Scroll down for PDF extracts from the CBTandFeelingGood.com workshops / workbooks – for you to use as a self-help resource. Note to therapists: © Veronica Walsh, no re-print or distribution without permission – but ask me if you’d like to use them with your clients, I bet I’ll say yes! (scroll down to make a … Continue reading
Many of today’s mental health experts are recommending Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as a first choice treatment for pretty much all emotional disorders – stress, depression, anxiety, anger management etc.– rather than medication, or spending years undergoing the old style Freudian ‘shrink’ psychiatry. This blog is a free resource to help you to understand and … Continue reading
One of the leaders of the Positive Psychology movement, Shawn Achor, the happiness guy from Harvard, has a great imagery packed 12 minute TedTalk explaining our negative and positive filters, and some problematic approaches in psychology. I showed it to one of my clients, an Irish comedian, recently: and he declared it ‘a perfect set’. … Continue reading
The perils of perfectionism with the female executive. Rising to the top of the corporate world is inarguably harder for women than men. Breaking through the layers of glass ceilings often means that just like Ginger Rodgers, you have to do everything that Fred Astaire does, but backwards and in heels. And you want it … Continue reading
Accessible science and data through visuals: update your ‘stress in the workplace‘ information by checking out this infographic on work related disorder stats. It was created by the Eastern Kentucky University’s Bachelor of Science in Occupational Safety Program, and is such extensive outsourced research it could reasonably apply to any Western country. Enjoy… (LINKS: Click … Continue reading
Bestselling author Helen Russell has written a new book ‘Leap Year‘, about ‘how to be more resilient and change your life for good’ – in it she gets guided-self-help advice from various experts for various issues, and then she, or her willing guinea pigs, try out the advice and report outcomes and results – … Continue reading
As I wait patiently for the decades old impractical psychology models to be truly disrupted by neurobiology, I thought I would introduce you to the ideas of Patricia Churchland – the renowned award winning professor of philosophy, author and intellectual thinker-inflencer, and originator of ‘neurophilosophy’ – who has disrupted classic philosophy with her ‘heretical’ view that the mind … Continue reading
This post shows my feature article from the Sunday Business Post Magazine (BusinessPost.ie) : ‘Glass Half Empty’ – a look at the basic science of what using alcohol for stress relief does, plus practical life hacks for managing an unhelpful alcohol habit… Click on any of the images below for a hi res ‘zoom to read’ window – and/or refer to the original post … Continue reading
iVeronicaWalsh.wordpress.com guided self help worksheets: Many people who suffer from stress disorders develop Low Frustration Tolerance (LFT) – this is a term coined by one of the founding fathers of CBT, Dr Albert Ellis, referring to when we imagine we cannot and will not and should not have to tolerate conditions that frustrate us (eg … Continue reading
In the interests of continuing to be a magpie that picks up shiny accessible cognitive science, and packages it in tasty bites for you to add to your ‘thinking skills’ – I have transcribed a number of ‘quotes’ by the character of Dr. Daniel Pierce, a crime-solving genius neuroscientist in the TV show Perception. The … Continue reading
Think about your thinking… a new fast introduction to cognitive science for civilians: From the moment you are born, you collect experiences and build memories that help you to evaluate and navigate the world. (Evaluation, filtering, perception). Your brain uses these experiences to build neural pathways – automatic information chains of data in your brain – which … Continue reading
Advances in neuroscience are changing the world of psychology and how we understand and manage the way we explain the world to ourselves. This post is an introduction to the neuroscience of memories and our central nervous system, for better skills in self management – change your brain through ‘learning and doing’. Each of us moves through … Continue reading
Neuroscience is changing psychology models and how we understand and manage our lives. With traditional CBT back in the day, it was all about thoughts causing feelings which cause behaviours – but in this ‘third wave’ of up to date CBT, which learns and adapts as new science informs us, it is just as important … Continue reading
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 160,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 7 days for that many people to see … Continue reading
Cognitive science tells us that when stress becomes a disorder it causes a shift in thinking – so that our attributional style (ie the way we explain the world to ourselves, also known as our ‘explanatory style‘) becomes distorted and stretched out of proportion, which can cause us (and those around us) more upset than … Continue reading
A quick and powerful Cognitive Behavioural Training theory and application worksheet for great well being. “People are not their behaviors, their behaviors are just something they do sometimes.” Do you often get angry at people? This lesson will help you to build awareness of how you are explaining people’s behavior to yourself, and to consider whether you … Continue reading
