"Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power. "


Recent research: diet associated depression, weight & violence, vitamin D fall prevention, IBS & anxiety, yoga & mindfulness

26th November 2009

Here are a mixed bag of six recent research papers on diet, vitamin D, IBS and yoga (all details & abstracts to these studies are listed further down this blog post). The first three papers highlight the toxic effects on psychological health, physical health, and society of our processed, high …

Peer groups: Cumbria autumn group – reflection

25th November 2009

Wednesday morning - about 36 hours since we got back to Edinburgh and less than a week since we began the group. The last half day started as usual with some of the "self-care practices" that quite a few us use (Tai Chi, meditation, running, and so on). Good breakfast, …

Peer groups: Cumbria autumn group – challenge & flowing on

23rd November 2009

I wrote in my last blog post how the group had begun to work more deeply/flowingly. Yesterday was the final full day. I've been dunking in the cold flood stream further upriver than during other groups. It sure wakes me up to strip and hold firmly onto roots as I …

Peer groups: Cumbria autumn group – flowing

22nd November 2009

And it's the third morning of the group. Yesterday again I took time for a usual mix of "self-care" - yoga, meditation, stream-dunking, tea & fruit. As I wrote yesterday, I was very aware of feeling frustrated and impatient with how I felt the group had been going and how, …

Peer groups: Cumbria autumn group – frustration

21st November 2009

Yesterday I wrote about arriving for this Men's Group in Cumbria. It's the second morning. Groups - particularly these residential interpersonal groups - seem a bit like rivers to me. They move on inexorably, often full of surprises. I may have some guesses as to how a group will evolve …

Peer groups: Cumbria autumn group – arriving

20th November 2009

It's a little after 6.00am and I've been up and about for a while. It's the first morning of one of the four day residential peer groups that I've been coming too since 1991. This is the autumn Men's Group. In the Spring several of us also meet here in …

Recent research: two studies on panic, two on attention training for anxiety disorders, and three on the effects of child abuse

19th November 2009

Here are seven recent papers on panic, attention training, and the effects of childhood sexual abuse (all details & abstracts to these studies are listed further down this blog post). Pfaltz & colleagues report on a novel ambulatory respiratory monitoring system that seems to demonstrate that panic sufferers are not …

Behavioural systems: attachment (care seeking), care giving, exploration, sex, & power

15th November 2009

This post is also available as a Word format download. I have written several blog posts about attachment in the last couple of months - "Attachment, compassion & relationships", "A couple of fine, recent books on attachment", "Some great attachment websites", and "Assessing attachment in adults". In my post on …

Recent research: articles from October journals

12th November 2009

I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - EndNote - which currently contains over 13,500 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …

Handouts & questionnaires for general relationships (second post)

9th November 2009

A few days ago, I posted on "Handouts & questionnaires for general relationships (first post)" where I particularly discussed ways of assessing personal social networks. Here are further information sheets on other aspects of relationships - for example, I also regularly assess interpersonal style. Usually I'll use one of the …