Violence in the Inner Man
Are men naturally violent? Is the aggressive response of men always a bad thing? There are lots of questions we have about men and violence.
One thing that most will accept is that men are generally more aggressive than women and that this aggression can be very destructive.
The source of aggressive behaviour would seem to be partly learned through social expectations and partly biological through testosterone.
Trauma in Life
Trauma is the emotional experience of hurtful events in our past. We can respond to trauma over the years by trying to ignore it or even forgetting about it. This is a common response to trauma that happened to us as children.
Burial of pain can result in the person experiencing unexplainable, negative, cognitive, emotional and behavioural experiences in later years. Trauma from earlier in life can be healed in the present day through the work of a therapeutic relationship with a counsellor.
Counselling and the issue of money
Counselling fees may seem to be an awkward necessity. Awkward because the client may be operating within a strict budget. The counsellor aspires to provide therapy to those who need it while ensuring they make a living.
This blog goes through the principles around setting counselling fees and how to manage them. The fee structure of Prevail is also introduced.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
CBT is a combination of two psychological theories. Cognitive and Behavioural theories. CBT proposes that emotional change happens by changing the underlying thoughts that support them.
To effectively change our thoughts, we utilise the behaviours that correlate with them.
This approach can be a trial and error, and is greatly helped by having a good understanding of your underlying beliefs that caused the thought to start with.
Waiting; An opportunity or a frustration?
Waiting can be an opportunity to satisfy the calm mind or a frustration by stopping the body from running the race.
How you view waiting depends on the patience of your personality.
If you are impatient by nature, having to wait is an invitation to learn to use the time in a way that satisfies your desire to be productive in an active way.
If you are patient by nature, waiting allows you to recharge and let your mind ponder more interesting things.
What Gets You Up in the Mornings?
What is the daily routine of life for?
Is it to make a success of ourselves professionally, to make an impact on the world?
Is the success of our life to be detemined materialisticly?
Or do we get out of our beds every morning to somehow improve the lives of those around us?
Is our value what others hold of us or what we hold of ourselves?
Hope
Hope is perceived as being essential but also as elusive. The hope for a better future plays a large part in motivating us to work through difficult situations.
Some may also say that being driven to achieve by a hope unfounded in reality can result in a destructive end.
Whatever your views on the helpfulness of hope, we all strive to have hope.
Self-discovery in a hiding tree
A tree near me reveals its secret every winter. The secret being that, despite being on a small roundabout in a busy road, it is the home of several nests.
My perception of this being odd indicates that I have a limited mindset of what is appropriate or expected behaviour. Surely the birds would use the hundreds of trees in the park on the other side of the road.
If I limit the behaviour of birds in this way, how do I limit my own?
Good Will Hunting
A discussion of how the film Good Will Hunting represents the work of counselling. How does it affect your motivation to consider counselling for yourself?
Does Good Will Hunting present a positive or negative view of how counselling works?