-
Sensing Out Life: Making Sense of Our Senses and Practical Adjustments
As human beings our sensory experiences, capacities and abilities help us to navigate and enjoy the world. They illuminate our experience of it as immersive and kaleidoscopic, and they can be vastly different from one another (think of colour blindness). In some modalities, they pale in comparison to the abilities of the creatures we share…
-
Some People Are the Glue that Hold a Group Together
I wrote this matter-of-fact title as a reflection. A latterly response to a past significant bereavement. It has until now, remained penned, but undeveloped. Stated, but unexplored. Before revisiting it now, it felt less a contemplation, more an obvious fact of life. What more was there to say about it? That was that. At the…
-
Thirteen Realities We Discount Because We Can’t Always See Them
Some human experiences we can dismiss as unimportant or non-existent, especially in comparison to visible or quantifiable evidence. Here are thirteen common ones I’ve noticed. Take these as a reminder not to ignore or discount their impact on your own or others’ wellbeing. Executive function and processing capacity. These abilities and our style naturally vary greatly…
-
When to Challenge and When to Affirm: The Epistemic Role of A Therapist
I have recently delved into the idea of epistemology: The science of knowing and its various forms of (epistemic), injustice and justice. It relates to what I find myself often writing about concerning the resulting harm or privilege: who’s knowledge is trusted, valued, understood and accepted as legitimate, or rather silenced and ignored – especially in…
-
A Conversation at the Nail Shop: Seeking Certainty
One afternoon a couple of years ago, I overheard a conversation in a nail bar between a technician and a customer. At the table next to me they were discussing the latest Disney adaptation of The Little Mermaid, in which Ariel is played by the mixed-race actor Halle Bailey. They talked about the controversy surrounding her…
-
If The Roles We Fall Into Were Hats
The strong one A victim The Hero Tyrant Sick role Good or bad patient Provider Nurturer Passive Leader We often go about our lives, moving through the hours of our days, automatically or more consciously slipping into roles. We are cast into them by our experiences, history, societal and family expectations, traditions, culture, and our…
-
Plausible Deniability and Truisms: The Art of Swaying you with the Benefit of the Doubt
In many situations, if you are on the receiving-end of disagreement or conflict, giving others the benefit of the doubt helps to preserve the relationship and let go of hurt feelings. Moving to a place where we can discount the possibility of the other persons bad intentions towards us, helps to preserve an agreement and…
-
Procedures in Cognitive Analytic Therapy: Tools to Tend Gardens
In Cognitive Analytic Therapy, the next important key idea to Reciprocal Roles (RRs) is procedures. These are the patterns we currently use, that we have personally developed over time, to cope with the impact and influence of our relationships upon us – on our identities, emotions and how we relate ourselves and others. Our past…
-
Managing uncertainty: when not knowing is sometimes the sensible decision
In my undergraduate degree research, the ‘p-value’ was a number that came from statistical analysis. It was a long time ago now, but from my basic understanding and memory, the p-value gave an indication of how probable it was that the results were related to chance, rather than to the relationship between the conditions being…
-
New publication: ‘When Healthcare Communication Makes Patients Feel Like They Do Not Matter’
Just a quick post to highlight a new publication of mine, available on Psychreg. I wrote this piece drawing from personal, professional and third-party experiences of care within healthcare services. I thought it could be helpful and interesting to speak from both perspectives: as a professional who has worked within healthcare systems for many years,…
A Curious Route
Finding a way through life’s ordinary, turbulent and uncertain contexts
Relational Psychological Therapy & Writing
