New study highlights potential value of dietary change in depression treatment
21st February 2017
At the end of last month, a fascinating new research study was published in the open access journal BMC Medicine. The article is "A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression (the ‘SMILES’ trial)" and its abstract reads "Background The possible therapeutic impact of dietary changes …
Kidney donation: walking back into the sunlight
1st February 2017
I have written a series of blog posts about the "journey" of kidney transplantation, starting with "Kidney donation: why it's well worth considering" & "Kidney donation: what are the risks?" to the more recent "Kidney donation: the operation & first few postoperative days" & "Kidney donation: more on postoperative management". …
Kidney donation: more on postoperative management
31st January 2017
I have written a series of blog posts about my recent experience of donating a kidney ... the last was "Kidney donation: the operation & first few postoperative days". My hope is that these posts will be useful for other would-be kidney donors & their families ... and some of …
Kidney donation: the operation & first few postoperative days
30th January 2017
I've already written a series of blog posts leading up to my recent kidney surgery - starting with "Kidney donation: why it's well worth considering" to the most recent "Kidney donation: preoperative preparation ... aspects of self-compassion". Writing this now, I'm happily & successfully over the waterfall of the operation …
Kidney donation: preoperative preparation & facing challenges generally - aspects of self-compassion
29th January 2017
I've woken early. Lying here I feel an unfamiliar hollow pressure in my gut. What is this? Fear? Anxiety? Tension? "Tense apprehension" seems to fit. I'm lying here in the early hours of the morning, a hollow tense apprehension in my belly. And it isn't surprising. Pretty normal in fact …
Kidney donation: preoperative preparation & facing challenges generally - goals and journey
28th January 2017
I'm due to donate a kidney soon, and I have been writing about what's involved - see "Kidney donation: why it's well worth considering", "Kidney donation: what are the risks?" and "Kidney donation: preoperative preparation & facing challenges generally - values are central". Primarily these posts are for other donors, …
Kidney donation: preoperative preparation & facing challenges generally - values are central
27th January 2017
I'm soon due to have an operation on my left kidney. I'm donating it anonymously to someone else who needs it pretty desperately. I have already written about this process - see "Kidney donation: why it's well worth considering" and "Kidney donation: what are the risks?". Primarily these kidney-focused blog …
Learning to run therapy groups
23rd November 2016
I run an annual five day training for counselling psychology students on facilitating groups. I'm using this blog post to upload some of the slides. For example here's a collection on the current state of psychotherapy & some suggestions on potentially helpful ways of moving forward. More to follow! ...
Biological treatments update for psychotherapists: introduction & medication
20th November 2016
I'm running a workshop today on "Biological treatments for psychological disorders: an overview & update for therapists". You can download the 100 plus slides by clicking here. The overall outline of the day is illustrated in this slide: After introducing both myself and the seminar's aims, I did an exercise …
Recent research: articles from late summer journals
2nd November 2016
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 well over 24,000 abstracts. I also regularly tweet about emerging research, so following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ (click on the relevant …