The unconscious mind can behave in ways that confuse and confound the conscious mind (and other people!). Here I examine one such case and take a look at how we can unravel the hidden ‘logic’ behind such bizarre psychosomatic symptoms.
Articles on: Psychotherapy Techniques
How to Identify and Remove Unconscious Blocks
The past is never really gone in some ways, at least not all of it. It lingers on, influencing our decisions and reactions. Faulty pattern matching can produce what may seem to be baffling responses within us. With this in mind, whenever we’re confounded by a client’s emotional responses, we can do what I did […]
How to Help a Client Stop Cutting
You may never have seen a self-harming client, or perhaps self-harm is something you’ve seen clients do only occasionally. But one thing’s for sure. Self-harming behaviours are common – and getting more so.
How to Help Clients with Crippling Shame and Guilt
The terms guilt and shame are often used interchangeably. But these feelings, though they commonly overlap, are distinct. Unlike guilt, which focuses on a sense of having done wrong to others, shame is more of a self-focused emotion.
Helping the Suicide-Bereaved Client
Far from the common suicidal sentiment that “people will be better off without me!” the resulting trauma and grief can spread much wider and deeper than the suicidal person could ever have imagined.
A Vital Therapy Principle
A therapeutic technique is only as effective as the human emotional or psychological principles it rests upon. The principle that anchoring attaches to is pattern matching, which can be extremely powerful – so it makes sense to form a technique or in fact many techniques around this basic principle of human experience.
5 Therapeutic Strategies for Treating Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia has traditionally been seen as hard to treat. But there is hope. Of those who survive anorexia, 50% recover, 30% improve, and only 20% remain chronically ill. So people do recover from anorexia, or at least learn to live with it as it loosens its grip on them. And with better treatment options than […]
5 Golden Guidelines for Doing Therapy with Children
When working with children, we need to get to see the problem from the child’s perspective and communicate with them on their level. Here are five guidelines to help you work more effectively with children.
6 Steps to Treat Bulimia
Bulimia is a physical health issue as well as a mental health one. So what are some of the must-dos when treating bulimia?
How to Use Problem-Solving Therapy with Your Clients
All therapy is problem-solving therapy. Either we seek to help our clients ‘solve the problem’ by feeling and thinking differently about it, or we help them find ways to solve an actual practical problem (or both!).