"One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.  He said "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.  One is Evil.  It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.  The other is Good.  It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith."  The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins?"  The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed." "


Posts tagged with 'conflict'

Peer groups, Cumbria spring group: second full day - couple's work, interpersonal challenge, fathers and banquets

12th May 2012

The start of the third full day here. In yesterday's post I wrote about the first full day and today I'll write about our second full day together. We've had so much rain over the last couple of days, it's a blessing to see the bright early sunlight splashed along …

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 …

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 …

Emotion-focused therapy workshop series (fifth post): two chair conflict dialogues

16th January 2012

I wrote yesterday about the importance of processing "hot cognitions" and feelings. In today's post I aim to to drill down more into the emotional evocation and processing of chair work. "Two chair work for conflict splits" is often relevant, Robert Elliott suggested in this Emotion-focused therapy workshop, when clients …

Emotion-focused therapy workshop series (fourth post): the importance of processing "hot" cognitions & feelings

15th January 2012

I wrote yesterday about the morning session on "Narrative therapy and trauma processing" in the third day of an "Emotion-focused psychotherapy: Level 2 workshop series" that I'm attending at the University of Strathclyde. A couple of months ago, in my first post about this whole workshop series, I wrote "As …

Emotion-focused therapy workshop series (second post): client processes and therapist-client conflict

27th November 2011

So yesterday was a day seminar on Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) with Robert Elliott. I wrote yesterday about my excitement over starting this sequence of monthly workshops - there are another five due over January to May next year. Well how did the day go? There were twenty two participants (including …

Proposal for a BABCP special interest group on compassion

30th June 2011

The British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) encourages the formation of Special Interest Groups (SIG's) in areas that members want to particularly focus on. There has been discussion recently about a possible SIG on Compassion. If you're a member of the BABCP and you would like to be …

Conflict: not too much, not too little - insights from 'game theory'

6th June 2011

(this blog post is downloadable as a Word doc or as a PDF file) I've written a series of posts on conflict in the last several days - most recently "Conflict: not too much, not too little - when to get real & problem solve in close relationships". I was …

Conflict: not too much, not too little - when to get real & problem solve in close relationships

5th June 2011

Yesterday, in the blog "Conflict: not too much, not too little - the importance of assertiveness in close relationships", I looked at a series of four research papers from James McNulty's lab at the University of Tennessee on the importance of appropriate assertiveness rather than excessive forgiveness when a couple …