Mark, 36 years of age, is directed to counselling by his doctor after Mark decides he wants to transition from male to female, undergo sex reassignment surgery, and change his name to Sonia. Mark reports he has suffered for a long time trying to live as a man when he in fact feels like a […]
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How to Boost Your Creativity
Your wellbeing can benefit from being more creative. How many different ways can you use a brick? What would happen if dogs could talk? What will our homes and workplaces look like 100 years from now? When you read the questions above, what is your reaction? Do you shrug and start to click away from […]
- April 17, 2015
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- 2643
- Personal Effectiveness, Workplace Issues
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Essential Steps to a New You
Not feeling like you’re living it up to your full potential? Below are some essential tips to get out of your rut and towards renewal. Cycles of life Northern hemisphere plants burst forth with new green shoots while south of the equator we prepare for winter’s dying-off as trees drop leaves and animals hibernate. Both […]
- April 13, 2015
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- 3629
- Stress Management, Wellness
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Practicing Unconditional Self-acceptance and Compassion
When discussing happiness, one attitude/belief that deserves special mention is the art of accepting ourselves on an “as is, where is” basis. For us to be peacefully in relationship with our own humanness – our own combination of strengths, growing edges and unique quirks – means to have less stress from the source of our […]
- March 26, 2015
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- 3826
- Relationship & Families, Spirituality & Religion, Wellness
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DSM-5 Updates: Assessment Instruments
We’ve previously published an article with information and resources to help you understand the differences between the DSM-IV and its latest version, the DSM 5. In this post, we turn our focus to DSM-5-relevant instruments to assess clients. With the advent of the DSM-5 in 2013, clinicians wondered if instruments formulated on the basis of the […]
- March 17, 2015
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- 4129
- Diagnosis & Treatment
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Take Your Happiness to the Next Level
You’ve ticked off all the items on the “Good Life” list: you exercise daily, have a healthy diet with good general health and sufficient sleep, and your interesting job affords you many luxuries. Beyond that, your primary relationship is going well and you enjoy your friends and hobbies. You say you are satisfied, but secretly […]
A Healthy Heart is Both Physical and Emotional
We all know that we should exercise, eat sensibly, and generally take care of ourselves for good heart health. What might not be as clear is how good emotional health yields good health for the physical heart. With February being Heart Research month, it’s a great time to take a fresh look at how that […]
- February 20, 2015
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- 4280
- Counselling Theory & Process, Wellness
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Counselling Dilemma: A Terminally-ill Client
You are working with a 65-year-old female client, Mary, who has been coming to see you for six months as she had grief and loss issues around having lost her only sibling, her brother and her husband in a space of a month apart (a year ago). She has a daughter and son who are […]
- February 10, 2015
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- 9860
- Counselling Dilemmas, Loss & Grief
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Beating the Holiday Blues
You gaze with disgust at the mountains of dirty laundry, tossed casually next to the half-unpacked suitcase. You feel fidgety – unable to settle into your normal routines – life seems grey, and you are dreading work. Chances are you have a condition that hits most eager travellers: the post-holiday blues. Today is about how […]
- January 30, 2015
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- 2627
- Stress Management, Wellness
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Doing the “Re” Thing this Summer
It’s that time of year again: the end-of-year project deadlines are looming, you’ve just found out when the in-laws will be visiting, and your inbox is clogged with ads flogging fares to everywhere from Madagascar to London. Yep, the holidays are coming. Hopefully you have made plans to get away, a commitment backed up by […]
- January 30, 2015
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- 2636
- Personal Effectiveness, Stress Management, Wellness
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CBT in a Nutshell
We can broadly define CBT as a combination of cognitive and behavioural therapeutic approaches used to help clients modify limiting, maladaptive thoughts and behaviours, ones that are often inconsistent with consensual reality (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). The basic premise of CBT is that troublesome emotions are difficult to change directly, so CBT targets […]
- January 27, 2015
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- 20183
- Clinical Mental Health, Counselling Therapies, Diagnosis & Treatment
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Good Things Come in Old Packages
Right from an early age, we get a clear message from the world around us that being old isn’t so great, at least in Western society. Our mothers worry about getting wrinkles and use day creams, night creams, vitamin creams and highly scientific, or perhaps natural and organic, concoctions to cover up the visible signs […]
- January 12, 2015
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- 2617
- Ageing Issues, Lifespan Development, Relationship & Families
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What Can Depressed Seniors Do to Alleviate their Own Depression?
As a counsellor/therapist, doctor, allied health professional (or just a caregiver) of a depressed older adult, you are undoubtedly wondering what you can do to encourage them to help themselves. The following list is a compilation of strategies and tips culled from sites specialising in caring for the depressed elderly. You may wish to discuss […]
- December 23, 2014
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- Ageing Issues, Clinical Mental Health, Wellness
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The Ten Commandments of Grief Counselling
Suicide is a significant public health problem, and properly supporting those left behind — the survivors — is a challenging but significant contribution to the wellbeing of the whole community. If a suicide-bereaved person wound up in your therapy room, what counselling tasks would need to be worked through with them? In this post we […]
- December 15, 2014
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- Loss & Grief, Self-harming & Suicide
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Panic Disorders: Symptoms and Diagnostic Considerations
For most of the two percent of Australians affected by panic disorder, the onset was during their teens or early twenties. It is twice as common in women as men. Not everyone who has panic attacks will develop panic disorder, as some people will have just one attack and never have a recurrence. The tendency […]
- November 24, 2014
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- Clinical Mental Health, Diagnosis & Treatment, Stress Management
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