For months, prior to this writing, the daily news feeds have been rife with grim updates on the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet it appears that there is a parallel pandemic occurring: that of racial discrimination unleashed because of COVID-19. Researchers at the Australian National University are inviting people to record their experiences of racism following on […]
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Counselling Theory & Process
Counselling and Racism: Raising Our Awareness
What would be your reaction if someone you knew and respected called you a racist? Would you be gobsmacked? Bewildered as to what you could have said or done that made you seem racist? Or perhaps infuriated that someone could think that you, in all probability a staunch promoter of social justice ideals, could actually […]
- July 14, 2020
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Ethics & Legal Issues, Multicultural Issues
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Setting Up Online Counselling: Not Just a Couple of Clicks
The purpose of counselling is generally to help people learn to live in happier, more effective ways, which more often than not means helping them learn how to come together better with other people. In these pandemic-permeated times, however, we are told by authorities that the most effective means of being with others is to […]
- March 26, 2020
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Ethics & Legal Issues, Technology & Social Media
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Assessing Therapist-client Fit
Please consider these two scenarios for a moment. Scenario 1. The new client comes in and makes solid eye contact as she seats herself. You feel a surge of warmth toward her and are immediately interested. As the session progresses, you notice she is similar to you in certain unusual ways, and her passing remarks […]
- December 3, 2019
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- Counselling Dilemmas, Counselling Theory & Process, Ethics & Legal Issues
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Detecting the Deception
Counsellor to client mandated to come to counselling after an alleged domestic violence incident: “So, did you hit your wife?” Client: (Squirming in chair). “I love my wife. Do you think I would give a black eye to the woman I love? What happened was that there was this jar of honey that couldn’t be […]
- October 21, 2019
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- Addictions, Counselling Theory & Process, Relationship & Families
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Why Counsellors Need Mental Health Therapy
Have you ever sat in session, listening to your client explain why they were angsty over some issue, only to find that you experienced a rising panic and sense of helplessness — because you, too, were dealing with the same issue? Have you ever finished a session with a deeply depressed client, only to find […]
- May 14, 2019
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Personal Effectiveness, Private Practice, Stress Management
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Compliments: Helping Clients Receive Them
You hand your friend the beautifully wrapped gift. In delight, your dear one excitedly strips off the bow and wrapping, lifts the box, and then says in a crestfallen voice, “I can’t wear wool; it makes me itch. Here, you can have it back.” Can you imagine how deflated and hurt you would feel if […]
- February 20, 2019
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Relationship & Families
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Intention to Realisation: Working with Will
The holidays are finished, the relatives have gone home, and your clients are trickling back in, many of them armed with an awesome set of resolutions for what they plan to accomplish. A brand new year is like a clean slate: hopeful, invigorating and full of promise. But the road to realisation of goals is […]
- January 2, 2019
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Counselling Therapies, Personal Effectiveness, Spirituality & Religion
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Helping Clients Learn How to Surrender
Your new boss shifts the goal posts, demanding a much higher volume of work from you than the high level that was expected before. You take one look at all the new tasks you must do, throw up your hands in despair, and angrily write out your resignation letter. Did you give up or did […]
- November 22, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Personal Effectiveness, Wellness
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Dreams and Counselling
How do you respond when your client asks in distress: “Why am I having all these wild dreams?”? Do you know what purpose the client’s dreams may be serving? If your honest answer is “no”, you are not alone. While theories on why we dream abound, it’s hard to get at dreams directly. The main […]
- November 7, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Neuroscience, Spirituality & Religion
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Introducing Animal-assisted Therapy
It’s becoming increasingly “official”. More and more, we human beings are using our furry, feathered, and finned fellow beings to help us heal. It’s called animal-assisted therapy, or AAT, and the purpose of this post is to introduce you to it, a therapy adjunct since the 1990s. We look into what it is, how we […]
- August 17, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Counselling Therapies, Wellness
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Helping Introverts Cope with Overstimulation
We live in a noisy, overstimulated, fast-paced world: conditions in which extraverts thrive, but for the roughly half of the population who are introverted, those same conditions are cause for dismay, if not worse. At some stage, you may be asked to help a frazzled, introverted client regain balance. What are the signs and symptoms […]
- August 10, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Relationship & Families, Stress Management
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Benefits and Pitfalls of Counsellor Self-disclosure
Your client’s voice gets very low. In the hushed tones of deep shame, he confides, “I was so depressed yesterday, like never before. This was my marriage; it was so important to me, and I failed at it.” You are suddenly on high alert. You want to rush in and assure him that you know […]
- July 5, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Ethics & Legal Issues, Supervision
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Synchronicity in Counselling
It’s surely happened to all of us, and it will probably turn up at some stage in your therapy rooms, too: a client confides that, just when she was thinking of someone from the past whom she hadn’t seen for many years but who had a huge impact on her life, she runs into that […]
- June 15, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Spirituality & Religion
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Dealing with the Stigma of Hearing Impairment
One in six Australians has hearing loss, and the projection is that one in four will have it by 2050, as our population ages (Australian Network on Disability, n.d.). Thus, even if you never have a profoundly deaf client come to your rooms, you are likely to see someone at some stage who is hearing-impaired. […]
- June 8, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Disability Issues, Loss & Grief
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