We all form stories. Human beings are, above all, narrative or story-making creatures. And the kinds of stories our clients tell themselves about their own lives can make all the difference to their happiness or lack thereof. A story is a frame of reality. So how might we help reframe our clients’ limiting self-stories?
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If you are a therapist or coach of any persuasion; counsellor, psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, life coach, bodyworker, in fact anyone who works in the helping professions, you will glean valuable, actionable ideas, tips and techniques from Clear Thinking, my free therapy techniques newsletter.
In it you'll find a wide range of topics including solution focused therapy approaches, cognitive-behavioural therapy techniques, ideas from DBT, hypnotherapy, counselling and even the occasional philosophical piece. I've been treating people with psychotherapy for more than 30 years and I've drawn what I find useful from many fields. I hope you find it helps you in your practice too, whatever flavour of helper you are.
The Ancient Art of Letting Go
We all have to leave things behind. Life, from womb to tomb, is a continual process of grabbing fast what we think will last… and then finding that it doesn’t. So what are the benefits of accepting the passing of earthly things and beings? And what happens if we feel we can’t let go?
How to Help Your Clients Get Over a Fear of Depression Relapse
A study found that approximately 75% of individuals who have experienced severe depression harbour recurring fears about its resurgence. Here are some useful ideas to help your depressed clients feel confident about a depression-free, or at least depression-light, future.
How to Promote a Sense of Meaning and Purpose in Your Depressed Clients
At the heart of depression may lie a sense that life has little value or meaning. Once we connect to a purpose bigger than ourselves, suffering, privations, indignities, and difficulties fade. So how can we help our clients find a greater sense of meaning and therefore purpose?
How to Use Radical Acceptance Therapy with Your Clients
Radical acceptance means fully accepting reality as it is, without judgement or resistance, even if it’s not what you want it to be. It means practical alignment with truth so we can actually do something! So how can you help your clients who may need to develop radical acceptance?
How to Help Your Client Overcome a Trauma Freeze Response
When a threat is detected, we always freeze for a moment before we fight or flee. The problem arises when we get stuck in that freeze response. Freezing can make us feel powerless, unable to act, as though stuck in a nightmare. So how do we help our clients overcome maladaptive freezing?
How and Why to Use Defamiliarization in Therapy
Emotional problems, addictions, and compulsions of all kinds come to inhabit, then mimic and merge with, a person’s core identity. When we defamiliarize, we are moving the client towards a new way of seeing the problem – and therefore a new way of feeling about it. But how do we do this?
Riding the Wave: Fast-acting ways to use urge surfing with your clients
Catastrophic impulsivity can lay waste to whole lives. And yet if we can just wait a little, the seemingly overwhelming urge to blow out on drink, drugs, or food; buy uncontrollably; or blow up in a fiery ball of rage will, like dew on a summer morning, evaporate fast. So what can we do about […]
The Therapeutic Power of Journaling for Self-Reflection
Far beyond being a simple record-keeping practice, journaling serves as a gateway to the depths of self-reflection and insight and an aid in the development of emotional intelligence. So if you feel a bit of journaling may help your client, how can you usefully get them started?
How to Help Your Hoarding Client Break Free
Hoarding may be a natural instinct. After all, the last ice age only ended 10,000 years ago. Hoarding food for the deep winters was vital for survival. But an instinctive need can sometimes turn into an all-consuming ‘greed’. So what do we need to consider when diagnosing and treating hoarding disorder?
