Walking in Skye & Kintail: lessons, self-compassion & posttraumatic growth
29th April 2012
Still less than three days since the most intense, prolonged, potentially catastrophic experience of my life. What have I learned ... both personally and as a therapist? Gratitude ... of course. Gratitude to the mountain rescue service, gratitude to my wife & family & friends, gratitude for my health, for …
Walking in Skye & Kintail: mountain rescue, helicopter winches, and avoiding death & PTSD
27th April 2012
It's really early, and paradoxically I should be sleeping beautifully because I'm in a comfortable room at the Sligachan Hotel on the Isle of Skye. However I'm not too fussed - acute sleep deprivation may well affect memory consolidation and reduce the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following trauma. …
The jazz trio metaphor: reworking the core conditions, relational depth, compassion, & two kinds of empathy (2nd post)
20th April 2012
In yesterday's post, I introduced the jazz trio metaphor ... head (observation/knowledge), heart (warmth/compassion) and gut (emotion/authenticity) ... and discussed both heart and, to some extent, head. Continuing this exploration of head "observation & knowledge". It's clear that cognitive empathy & perspective taking can be very helpful, but we need …
The jazz trio metaphor: reworking the core conditions, relational depth, compassion & two kinds of empathy (1st post)
19th April 2012
Working as a psychotherapist or counsellor, practising as a doctor, participating in interpersonal groupwork, and at the heart of relating deeply with another human being - I have internal reminders, charts, ways of helping myself be present in as constructive a way as I can. One inner chart or internal …
BABCP spring meeting: Nick Grey on memory-focused approaches in CBT for adults with PTSD - writing suggestions (4th post)
16th April 2012
(A handout of the key points in this blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file) I have written a series of blog posts on Nick Grey's expert workshop on CBT treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. The day's focus was particularly on treatment approaches …
BABCP spring meeting: Nick Grey on memory-focused approaches in CBT for adults with PTSD - grief & loss (3rd post)
14th April 2012
This is the third in a series of posts triggered by Nick Grey's workshop on memory-focused approaches in CBT for adults with PTSD. In the second post yesterday, I wrote about " ... treatment structure". In today's post I want to step back for a moment and get a broader …
BABCP spring meeting: Nick Grey on memory-focused approaches in CBT for adults with PTSD - treatment structure (2nd post)
13th April 2012
Yesterday I wrote an introductory post on this "Memory-focused approaches ... with PTSD" workshop. So how did it go? It went well. I'm definitely glad I went to this seminar. I say "seminar" because, as is typically the case with BABCP conference-associated "workshops", there was minimal chance for participants to …
BABCP spring meeting: Nick Grey on memory-focused approaches in cognitive therapy for adults with PTSD - introduction (1st post)
12th April 2012
I've just arrived from Scotland off the sleeper for the two days of the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) Spring Workshops and Conference. Today it's workshops and we have a choice of five. I'm going to Nick Grey's on "Memory-focused approaches in cognitive therapy for adults with …
Recent research: articles from March journals
7th April 2012
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 17,500 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …
Update on website traffic: my own favourite top 15 (6-10) - therapist feedback, relationships, conflict, group work, & walking
5th April 2012
Last month I used Google Analytics to identify the most read pages on this website and I wrote the post "Update on website traffic: the ten most popular blog posts". This got me thinking - "What are my own personal favourites?" I quickly realised that the posts that I've written …