The morning alarm jolts you awake, and you roll over to swat the snooze button – just like that, Monday has come again, along with another working week. You mourn the freedoms of the weekend and drag yourself out of bed whilst wondering why your alarm’s tone is so irritating. “I need coffee”, you think. […]
Stress Management
Identifying and Managing Therapist Burnout
It’s a new year, we’ve all renewed ourselves with a fabulous holiday break, and we’re raring to go again, having said goodbye to the factors stressing us in 2020, right? Or maybe not. Much of the developed world has, at this writing, only recently come out of lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic, and many countries […]
- March 1, 2021
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- Stress Management, Wellness, Workplace Issues
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Take the Mindful Path to Self-Care
Imagine a self-care strategy which relies solely on you. It can be done in a quiet space or on-the-go; it can take place individually or with like-minded others; and it can be flexible to your needs and circumstances. Furthermore, in a time when uncertainty never feels too far away, it is unlikely to become a casualty of lockdown or physical distancing. Within a working context, if utilised properly, this self-care strategy can enable you to become a better helping professional, as well as inform and improve upon your interactions and practices with clients. Welcome to the world of mindfulness.
- February 3, 2021
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- 1034
- Personal Effectiveness, Stress Management, Wellness
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COVID-19, Fear and What Counsellors Can Do to Help
A member of our writing team related the following experience during these times of near-lockdown. She had gone out to do some essentials such as grocery shopping and getting prescriptions filled for her healthy but self-isolating husband. Returning home, she threw down her things, wailed, “It’s just awful”, and burst into tears. Her astonished husband […]
- April 3, 2020
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- 15069
- Loss & Grief, Stress Management, Trauma & Disaster Mental Health
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Living a Mindful Life: Mindfulness Program
For quite some time now, many of our readers and students have wanted a Mindfulness program that not only teaches them about Mindfulness, but progressively helps them integrate Mindfulness into their lives for enhanced wellbeing. Well, we listened, and now we’re delivering! The resultant program is Living a Mindful Life. Living a Mindful Life This was […]
- March 11, 2020
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- 1779
- Personal Effectiveness, Stress Management, Wellness
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Manipulation: Recognising and Responding to It
You know the feeling. The person seems to be making a reasonable request, or advising you to do something “for your own good”, but inside your guts are completely churned up! What’s going on? The chances are that you are experiencing an attempt to manipulate you. Sadly, manipulation is rife in the real world and […]
- June 28, 2019
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- 18590
- Relationship & Families, Stress Management, Wellness
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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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- 8327
- Counselling Theory & Process, Personal Effectiveness, Private Practice, Stress Management
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Forgiveness Work: Issues and Modalities to Use
Many people view a new year as a clean slate: a chance to start afresh, including emotionally. For some this includes healing from past hurts which may have kept the person from moving forward in life. If a client comes to you with forgiveness on her mind — and, perhaps, whether she should or should […]
- January 7, 2019
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- 4914
- Counselling Therapies, Relationship & Families, Stress Management, Trauma & Disaster Mental Health
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Coping with Holiday Stress and Anxiety
The tree is aglow with the presents all wrapped, the holiday baking is done, and Aunt Daisy has promised to be on her best behaviour. Your client is ready for Christmas — or maybe not. As the siren call of “happy holidays” beckons, many people are thrilled to come to the end of the year. […]
- December 10, 2018
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- 1720
- Relationship & Families, Spirituality & Religion, Stress Management, Wellness
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The Mental Health Benefits of Naps
What’s your reaction when your client leans forward in her chair and her voice drops to a whisper as she confides, “You know, I just get so sleepy after lunch that I feel I must have a nap, or I can’t function — but then I feel so guilty!”? Do you nod sagely, “getting” what […]
- August 31, 2018
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- 3413
- Personal Effectiveness, Stress Management, Wellness
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The Serve and Limit of Social Comparison
Maggie, a counsellor, saw a client in the morning who related how his doctor had just given him a diagnosis of cancer, necessitating cutting out some cancerous tissue. Her client, Arnold, was dismayed about the diagnosis. “But at least,” he confided to Maggie, “I don’t have to have that horrible colostomy bag like some people […]
- August 24, 2018
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- Spirituality & Religion, Stress Management, Technology & Social Media, 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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- 15951
- Counselling Theory & Process, Relationship & Families, Stress Management
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Helping Clients with Sleep Issues
Sleep plays a crucial role throughout our lives in helping to protect physical, mental, and emotional health; quality of life; and safety. How we feel when we are awake depends partly on what happens while we are sleeping, with damage from sleep deficiency causing not only daytime tiredness, but also interference with work, school, social […]
- July 12, 2017
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- 7003
- Relationship & Families, Stress Management, Wellness
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Practical Prioritising: Important, Urgent, or Just Demanded?
How many times have you looked back on periods of your life and wondered, “How was it that I ever thought that was a priority?” Whether it was a hobby you no longer engage, an unworkable relationship you sacrificed healthy ones for, or a compulsion you no longer regard as urgent, most of us have […]
- February 13, 2017
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- 4755
- Career Development, Personal Effectiveness, Stress Management
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The Perils of Multitasking
“Juggling is an illusion. … In reality, the balls are being independently caught and thrown in rapid succession. … It is actually task switching.” (Gary Keller) You probably know the feeling: you’re swamped with work, your email inbox is overflowing, and then you get that call — the one from someone whom you feel guilty […]
- January 17, 2017
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- 5101
- Career Development, Personal Effectiveness, Stress Management
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