Category Counselling & Psychotherapy – specific issues/problems
Feelings and/or Emotions – what are they anyway?
We all have feelings. We all have emotions. If you do an internet search around these two words, you will find a lot of confusing ideas about how feelings and emotions are two different phenomena, or how they are the…
Lose weight naturally
So, the holidays have come to an end finally, and you are ready to slip back into normal life again, and to slip into normal work clothes again… Well, until you discover that slipping into your work clothes is more…
Meditation for Depression and Anxiety instead of Medication
Mindfulness meditation is a form of meditation where you withdraw your engagement with the incessant chatter of the mind, and draw your awareness toward your sensory experience of the present moment, while suspending judgement and mental commentary. It is a…
Is there something wrong with you… or are you simply an introvert?
In my work as a counsellor & psychotherapist it happens quite regularly that a client comes to see me because they feel out of place in social situations, and think there is something wrong with them, since they are not…
Depression and Heart Failure
When we talk about the heart and matters of the heart, language is ambiguous. Sometimes we refer to the fist-size muscle in the chest. Other times we refer to a centre of feelings. And rarely would we be referring to…
Mid-life crisis, or opportunity, or both?
Mid-life crisis, that’s what men go through in their forties, when they leave their wife and children to hook up with their blond, young bimbo of a secretary, and go cruising down the highway with her in the newly purchased…
Passive abuse in your relationship?
There are many forms of abuse that may occur in a relationship. Most abuse is recognised as “active abuse,” but there is another, less recognised form of abuse too; “passive abuse,” which can be equally destructive to relationship quality. The…
Meeting pain with mindfulness
Pain. You have experienced it many times. We all have. Sometimes it may be intense and short-lived. Other times it may linger for an extended time. And occasionally it can become chronic, i.e. continue for months or years or forever.…
Mindfulness and Chronic Pain; research findings
Acute pain relating to tissue injury (caused by trauma, or by surgery) is one of the most frequent reasons why patients are seeking medical care, and pain is the most common complaint in primary care overall. While most patients who…
Insomnia
Contrary to what a lot of people believe, the term “insomnia” doesn’t only refer to when people can’t sleep at all. It also refers to the common kind of sleep problem; struggles to fall asleep at night, or waking up…
Depression – a few thoughts
This is the August 2012 issue of the Integrating Awareness Newsletter. The theme for this issue is Depression, with articles about: Depression; its causes, symptoms, and treatments, including scientific research findings; Anti-depressant medication; a critical perspective on the most common…
Treating depression – a case for psychotherapy
Feeling down and sad for a long time, feeling hopeless and worthless, finding it difficult to enjoy anything in life including that you used to enjoy before, struggling to make up your mind even about minor things, feeling fatigued a…
