“How does that make you feel?” is a clichéd therapy question that sort of sticks in my throat. It makes me feel… yucky. And yet it’s something I need to get over. Because when we face what is inside, recognize and name it, we become stronger and less afraid. By helping our clients recognize and […]
Get Free Therapy Techniques in Your Email Inbox Every Week
If you are a therapist or coach of any persuasion; counsellor, psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, life coach, bodyworker, in fact anyone who works in the helping professions, you will glean valuable, actionable ideas, tips and techniques from Clear Thinking, my free therapy techniques newsletter.
In it you'll find a wide range of topics including solution focused therapy approaches, cognitive-behavioural therapy techniques, ideas from DBT, hypnotherapy, counselling and even the occasional philosophical piece. I've been treating people with psychotherapy for more than 30 years and I've drawn what I find useful from many fields. I hope you find it helps you in your practice too, whatever flavour of helper you are.
3 Reasons Clients Stay in Abusive Relationships
It can seem baffling, infuriating even, when an abused partner stays with an abuser, even more so when they go back to them after having left. But often it is every bit as baffling and infuriating for the person being abused. So why do people stay in these relationships, and how can we help the […]
Philosophy Piece: 5 Psychological Strategies to Control Catastrophic Impulsivity
With the demise of religion and an increasing sense that “now is all there is”, some people have bought into the idea that personal pleasure and shortcuts to fragile and fleeting happiness are really all that matter. But we all become more efficient, effective, and happy when we master or at least gain more control […]
7 Steps to Lead Your Client Out of Despair
Despairing clients often despair of everything, even of what they love. But with time, patience, and support, clients can overcome even the most difficult challenges and live fulfilling, meaningful lives. Here are some strategies I have used to help clients find the light again. I hope they prove useful to you when faced with a […]
How to Aid Client Self-Compassion
Our relationship with ourselves is a lifelong relationship, and it needs to be committed and steady. When we value, respect, and are patiently well disposed to ourselves, we avoid the dizzy heights of self-adulation but also the lacerating self-despisement of the low self-esteemer. Here I suggest five ways to enhance your clients’ self-compassion and self-acceptance.
How to Help Clients Stop Comparing Themselves to Others
It can be useful to inwardly compare yourself to others sometimes. But when social comparison becomes a dominant mode of functioning, you are more likely to harm yourself with it than help yourself. So how can we help our clients cease lacerating themselves on the bitingly sharp self-criticisms of comparanoia? Here are a few approaches […]
A Quick Guide to Psychiatric Drugs for Therapists
Unless you’re medically trained in drug usage, you won’t be expected to be an authority on psychotropic drugs, their potential benefits and side effects, or even withdrawal protocols. But here I want to give you just a rough and ready guide so that you don’t draw a complete blank when your client discusses medication.
Why Artificial Intelligence Won’t (Completely) Replace a Good Therapist (Yet)
ChatGPT reached 100 million active users by January 2023, making it the fastest-growing easy-to-use consumer application in history. It ain’t going away. But is it coming for your job? Here’s why I don’t see artificial intelligence (completely) taking over the role of the therapist any time soon.
How to Become a More Flexible Therapist
Reality has a way of interfering with our carefully laid plans and theories. We’ve learned our methods and gained all our suppositions as to how clients are supposed to be and act… but then, lo and behold! The client reacts contrary to what we’ve learned. Most inconvenient! Here are some pointers to help you adapt […]
Research Roundup 19
Scientism treats scientific findings as unquestionable dogma of almost a religious dimension. But the disinterested and unbiased pursuit of truth for its own sake, whatever it may reveal, is possible – and, I hope, alive and well. In this series I take five recent research findings and suggest what they might mean about life in […]
