Change Your World: Self-healing and Loving Kindness
“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau My strong personal belief is that it is in human nature to take care of other living things as a feature of our conscience. Sadly, many people are out of touch with this facility in themselves. I think if our culture retained the…
Existential Analysis: how I work with you
A brief overview of Existential Analysis and Psychotherapy
Protected: Narcissistic Abuse Part 2: from darkness to light
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Narcissistic Abuse Part 1: heart of darkness
This post is not intended as a guide for diagnosing or labelling individuals, but instead highlights the detrimental effects narcissistic individuals (including sociopathic, psychopathic and other exploitative personalities) can have upon us. Being able to recognise some of these effects can help us protect ourselves and seek effective help in recovering from the toxic relationships…
The Outsider Part 1: clarifying our place in society
“You were born an original, don’t die a copy.” -John Mason If there’s one area of my work that I have a special interest in it’s working with people who feel like they don’t fit in or who find themselves rejected by or rejecting of the group. I wanted to start writing a series of…
Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 2: a good or bad idea?
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Life Coaching
I offer a Life Coaching service which supports people in achieving their personal development aims. Life Coaching differs from psychotherapy, but shares some areas of crossover. Essentially Life Coaching is about addressing three main support needs: Guidance, Empowerment and Improvement. The first step in the Life Coaching process is our Introductory meeting, followed by an…
Protected: Personal Authenticity Part 1: the courage to stick your neck out
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Self-healing: a shift from pain to compassion in five minutes
Periods of mental distress are often characterised by a hyper-focus on our own struggles to the exclusion of everything else. In the midst of pain and suffering, loneliness and desperation we can end up so concentrated on the distressing aspects of our lives and on what is missing that we literally forget ourselves and what’s…
Choosing Public Sector or Private Therapeutic Support
Choosing between public and private psychotherapy, counselling and mental health support
Existential Analysis, Integrative Psychotherapy and Other Approaches to Helping
This is a somewhat contentious area for many practitioners because, as with most fields of endeavour, everyone has their own territorial imperatives and personal definitions. The terms counsellor, therapist and psychotherapist are, for example, often used interchangeably but do not necessarily express the same activities. So with that disclaimer, here is my simple outline of…
Protected: A Guide to Making the Most of your Sessions
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