The Material World – Where is Soul? Ours is said to be an age predominantly of materialism. We’ve deconstructed so many stories and beliefs and, with the aid of science, have commonly settled on the view that the world is dead matter and available for use in almost any way. A problem is that this [...]
Articles about Existentialism
These articles refer to the strand of psychotherapy that considers how we crave connection and intimacy, despite the fact that our experience in life is often of being alone. We may have a dread of death. Existentialist counselling and therapy examines the way we hold anxieties around loneliness and death, and how we can obtain relief from this experience.
The Clocks Strike Thirteen It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. So goes the well-known opening sentence of George Orwell’s classic novel 1984. The novel remains a extraordinary description of a future that Orwell feared and, although written in 1949, remains a future that some would say we [...]
Triggers Something we’ve found very useful when working with clients is getting them to tune into themselves to understand when they are getting triggered. We use the word “triggered” to identify when someone has an emotional reaction which may be unproductive (and is usually based on old patterns), in any situation, and then acts based [...]
The Medieval Experience Living waters are a powerful symbol in ancient texts. Not just texts of language either: above is an image I took earlier this year of one of the pediments to the South Transept at Chartres Cathedral. It’s a detail of the Porch of Martyrs with Saints Theodore, Stephen, Pope Clement and Saint [...]
A Model Both Old and New Here’s a model that can help in understanding depression, addictions and self-esteem issues. The model’s both old and new, deriving from ancient reflective practices, as well as from Jung and beyond, up to contemporary psychotherapy. Although the model may not be the one answer to (for example) substance addiction [...]
Creative Character Development In Gestalt we’re often working with the Here and Now, with what’s arising in the present moment. But of course, what’s arising is often affected by our habitual patterns of coping, on our creative adaptations (as they’re termed in Gestalt). We call these adaptations “creative” because they have enabled us to accommodate [...]
Fear Fear is something we all, to some degree, have a relationship with. And we spoke in our last post about the brain’s bias towards negativity (see Understanding the Emotional Brain). Much has been written in the field of psychotherapy about this subject and how it plays out in our lives, whether consciously or unconsciously. [...]