Interview: Public Speaking with Veronica Walsh by Today FM 31st May 2015 14:45 We’re all afraid of something… spiders, flying, heights, cats, mice… the list goes on and on. But for some people their fears are life-limiting & one of the most debilitating phobias out there is the fear of public speaking. It’s said that … Continue reading
An audio of an interview with me by the host of the NewstalkFM 6am (!) Breakfast Business Show about using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to manage stress in the workplace:
This is a radio interview I did with The Tom Dunne show on NewstalkFM Ireland about making new friends late in life when your social network shrinks. It’s a discussion (with Tom Dunne and the Irish Times journalist Fiona McCann) on how life changes, and using http://www.meetup.com (the worldwide social networking site, facilitating ‘meetup’ groups … Continue reading
If your stress has become a disorder – whether low, moderate, or high, whether anxiety or depression – it is likely that you over-think and over-feel and over-react, and that your habits interfere with your enjoyment of life. A classic response to stress is ‘avoidant behaviour’ – where we develop habits of avoiding activities that … Continue reading
A CBT guide to track and dispute the vicious circle of bad thinking habits: Tips: consider the overdramatic statement – and reframe it, by asking yourself the following: Am I using one of my Bad Thinking Habits? Which one? Am I using emotional reasoning (oh my feelings!) – feelings are not facts. What is … Continue reading
Know your brain: The ‘third wave’ of cognitive behavioural training uses everything that has been proven to work to help people to literally learn wellbeing and new skills in self management, outside of the traditional model of psychology that was concerned with disease and sickness and focussing on a medical solution for chemical imbalances. THINKING: … Continue reading
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): is a type of depression that occurs during a particular season – usually winter – and is thought to be caused by a neurological anomaly due to the lack of light. Treatment has traditionally been with ‘lightboxes’ (light therapy / phototherapy), where sufferers are routinely exposed to artificial light that can … Continue reading
Become your own therapist through literally learning ‘how to be happy’ through applying rational thinking skills. Cool yourself down into a moderate calm thinker with the renowned and powerful Albert Ellis rational thinking table. Use it. Love it. If you accept the theory that our brains have been cobbled together by evolution, and are not … Continue reading
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 120,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 5 days for that many people to see … Continue reading
The ABC of CBT – think about your thinking – consider and discuss the following diagrams to link thoughts and feelings and behaviours : An example ABC showing how stress can cause dramatic distorted thinking, which can in turn cause dramatic distorted feelings and behaviours – do you do this in some … Continue reading
[extract from my Smart Skills for Students school presentation] What are you thinking? How are you explaining the world to yourself? WHO does that thinking make you? HOW does that thinking make you? Who do you want to be? How do you want to be? Take a look at this simple and beautiful extract from … Continue reading
New evidence based practical science says that when stress becomes a disorder, it ‘causes a shift in thinking’ – as if you had put negative crooked gloomy glasses on, and view the world through them instead of with rational thinking skills. Often, when people become stressed to the point where it is an actual disorder, … Continue reading
This post introduces you to the views of the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus, the ‘Buddha of the west’, to get you thinking about thinking. What does philosophy have to do with psychotherapy? Well, everything. Today’s so called third wave of CBT is ‘holistic’ and a philosophy for living. For all day every day. Dr Albert … Continue reading
A CBT tour of our amazing brain… Take a journey through the following links for accessible short posts explaining our brain’s chemical role in how we view and respond to events: Did you know that stress in childhood can literally restructure the brain so that the fear centre is strengthened and always on the … Continue reading
What is your self talk? Is it overly dramatic and causing you over upsetness? Modern psychotherapy does not believe that anxiety and depression are ‘just chemical’ – and it recommends learning how to develop awareness and management of your ‘attributional style’ – (how you explain the world to yourself through your thinking, either positively or … Continue reading
I really like the following list of Maslow’s characteristics of ‘self-actualizers’ as cited on the SimplyPsychology.org website. You can see a diagram of Maslow’s Heirarchy of Human Needs pyramid above, and then scroll down in this post to see the self actualization characteristics – it fits beautifully with the third wave of CBT’s cognitive reframing, … Continue reading
My work is about how to use our brains more efficiently – not just around psychological health, but also in how our brains process and store and recall information – the tool I teach for this is ‘mind mapping’ and ‘visual note taking’. For many people – whether the task is an interview, a presentation, … Continue reading
The UN compose and issue a ‘world happiness index’ every year, and the UK measure ‘national happiness’ for economic indicators and strategies, while other countries and international organisations, from China to the OECD, are piloting their own well being measurement systems. Why? The old ways of measuring a country’s ‘health’ by GDP are outdated. … Continue reading
