Posts tagged with 'friendship'
Opening up group, second session
9th September 2010
I posted last week on the first meeting of this "Opening up" group. The reflection sheets everyone had filled in after the initial meeting had been copied and sent to all participants, so we already had more material to work with as we started this second session. I've experimented with …
Strong relationships improve survival as much as quitting smoking
5th September 2010
The August 11th edition of the British Medical Journal reported: "Having strong social relationships seems to have an effect on survival comparable to that of quitting smoking and larger than controlling traditional risk factors, such as obesity or hypertension. A meta-analysis of social relationships and mortality looked at 308,849 participants …
Opening up group, first session
2nd September 2010
For many years I have run two kinds of "training group" for clients. One teaches what can loosely be thought of as "stress management skills". The latest version of this is the "Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing" course that I have been describing at some length in blog …
"Friendship" - a three day residential workshop
28th August 2010
Why a workshop on friendship? Relationships are so important - whether we look at wellbeing & happiness, resilience under stress, or surviving to have a long, healthy life. The diagram below is based on a series of studies that have been around for a while - Berkman & Syme's "Social …
Recent research: six studies on money, happiness, romance, leadership, self-compassion & avoidance
26th August 2010
Here are half a dozen recent research studies that caught my eye. Diener et al, in a large sample of people round the world, found intriguingly that wealth tends to increase life satisfaction, while it is the fulfilment of psychological needs - learning, autonomy, using one's skills, respect, and the …
"Almost-midsummer lunch" - the importance of our social networks
14th June 2010
Yesterday we had our "almost-midsummer lunch". We've been doing this for years - inviting lots of friends round for a pot-luck lunch sometime around midsummer. It's great. Quite hard work and great. Catero, my wife, and I are a pretty good team at this. Shortly after each of these yearly …
Recent research: articles from April journals
13th May 2010
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 14,300 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …
Peer groups, Cumbria spring group – third morning: emotional closeness, green issues, & dancing
8th May 2010
Third morning. It's after 7.00am. Yesterday I wrote on "Authenticity & feedback". The group seems to be "speeding up" now. That's partly because I've got less time this morning. Fairly typically at home, I try to have my light off by 10.15pm and get up by 5.15am. Last night we …
Walking in the Mamores: reflection (third post)
24th April 2010
Yesterday I wrote about climbing three of the Mamores here in the Highlands. For the last couple of years in the Spring (before the midges) I've gone camping and walking in the Scottish hills - last year in Glen Affric and the year before in the Fainnichs. I've written too …
Interpersonal group work 2
22nd February 2010
See the earlier blog post "Interpersonal group work 1" for comments and handouts particularly orientated to pre-group assessment. It's usually time very well spent, orientating would-be participants to what interpersonal process groups are likely to involve. This both speeds up the time it takes new group members to start engaging …