This weekend I joined my fellow Shambhala Buddhists for our regular book club. Every 4 to 6 weeks, we take a book which has a Buddhist tone: its not always a Dharma book – as we often take more mainstream psychology books (as I have written about previously) or even novels. I enjoyed our latest …
Continuing the ‘five things’ theme that I started last week, in this post I wanted to share five books that have touched me and changed my way of thinking. I wouldn’t say these are my ‘top five’ reads ever, but more ones that have triggered a way of thinking or have shifted my life …
Last week, I used Portia Nelson’s poem “Autobiography in 5 chapters” to illustrate the therapeutic journey. What I didn’t share was my personal interaction with that piece. I went to a coaching conference in London (I think it was in 2008) and one of the speakers read out the poem – it touched me, it …
January is a month when people are often attempting to re-write (at least part of) their life story: resolutions to change habits, a chance to re-boot and try new attitudes and approaches to life. In the past week, I have sat with many of my clients expressing their wish that 2018 is different, that their …
As I begin writing this morning, I have no idea as to what will appear – well, I guess that isn’t entirely true…but it would be fair to say that this is not a post that I have planned to my normal levels. A well planned blog post this morning falls secondary to just sitting …
What does 2017 have in store for you? New Year is a common time to be looking at our lives, taking stock, and considering making change. We set intentions, make resolutions and plan goals. When I get client enquries in January I notice that this is the time when people seem most resolute about what …
Read more “Goals: do the they have a place in counselling and psychotherapy?”
In my last blog post, I talked about some of the theory that underpin CBT, Gestalt, and Buddhist ideas in relation to therapeutic work. As a practitioner who works mainly in relational psychotherapy (under which we would include Gestalt and Buddhist ideas), I have been intrigued by the ascendence of CBT in our national health …
Read more “CBT: sticking plaster or power tool? A case study”
“If only I had a pound for every time a propspective new client asks me if I could ‘do CBT on them’…” said one of my therapist friends recently. I didn’t ask what they could do with the money they would amount, but from my own experiences, it is a question posed enough (in one …
I’ve recently returned from a week-long retreat with Buddhist psychologist John Welwood. I didn’t really know what to expect when I signed up for the week at Omega Institute in upstate New York. I call it a retreat, but it was equally a workshop and at times, a group therapy session with 50 + participants! …
One of the challenges that we all face in life is balancing the needs we have as individuals with the needs of others we are in relationship with: balancing self and other. This is a challenge recognised by many systems of thought: from the ancient wisdom traditions through to contemporary Western psychology. For example, the …