Food, body image…and TV : By studying a rural population in Fiji with only recent access to TV, and tracking attitudes to weight and shape, researchers have spotted the first signs of problem eating. Read More.
‘Anger sickness’ in Korea:
The Korean condition of ‘hwabyung’ literally means fire sickness – a burning anger caused by long-term suppression of individual feeling and sadness. Read More.
Rediscovering our purpose: What do we do when our life is stripped to the bone and we have to rebuild our self and purpose from the very basics? What are we free to do, what can galvanise our courage? Read More.
How to be an Existentialist: Cox persuades us that existential philosophy is not pessimistic, but uplifting, with the potential to free us from restrictions and barriers we impose upon ourselves. Read More.
Stress and performance: In 1908 Yerkes and Dodson first observed that performance deteriorates once arousal, or stress, moves beyond a certain point....sometimes even to breaking-point. Read More.
CBT : Not what I was expecting!: A study finds how some clients experience ‘surprise’ at the content and process of their therapy sessions – and that the shift in expectations may actually be helpful. Read More.
Red Alert - Problem Anger: Anger that’s out of control can lead to poor health and social isolation. As a nation we need more research into effective therapy and earlier interventions. Read More.
A Window into Human Nature: Steven Pinker analyses how words relate to thoughts and to the world around us and reveals what this tells us about ourselves. Watch.
Caught in an Endless Loop: With OCD, the signal saying ‘you’re safe now’ is interrupted, and so precautionary behaviour is continuously repeated—until normal life becomes virtually impossible. Read More.
Wasted: Even after 12 years Wasted remains near the top of Amazon’s charts for eating disorders. It succeeds in being part memoir, part confessional and part ‘prose poem’. Read More.
Chained to insomnia: We don’t all need the same amount of sleep – though most of us need 5 to 10 hours a night – but if we don’t get what we need then, over time, we start showing the effects. Read More.
The Aftershock of Trauma: Post-traumatic stress disorder describes the possible long-term psychological impact of disasters, accidents, combat or other highly threatening events. Read More.
The Age of Absurdity: Michael Foley describes how desire breeds more desire and a lower sense of satisfaction, and how our drive for ‘more of everything’ is in itself a reason depression. Read More.
Crazy Like Us: Watters raises awareness of hard-sell tactics of global drug companies and the dark commercial underbelly of western psychiatry. The globalization of the American Psyche. Read More.
Panic and agoraphobia: "For this animation, I have striven to raise awareness of the debilitating effects of agoraphobia." Kelly Bailey Watch.
Click! OCD Animation: While OCD can be a serious social disabling condition, it has also become a source of inspiration for some artists. Watch.
Life’s flames and embers: Burnout can creep up over months or years often affecting the most successful, driven and committed people....and often causing mental and physical collapse. Read More.
When Trauma Lingers: In this New York Times video, Robin tells her story of the lingering effects of trauma following rape. Watch.
Grief and loss…in stages?:
The common assumption that grief progresses through separate, predictable stages is much too prescriptive – in reality, individuals react individually. Read More.
Cultural Ritual and OCD: In a now classic research paper, two anthropologists mine the ethnographic data in their search for the missing, psychological, link between cultural rituals and OCD. Read More.
Tales of Mere Existence: Levni Yilmazis’ ironic take on the less-than-helpful advice some people give when you’re experiencing depression. Watch.
On Resilience and Stress: People who have suffered up to six major stressful life events enjoy a greater sense of well-being than those whose lives have been free of stress. Read More.
CBT : The story so far: CBT’s origins lie in the first explorations of behaviour change, later integrated with knowledge of how we think. More recent acceptance therapies are CBT’s ‘Third Wave’. Read More.
No Tale Tells All:
Expressive Writing and Trauma
We often hear that it’s Good To Talk, but are you aware that it’s also Good To Write? Over recent years a mounting body of evidence has been uncovered that Read More.
Caught in an emotional life trap:
Therapists using schema-focused cognitive behaviour therapy, work with people who have long-standing patterns thought and behaviour – or ‘life traps’ – which affect their emotional Read More.
About the 'B' in CBT: One of the most important aspects of CBT is behavioural change, yet clinicians often shy away from encouraging clients to adopt the changes they need to make. Read More.
A Psychologist on Anger: Isabel Clarke, a consultant psychologist in the NHS, talks about anger and how therapy can help people to deal with it. Watch.
Your Soul has a Cold: Heart flu; a cold in the soul; ‘adjustment disorder’. Terms used in Japan as ‘labels’ for depression. But the fact they’re used at all symbolises a revolution in Japanese culture. Read More.
Love springs eternal: ‘Happy ever after’ couples have a crucial factor in common, says research – romantic love. Time really doesn’t have to dull that lovin’ feeling. Read More.
Psychiatrist, drug thyself:
People prescribing drugs – psychiatrists and GPs alike – rarely experience the effects of those drugs themselves, until a small group of French psychiatrists broke the rule. Read More.
What’s love got to do with it?: One of the biggest ongoing studies of marriage produces an in-depth look at the role of love in marriage – and finds the more it’s there at the start, the longer it lasts. Read More.
Therapy vs Sleeping Pills: A study shows conclusively that therapy works better than sleeping pills, and could be the first step to take if you’re looking for an answer to insomnia. Read More.
Overcoming Low Self-Esteem: By a renowned authority on CBT, this book addresses how we can go about altering our ‘rules for living’ so we can reexamine our future and move forward with greater confidence. Read More.
Mindfulness for Anxiety: Mindfulness, with its origins in Eastern religions, is now being brought into the therapeutic mainstream as an effective approach to dealing with issues of anxiety. Read More.
Exploring a possible future: Solution-focused therapy aims to help establish your goals, hopes and resolutions to your problems – with less attention paid to why the problems arose in the first place. Read More.
