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 […]
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Stress Management
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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- 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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- 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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- 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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- 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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- 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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- Career Development, Personal Effectiveness, Stress Management
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Relaxation, Meditation and Mindfulness Techniques to Manage Study Stress
Relaxation, meditation and mindfulness stress management techniques involve learning how to control our body’s response to stress. It is about learning to consciously relax the body and still the mind. Like learning a new language, a little bit every day is far better than a mega-session occasionally. Burgeoning research studies support practitioners’ contentions that multiple […]
- August 1, 2016
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- Stress Management, Wellness
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Stress: Busting Six Myths
Stress can be defined as any pressure, demand, or threat placed on an organism (say, a human being) that causes a need to re-establish balance or “equilibrium”. The Oxford Dictionary online adds that stress is “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.” The notion of stress has […]
- May 19, 2016
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- Stress Management, Wellness
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Four Study Strategies to Enhance Your Learning
“The one real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions.” (Bishop Mandell Creighton, in Academic Tips, 2016) The time of being a student could be one of the most exciting of your life – or it could be just short of torture. Which will it be? Part […]
- April 6, 2016
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- Career Development, Personal Effectiveness, Stress Management
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The Best-kept Secret to Motivation
With summer holidays long gone, are you finding it hard to get back into your routines? I once resisted starting a necessary task, only to have my co-worker say “Just get stuck in. You’ll be right.” I now realise how much wisdom was buried in her throwaway line. Volumes have been written about how to […]
- March 7, 2016
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- Career Development, Personal Effectiveness, Stress Management
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Get Going with Goal-setting
How are you going on your New Year’s resolutions? If you are like an estimated 93 percent of the population, you have abandoned those fine aspirations generated so earnestly in December. Despair not, however; in this article we look at why you should revive your resolutions, turning them into goals. We identify the areas of […]
- March 1, 2016
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- Career Development, Personal Effectiveness, Private Practice, Stress Management
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How to Deal with Disappointment
You miss out on that plum position you wanted. You lose the court case. Your best mate announces a move to another state. Life is rife with disappointments. Many of them are out of our control, so if we want to be happy, the only option is to learn how to deal with them. What […]
- November 5, 2015
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- Personal Effectiveness, Stress Management, Wellness
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Counselling Dilemma: A Client Who is Afraid of Flying
Robert has been referred to you for counselling. He has recently started a new role as an executive for a large international company. The role involves some travel and this was made very clear to Robert when he accepted the position. Robert has a fear of flying but really wanted to work for the company […]
- August 11, 2015
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- Career Development, Counselling Dilemmas, Counselling Theory & Process, Stress Management, Workplace Issues
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