Recent research: three psychotherapy papers that get me thinking
30th April 2009
Just as there were research papers on depression that stood out and got me thinking last month, so too there were particular papers on psychotherapy that I found more interesting than others. David Clark and colleagues have developed a very successful CBT treatment programme for social anxiety disorder. When clients …
Walking in Glen Affric: reflection & “stress management” courses (sixth post)
26th April 2009
Home. Catching up. Acting on some of the thinking/planning I did while I was away. The most obvious new initiative has been reviewing my intention to train in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). When I got back from walking in the Sahara at the end of March, I wrote in …
Walking in Glen Affric: heading home & different patterns of thought (fifth post)
24th April 2009
Heading home. Up quite early this morning. Eventually left the hostel about 9.00am. I drove up to Inverness before looping round to head down the A9. I've just stopped in Aviemore at the Mountain Cafe for old time's sake. I came here a year ago on the way back from …
Walking in Glen Affric: rumination, reflection & creativity (fourth post)
23rd April 2009
Last night I slept in a hostel rather than a tent. In fact the predicted gales and lashing rain never materialised. Some rain, some wind, but I woke in a comfortable bed feeling a little foolish, and very much recharged. Last night, good pub food, a shower, and a mattress …
Walking in Glen Affric: emotions, anxiety & risk (third post)
22nd April 2009
Today was huge. I woke early, cold. It had been such a clear, starlit night. My socks, that I'd washed through in the stream and tried to dry a bit yesterday, had frozen solid. So too my walking boots with hard frozen laces. Rub and mould the socks till I …
Walking in Glen Affric: lifestyle & aging (second post)
21st April 2009
Well here I am, eight or so miles up Glen Affric, lying in a little one man tent in the rain. I'm 59 today. I woke at 2.30am wanting a pee and murmured a quiet "Happy birthday" to myself before choosing a moment between showers to stumble out to relieve …
Walking in Glen Affric: adventure and connection (first post)
19th April 2009
I'm at my friend Larry's flat in Glasgow. We're doing one of our three-to-four monthly check-ins - reviewing and planning how our lives are going. I arrived here from Edinburgh yesterday evening and we spent time catching up and looking ahead. This morning though, when I woke, I found it …
Recent research: three depression papers that get me thinking
16th April 2009
Looking back over relevant research papers that caught my attention last month, some stand out for me more than the others. Here are three on depression that stood out and got me thinking. The Fergusson et al paper looks at links between alcohol abuse and major depression. There has been …
Handouts & questionnaires for pain information & assessment (1st post)
13th April 2009
For many years my work split fairly evenly between helping people with psychological difficulties and helping people with pain problems. Quite a few people were troubled with both. In the last several years I have done much less work with pain, although I still see some people for overall pain …
Preventing cancer through life style choices
12th April 2009
In 2001 the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) WCRF/AICR set themselves the task of systematically assessing all good research on diet, physical activity and cancer and publishing a report that would be the largest study of its kind with conclusions that would …