Mental Health Counselling

An essential defense of the people the world loves to revile - the loners - yet without whom it would be lost. The Buddha. Rene Descartes. Emily Dickinson. Greta Garbo. Bobby Fischer. J. D. Salinger: Loners, all - along with as many as 25 percent of the world's population. Loners keep to themselves, and like it that way. Yet in the press, in films, in folklore, and nearly everywhere one looks, loners are tagged as losers and psychopaths, perverts and pity cases, ogres and mad bombers, elitists and wicked witches.

Human brains and behavior are shaped by genetic predispositions and early experience. But we are not doomed by our genes or our past. Neuroscientific discoveries of the last decade have provided an optimistic and revolutionary view of adult brain function: People can change. This revelation offers hope to therapists and to couples seeking to improve their relationship. Loving With the Brain in Mind explores ways to help couples become proactive in revitalizing their relationship.

Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) is an attachment-focused treatment for children and adolescents who have experienced abuse and neglect and are now living in stable foster and adoptive families. Here, Daniel Hughes and Kim S. Golding provide a practical accompaniment to their highly successful DDP text coauthored with Julie Hudson, Healing Relational Trauma with Attachment-Focused Interventions.

Many of us believe that the best way to treat crises and challenges is to process them: to mull over and analyse the stresses, anxieties and traumas we face. But this perception is misguided. Instead, we should think of our mind as a sieve through which everything slips unless we choose to hold on to it. But how do we let go of those negative thoughts we’ve held on to which are weighing us down?

Unlocking the doors to the psych ward, NHS psychiatrist Dr Benji Waterhouse provides a fly-on-the-padded-wall account of medicine’s most mysterious and controversial speciality. Why would anyone in their right mind choose to be a psychiatrist? Are the solutions to people’s messy lives really within medical school textbooks? And how can vulnerable patients receive the care they need when psychiatry lacks staff, hospital beds and any actual cures?

Neuroscience has shown that trauma can be removed completely. Indeed, the brain has an in-built mechanism for doing just that. It is called memory reconsolidation. This book shows you how to use that mechanism to remove trauma for your clients. It reveals the exact steps the brain needs so that trauma can be removed reliably and consistently. It shows you how to apply them to your work in the therapy room, step by step. It provides you with a road map that increases your potency and effectiveness as a therapist.

Those who struggle with disordered eating often find themselves in an unrelenting cycle of harsh self-judgment, painful emotions, and harmful behaviors. Seeing the body as an adversary, these patterns can lead many people to become withdrawn or isolated. Ann Saffi Biasetti’s powerful holistic approach to liberating people from disordered eating focuses on growing self-compassion and embodiment. This insight, informed by yoga and mindfulness meditation, views the body not just as something to be healed or restored but as a source of great wisdom and knowledge.

Feeling restricted by her office-bound clinical practice, licensed clinical social worker Jen Udler decided to take therapy outdoors. Walking on local nature trails with her clients proved to be the breakthrough Jen was looking for. The calming presence of nature provided a varied backdrop, offering natural metaphors for each client's experience, while the rhythmic movement cultivated deeper connections between mind and body.

Spiritual Psychotherapy is a holistic approach to psychological healing and integration. It addresses our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs and those of our clients. Unlike most therapies, Spiritual Psychotherapy begins and ends with our connection to our Source or Essence. It is through our connection with this Source that we experience love and rediscover our original innocence. Our connection to love heals on all levels. It restores balance and well-being in the psyche.

In a society that values independence, self-preservation, and individualistic thinking, we are missing the key to fulfillment: Connection through attachment. Simply, attachment is the way that we connect to each other. Without attachment, people feel alone to deal with challenges they face, which leads to distress, dysfunction, and mental health disorders. Improve your client's relationships by teaching them strategies to feel more connected reestablish trust, and restore positive emotions..

When treating a client who has suffered from interpersonal trauma - whether chronic childhood abuse or domestic violence, for example - talk therapy isn't always the most effective course. For these individuals, the trauma and its effects are so entrenched, so complex, that reducing their experience to a set of symptoms or suggesting a change in cognitive frame or behavioral pattern ignores a very basic but critical player: the body.

If you struggle with a highly sensitive personality, this memoir and collection of stories will help you heal and flourish. Benita A. Esposito is a licensed professional counselor and best-selling author with four decades of professional experience. Even smart high-achievers have themes on their hero’s journey to the authentic self, and these were hers. What unconsciously drew her to an emotionally distant relationship or an emotionally abusive relationship? Why did she feel so hurt when others judged her? Why was she so tired? What compelled her toward self actualization?

Monica DiCristina struggled for years to describe the pain she was experiencing inside. Without knowing what was behind her anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and fears, she created other names for them: “not good enough,” “unworthy,” “messed up,” and “wrong.” Through the slow process of understanding her own story, she discovered a glorious path to healing, as well as a calling to become a therapist to help others in the same way.

This groundbreaking text goes to the very heart of the therapeutic meeting between therapist and client. Focusing on the concept of "relational depth", the authors describe a form of encounter in which therapist and client experience profound feelings of contact and engagement with each other, and in which the client has an opportunity to explore whatever is experienced as most fundamental to her or his existence.

From foraging and hunting for food to (more recently) finding solace and peace in a beautiful vista, humans have long interacted with the natural world. Though a connection to nature runs deep in our DNA, however, people of the modern age are indoors almost 93 percent of the day. With that said, there is a growing evidence suggests that the natural world promotes mental and physical well-being, including stress relief, improved mood, and neurological benefits.

In The Talking Cure, psychotherapists Gill Straker and Jacqui Winship bring us nine inspiring stories of transformation. They introduce us to their clients, fictional amalgams of real-life cases, and reveal how the art of talking and listening helps us to understand deep-seated issues that profoundly influence who we are in the world and how we see ourselves in relation to others.

Peter Fraenkel presents a practical, creative, integrative approach that combines action- and insight-oriented techniques to help last-chance couples manage conflict, modulate intense negative emotions, address power struggles, develop mutual compassion, and restore emotional intimacy and pleasurable connection. Special attention is paid to developing a collaborative therapeutic alliance when partners have little motivation for therapy or faith that it can be effective. Through engaging in "nonbinding experiments in possibility," partners can then better evaluate whether to "stay or go."

Dr. Bob Beare’s book is a framework and a guide to emotional freedom. It provides powerful insights on how to go beyond therapy and create a meaningful and purposeful life—a reminder that, with support, we can transcend the patterns that keep us stuck!

Narrative therapy has the potential to help clients understand their challenges as separate from their selves, shifting the focus to their inner strengths when managing a problem. Narrative Practices and Emotions provides a fresh perspective for new and experienced practitioners alike on how to combine classic narrative therapy with the latest scholarship on the mind-body connection.

An essential resource for psychologists, therapists, and clinicians to help clients understand dissociation, make sense of their parts, and visualize depersonalization and derealization—a stigma-free guide from the bestselling author of Dissociation Made Simple.