Opening up group, fifth session
27th September 2010
I wrote just a few days ago about the fourth session of this "Opening up" group. This fifth session was a full day meeting. Good to have a whole day together. A bigger pool to swim in, more time to explore. Nice too to share food together - we all …
Opening up group, fourth session
23rd September 2010
I wrote last week about the third session of this "Opening up" group. Yesterday evening was the fourth session. The "cooking pot" of the group (a metaphor I used at the end of the post about our first group session) is getting stronger. Group members seem to be feeling more …
"One in five Britons has consulted a counsellor or psychotherapist"
19th September 2010
I was fascinated by this "One in five Britons ..." article in last month's Observer newspaper. I'm "in the business" and I was still surprised by the findings. Apparently the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) commissioned an independent polling organization to survey 1,400 British adults. The headline findings …
Opening up group, third session
16th September 2010
We had the third session of this "Opening up" group last night. I wrote last week about the second session. There are seven of us in this group - six other participants and myself. My impression over many years of group work done in different time chunks (evenings, single days, …
Our life stories: needs, beliefs & behaviours - part four, "relationships"
14th September 2010
This is the last in a sequence of four blog posts on a "Needs, beliefs, behaviours" model that I often use to help guide psychotherapy work on longer term "personality" patterns. I've previously written about "Needs", "Beliefs" and "Behaviours". This post looks at the model's application to understanding our relationships. …
Our life stories: needs, beliefs & behaviours - part three, "behaviours"
13th September 2010
I have already written about the "Needs" and "Beliefs" sections of the "Needs, beliefs & behaviours" diagram. Today's post is about the "Behaviours" section. A fuller post from earlier this year - "Our life stories: needs, beliefs & behavours" - gives further insight into this territory. So the model is …
Our life stories: needs, beliefs & behaviours - part two, "beliefs"
12th September 2010
I posted yesterday on the first, "Needs" section of the "Needs, beliefs, behaviours" diagram (below). Today I want to say a little about the second section of the diagram - "Beliefs". This diagram is downloadable both as a Powerpoint slide and as a PDF file. As I said in the …
Our life stories: needs, beliefs & behaviours - part one, "needs"
11th September 2010
This is the first of a series of four brief posts giving more information about a model I use a lot, especially when working with people who are trying to change long term personality patterns. The ideas aren't at all original, although this particular way of presenting them is my …
Opening up group, second session
9th September 2010
I posted last week on the first meeting of this "Opening up" group. The reflection sheets everyone had filled in after the initial meeting had been copied and sent to all participants, so we already had more material to work with as we started this second session. I've experimented with …
Strong relationships improve survival as much as quitting smoking
5th September 2010
The August 11th edition of the British Medical Journal reported: "Having strong social relationships seems to have an effect on survival comparable to that of quitting smoking and larger than controlling traditional risk factors, such as obesity or hypertension. A meta-analysis of social relationships and mortality looked at 308,849 participants …