Articles

One of the deepest, darkest depressions I have ever witnessed was in a young man, aged just 18, who I shall call Gareth. His mother, a very worried woman, had dropped him off for his first session having outlined to me what she felt was the essence of the problem. Gareth’s mental health issues began...

Tim’s life had been getting pretty difficult recently. He loved working in London, but the commute to his job in the City was taking him longer and longer. ‘I can only do one stop at a time now’ he told me. ‘It would be funny if it wasn’t such a massive problem. It takes me...

I went to see ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ recently and was blown away by the visual impact of a story I felt would be almost impossible to transfer from book to stage. But transfer it did, and in a spectacularly imaginative way, which gave real insight into a syndrome I...

We experience many traumas as we go through life. There are ‘micro-traumas’ like changing schools, failing an exam or giving a presentation and getting it wrong. There are ‘meso-traumas’, such as a house burglary, a bump in the car or health worries. And, sadly for many of us, there are ‘macro-traumas’. They are those experiences...

Think the subconscious is like a locked room without a key? Think again. Your conscious mind makes you aware of what’s currently happening around you. It contains the information you need to access daily, such as your recent memories, your phone number, your address and the location of your keys. Your subconscious — aka unconscious...

I ran a work shop recently about Aspergers and autistic spectrum disorder. I began with and over-view of the history of the diagnosis and recommended treatments. It certainly painted an unsettling picture, and one which illustrates my assertion that mental health is only now beginning to emerge from the dark ages. The Aspergers timeline In...

The phone rings. As you pick it up, your partner says, “I don’t want to talk to so-and-so.” Sure enough, so-and-so is on the line and you have a decision to make: Do you tell a little white lie, or hang your partner out to dry? “The real danger comes in the risk of becoming...

The Rumor: Sighing means you’re sad or upset Remember in Casablanca when Ingrid Bergman said, “Play it, Sam,” and we got: “You must remember this. A kiss is just a kiss. A sigh is just a sigh…”? It’s a great cinematic moment that shows how common it is to let loose great big sighs when we’re...

Think about how often you misplace regular, everyday items — your cellphone, keys, money, sunglasses. Annoying, right? Yet we all do it. (On Seinfeld, the gang even misplaced Kramer’s car in a parking garage!) If you’re like me, at some point you’ve probably wondered why you mislay things in the first place. I mean, it was just...

[Tweet “‘You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice’ – Bob Marley”] Some professional experiences are so profound they have the power to shift perception in a moment. Our clients are so often our teachers. Many years ago, as a trainee Rogerian counsellor, I came to understand self harm...