Gestalt therapy – a brief introduction
Gestalt therapy refers to a form of psychotherapy that derives from the gestalt school of thought. It was developed in the late 1940s by Fritz Perls and is guided by the relational theory principle that every individual is a whole (mind, body and soul), and that they are best understood in relation to their current situation as he or she experiences it…
Addiction and The Pendulum in the Counselling Process
Another form of Attraction to Hurt is addiction. Rather than look at the original feelings of abandonment from childhood, we can fall into filling the void or the “hole” with alcohol food or drugs, anything rather than feel the painful feelings of abandonment and loneliness. “By being in your mind and constantly thinking about eating or not eating, you can distract yourself from your feelings…
Restructuring in Structural Family Therapy
A family therapist is an active participant in bringing about change within a family, engaging therapeutically in concerns and issues that are causing distress. This will be effective and valued from a structural family therapy viewpoint, if s/he can disrupt or ‘shake up’ family patterns and behaviour leading to a restructuring over time…
Children and The Pendulum
“Deep down underneath it all, where it really counts, you are ok.” (A Guide to Humanistic Psychology-p.6) What a powerful and reassuring statement. If we can really take this on board, what a great bonus already on our journey of personal development in the counselling process. When we go through tough times and remember that “this too will pass” really believe it, in our vulnerability we will find our strength…
The Pendulum
The motion of emotion is like the swing of a pendulum. If the pendulum swings high it will then swing low and even when the pendulum is in the centre, still and calm, it has within it the energy to oscillate back and forth if it is moved. Similar processes are present in emotions. Even when we are calm we can quickly be touched off to swing either to the high side or to the low slide…
Boundaries and Relationships in working towards change
Building boundaries as an adult can be frustrating and painful because we are learning what we should have learnt when we were children. When we start to say no I can’t do that for you, I need to take care of myself, I’m angry with you, I find that remark offensive, we will see how capable we really are of sticking up for and taking care of ourselves. We can stop being afraid of life…
Codependency and Referrals in the Counselling Process
Codependency can also be a form of Attraction to Hurt. A codependent person is someone who has let another person’s behaviour affect him or her, and who is obsessed with controlling them. Whilst focusing on the person they are Codependent with, they may look to that person for the answer as to what kind of day it is going to be, how are things now, what do I think of this situation or person…
The Humanistic Approach to Counselling and Attraction to Hurt
Emphasis within the Humanistic Approach to counselling is on personal and professional change and development. We know that some people seem to be further along than perhaps we are and others less so. We should not be put off by this. The aim is to keep on our own path of self fulfillment and development, being the best we can possibly be in our lives, the most evolved we can be….
Therapeutic True Rest
True Rest is enlightened selfishness. It is that activity which renews us and enables us to have a realistic view of where our talents lie, the energy to use them and the strength to handle disappointment. Without true rest our perception of our self, and of others, is always wrong. True rest is any activity that gets us into the calm of the pendulum…
Feelings of Accomplishment and Purpose in client work
Contribution Training offers us the ability to turn that which is negative into something positive. The open sharing of hurt can contribute to the other person who can then contribute back to us because they enable us to achieve the ‘Feelings of Accomplishment’ and purpose that we get from making the contribution…
Contribution from Hurt and Attraction to Hurt in the Counselling process
“Deep down underneath it all, where it really counts, you are ok.” (A Guide to Humanistic Psychology-p.6) What a powerful and reassuring statement. If we can really take this on board, what a great bonus already on our journey of personal development in the counselling process. When we go through tough times and remember that “this too will pass” really believe it, in our vulnerability we will find our strength…