Handouts & questionnaires for compassion & criticism (third post)
29th June 2009
This is the third of three posts giving handouts & questionnaires on compassion & criticism. There are a dozen MP3 recordings listed below. It would be possible to use these tracks as a "compassionate mind training" sequence, although I've listed them more to illustrate the kind of approach that it's …
Recent research: two papers on mindfulness, two on insomnia & two on antidepressants in pregnancy
25th June 2009
Here are six recently published research papers. Barnhofer and colleagues report on encouraging results using mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for sufferers from chronic-recurrent depression while they are still depressed. The three major studies published already have used MBCT for recurrent depression while the sufferers are reasonably well. The next step …
Handouts & questionnaires for compassion & criticism (second post)
22nd June 2009
This the second of three posts on handouts & questionnaires for Compassion & criticism. It contains a series of loosely linked downloads about compassion, self-criticism, hostility, self-esteem and related subjects. To see the earlier post on this subject click on Compassion & criticism (first post). Compassionate/self-image goals scale and background …
Social integration and a midsummer potluck lunch
21st June 2009
We have fifty to sixty people due for lunch today. I better not hang around writing blog postings for too long. There's still lots of preparation work to do. It's great. I love these midsummer potluck lunches that we've been hosting for many years now. It's such fun to invite …
Recent research: articles from May journals
18th June 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 13,000 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …
The Ben Lui group (second post): how to know when to change direction on a walk or in treatment for psychological difficulties!
16th June 2009
A couple of lines from the Bruce Springsteen song "Hungry heart" kept going through my head - "Like a river that don't know where it's flowing, I took a wrong turn and I just kept going." Something was wrong. I couldn't work out where I'd got to on my map. …
The Ben Lui group (first post): the challenge of balancing planning & savouring
15th June 2009
Tomorrow I hope to head North and West up past Stirling, Lochearnhead and Crianlarich to Strath Fillan. I should be able to park at a little village called Dalrigh just before Tyndrum. From there I can walk in by the River Cononish for about 7 km to get to Ben …
Recent research: psychologist & doctor impairment & burnout
11th June 2009
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Juvenal The last-but-one edition of the journal Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice published several articles on psychologist stress and burnout. Interestingly the edition is currently available with full text articles downloadable for free. Smith and Moss review the psychologist impairment literature (see below for all abstracts …
Handouts & questionnaires for compassion & criticism (first post)
8th June 2009
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Dalai Lama This first post on Compassion & criticism contains a series of loosely linked handouts and questionnaires about compassion, self-criticism, hostility, self-esteem and related subjects. To see a further post with additional handouts click on Compassion & criticism (second post) . …
Stanford psychophysiology lab: social anxiety, mindfulness with kids, & loving kindness
7th June 2009
Emotional reappraisal (changing the way we see a situation) and emotional suppression (inhibiting our already present emotional response) have very different effects on our feelings, relationships and wellbeing. As a generalisation, reappraisal tends to work well, while suppression comes at higher cost. I wrote about this last month in a …