A Curious Route

Tag: writing

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • Deserving

    I often hear people casually talk about whether they or others deserve this or that: whether we deserve a sweet treat or takeaway depending on how much exercise or dieting we have done, whether we deserve a break, rest or a holiday depending on how hard we have worked; whether we deserve something good or…

  • A Note on “The World” and How Language Shapes Perspective

    Like many people, I often use the phrase ‘the world’ generally and in my writing as a shorthand to describe the wider contextual environment within which human experiences occur. Lately, I have been wondering whether this phrase is actually appropriate or meaningful. When I use it I notice I push away a background feeling of slight embarrassment.…

  • Eight Things Humans Can Learn from Cats

    Cats obviously experience the world differently and have a very different social map from ours. Yet some of their instincts and boundaries seem like they should come more naturally to us. Here are eight things I’ve noticed from living alongside them that we might learn from. One – Needs. Often, they have no shame or qualms…