Posts tagged with 'intimacy'
Different kinds of group, different kinds of friendship
19th January 2010
I'm a member of three different groups, all of which meet occasionally in the evening. Since two of the groups only get together about every six weeks, it's unusual for all three group meetings to occur in the same seven days. In fact I can't remember it happening before. It's …
Behavioural systems: attachment (care seeking), care giving, exploration, sex, & power
15th November 2009
This post is also available as a Word format download. I have written several blog posts about attachment in the last couple of months - "Attachment, compassion & relationships", "A couple of fine, recent books on attachment", "Some great attachment websites", and "Assessing attachment in adults". In my post on …
Handouts & questionnaires for general relationships (second post)
9th November 2009
A few days ago, I posted on "Handouts & questionnaires for general relationships (first post)" where I particularly discussed ways of assessing personal social networks. Here are further information sheets on other aspects of relationships - for example, I also regularly assess interpersonal style. Usually I'll use one of the …
Handouts & questionnaires for general relationships (first post)
2nd November 2009
Relationships are right at the heart of human health and wellbeing. The first three sets of handouts listed below highlight the increased death rates, poorer psychological health and lowered wellbeing in those with worse relationships. There is a rather confusing plethora of different questionnaires for assessing relationship networks. I like …
Assessing attachment in adults
18th October 2009
I'm a doctor and psychotherapist who's interested in using attachment ideas to improve how helpful I can be for clients. Awareness of attachment issues informs therapy, it doesn't dictate it. An obvious question is whether it's sometimes worth assessing attachment in a "formal" way. I'm no expert in this area. …
Some great attachment websites
4th October 2009
Last week I wrote about "A couple of fine books on attachment". Today I want to highlight what a fantastic resource the internet is - below are details of half a dozen websites that offer lots of attachment information, and also details of further websites that are helpful but more …
A couple of fine, recent books on attachment
27th September 2009
I wrote earlier this month on "Attachment, compassion & relationships". I've been aware of John Bowlby's work on adult-child attachment for many years but, when I've approached it for insights that might help in my work as a psychotherapist, I've been put off by the complexity of assessment methods and …
Attachment, compassion & relationships
6th September 2009
Well I didn't sleep too well last night. Catero, my wife, and I went to the cinema yesterday evening and watched "500 Days of Summer" . I enjoyed it and it got me thinking about relationships. The "Summer" of the title is a woman who doesn't believe in romantic love. …
Recent research: six studies on couples - attraction, touch, viewpoint, comparison, empathy & sex
4th December 2008
Here are half a dozen recent studies on men & women. Elliot & Niesta found that red, relative to other colours, lead men to view women as "more attractive and sexually desirable". Holt-Lundstad & colleagues randomized couples to a "support enhancement intervention" involving shared gentle massage for 30 minutes three …
Relationships, self-esteem and health - first posting
16th August 2008
Poor relationships damage our health. Recent research powerfully demonstrates this point (Stinson, Logel et al. 2008). In these studies, relationships were assessed in three different ways - relationship quality (closeness, trust, satisfaction), number of friends, and relationship stress. Sheldon Cohen (Cohen 2004) has argued that these three aspects of relationships …