“I can’t keep calm, because I can’t breathe properly!” When we are anxious we are in a ‘fight or flight‘ state. This is when the body pumps itself up with adrenaline and cortisol and oxygen to prepare for a situation that it perceives as a ‘threat’, whether low moderate or high. Today’s threats are mainly … Continue reading
A Quick CBT look at Low Frustration Tolerance Are you quick to irritation and anger? Do people annoy you? Do you ‘hate’ some people? Do you have to punish people often? Do you describe yourself as not ‘suffering fools gladly’? Do you think life is unfair? If the answer to many of those questions is … Continue reading
ELSEVIER – PEER REVIEWED SCIENCE RESEARCH PAPER: “Cognitive-behavioural training to change attributional style improves employee well-being, job satisfaction, productivity, and turnover” ‘Attributional style’, also known as explanatory style, is a psychological term for how we explain the world to ourselves, our ‘mindset’. This post contains an introduction and a PDF download link to the acclaimed UK and Australian academic study … Continue reading
A quick stress disorder check list: This post helps you to evaluate known indicators of stress against how you feel, how you think and how you behave – Have a look at the table below (click the image to open an easy to read large image popup) – can you recognise yourself there? If your … Continue reading
Do you have anxiety? Does your physiological response to ‘stress’ rule your life? So, modern evidence based psychotherapy and neuroscience tells us that when stress becomes a disorder, it causes a shift in thinking, and we develop distorted and negative bad thinking habits, which cause inappropriate emotional and physical and behavioural responses to everyday life. … Continue reading
A thought stopping technique: ‘Just Noting’ with Mindfulness The beginning of my work with clients is in building a foundation where we understand and can build awareness of how we ‘think’ – what our self talk is, and whether stress has become a disorder that has caused a shift in thinking to a distorted negative … Continue reading
I thought you’d enjoy this Introduction penned by Dr Albert Ellis, one of the founding fathers of CBT, for his 1978 book ‘Executive Leadership: a rational approach‘. Written in his own inimitable style, his points about business leaders needing to work on emotional stability and rational thinking, as a matter of course, are still valid … Continue reading
The following new study from Berkeley is really interesting: Title: How chronic stress predisposes brain to mental disorders URL: ScienceDaily Summary: Biologists have shown in rats that chronic stress makes stem cells in the brain produce more myelin-producing cells and fewer neurons, possibly affecting the speed of connections between cells as well as memory and … Continue reading
Try an introductory session for only €35 (inc handout worksheets): (Click the voucher image to enlarge for more details. Click HERE to go to my website):
OECD secgen is interviewed at the World Economic Forum : The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, is using the World Economic Forum to highlight the issue of stress in the workplace. The OECD says it is one of the key challenges – in the UK alone, nearly 500,000 people were off work for … Continue reading
I’ve been reading an old (over 30 years old!) book by the founding father of CBT Albert Ellis – and thought you’d enjoy reading his introduction to the principals of CBT, and it’s genesis in philosophy. I have included links to relevant posts on my self help blog if you want to try out the … Continue reading
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 84,000 times in 2013. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see … Continue reading
Common unhelpful thinking habits / irrational cognitions: modern psychotherapy tells us that when stress becomes a disorder it causes a shift in thinking – and we filter and process situations and events though a distorted and gloomy lens. The ‘picture’ is off track – so it is not the situation that is causing our upset, … Continue reading
The following is an extract from the workbook used at the Science of Happiness Workshop for Schools – teaching practical well being strategies: A quick look at applying your new learning to cyberbullying: “Cyberbullying is any harassment that occurs via the Internet. Vicious forum posts, name calling in chat rooms, posting fake profiles on web … Continue reading
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An example of one of my mind maps, created for a public speaking engagement. Date: 20th November 2013 Event title: “‘Seven Deadly Sins – Greed – Realise Your Ambition: How to Get to the Top and Stay There.” for the National College of Ireland and the Metro Newspaper. I was a guest speaker for the … Continue reading
Everybody is talking about Mindfulness these days. Some imagine that it’s a hippy dippy meditation technique, others that it’s a more complex philosophy for living. Actually, for me maybe it’s both of those, and neither of those. Mindfulness is a simple theory with many many applications. Why do I include it here on my CBT … Continue reading
Let’s take a fresh look at the common ‘irrational cognitions’ or ‘unhealthy thinking habits’ that human beings with stress disorders are wired for. All of us do many of the thinking habits [listed at the end of this post] some of the time, but when stress becomes a disorder and causes a shift in thinking, … Continue reading
