Musings
Can I Be in Relationship and Free at the Same Time?
It seems to me that one of the most fundamental questions many of us face these days is something like: "Is it possible to enter and sustain a relationship without losing my freedom?" If the answer could possibly be, yes, then, we want to know, "How do we do that?" ...
Anger Management–for You and Those Near You
Anger management is important to ourselves and to others. It is usually unpleasant for the person experiencing the anger, especially afterwards, and invariably for the person at whom it is directed. The one at the receiving end may feel afraid, resentful, shamed,...
Depression as a Personal and Public Issue.
Depression as a Public Issue One in seven Australians suffer with some form of depression in their lifetime. Based on a measure of its negative effects on communities and individuals, it is currently rated as the world's third most debilitating and costly illness. The...
How Do a “You” and an “I” Make a “We”?
How do two separate people come to live as a single unit? Can two, in some sense, become one, and if so, do they then stop being two? Couples counselling addresses the question, what is this thing that we can't see, touch or measure, and that we call a...
What is Focusing-Oriented Counselling?
Focusing-oriented therapy is an an experiential, somatic approach to counselling and psychotherapy. It prioritises a person's own life-experience. While both client-experience and psychological theory are always part of a session, whenever a conflict arises between...
What is Holistic Counselling?
Holistic counselling is inclusive in what it considers significant for a client's well-being. Every area that pertains to human life is on the table for possible consideration. No area of activity is left out because to leave it out would be to disavow a part of our...
Spiritual Counselling and Not Knowing
What do I mean when I use that term, spiritual counselling? There are times when I have felt that after nine years working as a counsellor, I'm finally getting my head around what counselling is, what it might be and what it is for. Such moments usually come...
Mutuality in Counselling is Important
What is mutuality in counselling? I woke up in the middle of last night from a dream about work, something that rarely enters my dreams. In the dream, I am listening to a client, and when he finishes speaking, I ask him what it is about our conversations that is of...
The Darkness of Depression
Counselling for the darkness of depression. I was recently in a conversation that brought home to me how much of what is called counselling is about a basic human need. I was speaking with a client, and he was telling me how important to him was the feeling of family,...
Toward A Therapy of Resurrection
Where does the notion of a therapy of resurrection come from? It's Good Friday, today, and so, it's not surprising that I find myself this morning musing about what is undoubtedly the central story of western culture, and of many other cultures, that of resurrection. ...