Posts tagged with 'empathy'
Personal experience (2nd post): caution over "goodwill " & "mindfulness" practice
8th February 2012
"No man was ever wise by chance." Lucius Seneca Yesterday I wrote a post about working with personally difficult information ... in this example, challenging group feedback. There are so many research teams and streams of fascinating information emerging that look at how to cope well in stressful situations. I …
Personal experience (1st post): feedback, group work & learning from difficulties
7th February 2012
"Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger." Franklin P. Jones I'm a member of a "therapists' group". We currently get together for a three hour meeting once a month. I wrote about this initiative last year in the post "Setting …
Mindfulness: the missing facet 'describe', and meeting at relational depth with self & others - practice
8th November 2011
I wrote yesterday on "Mindfulness: the missing facet 'describe', and meeting at relational depth with self & others - theory" . Today I'd like to take this into a practical example. On Sunday evening seven of us met in what we call "The enquiry group". I've described these get-togethers before …
Mindfulness: the missing facet 'describe', and meeting at relational depth with self & others - theory
7th November 2011
God guard me from those thoughts men think in the mind alone; he that sings a lasting song thinks in a marrow bone. William Butler Yeats There are good reasons for viewing "mindfulness" as made up of five facets - see, for example, the post "A better way to measure …
Greater good science center & the wisdom of babies
8th August 2011
Recently I was looking at the idealistic & interesting website "Greater good: the science of a meaningful life". Their mission statement reads "The Greater Good Science Center studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society. Based at the University …
Valentine's day: "language style matching predicts relationship initiation and stability"
14th February 2011
Valentine's Day! Well here's a topical research study. Professor Jamie Pennebaker is probably best known for his research on expressive writing - see, for example, the series of four blog posts I wrote about his lecture at last year's British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies' conference. However, as he …
Setting up a therapists' support group 2
25th January 2011
I wrote yesterday about the email that was sent out last autumn asking several fellow psychotherapists up here in Edinburgh whether they would be interested in forming a Therapists' Support Group. What was some of the thinking behind this initiative? Back in 2008 I lectured at the British Association for …
Setting up a therapists' support group 1
24th January 2011
Seven of us got together yesterday afternoon to talk about possibly setting up some kind of therapists' support group. We're all therapists ourselves, and some of us are close to or on the mature side of 60. All male therapists, so we're kind of "the Grizzlies". Why do it? It's …
Meeting at relational depth: a model
28th October 2010
I went to a workshop on Saturday about "Relational depth". As is usually the case, chewing over the material afterwards, thinking about how it's relevant for myself & my work, following up some leads - these seem crucial activities to promote "digestion" rather than a quick learning meal that goes …
Meeting at relational depth: what intrigued me most
25th October 2010
I've already written a couple of blog posts about the workshop I went to on Saturday - "Meeting at relational depth: outline of a 'research' workshop" and "Meeting at relational depth: what does it involve?". However it was the second exercise we were asked to try out that I found …