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
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
See below a recent interview with me about ‘recession anxiety’. Click HERE to go to the Herald.ie’s original online article for easy reading – or download a full PDF at HeraldArticle – or click on images to enlarge…
The ‘Vicious Circle of Thinking, Feeling & Behaving’ Template When stress becomes a disorder, we experience a shift in thinking to a ‘Negative Automatic Thinking‘ style when we’re processing events and what’s happening around us – this kind of thinking leads to inappropriate levels of upsettness, which leads to self sabotaging behaviour – which adds … Continue reading
Notes for employer awareness of the cost of poor mental health in the workplace: . A few notes / stats to make you think: To set the scale in perspective – the World Health Organisation’s evidence based scale says that mental illness is the largest single illness of people of working age, and as big … Continue reading
In these unprecedented times, it’s never been more important to network and communicate effectively. Not just in our personal lives (feeding our social needs by improving our social skills and our experience in a smart way that will enhance our lives), but also for networking, with past and present colleagues/peers and new contacts… which will … Continue reading
Alternative title: ‘HOW TO STOP UPSETTING YOURSELF BY GOING OVER THINGS ENDLESSLY IN YOUR HEAD’ Many of us have busy buzzing heads, constantly visualising past and future events. Sacrificing the here and now by constructing and starring in painful movies in our heads. This is yet another of those primal ‘supposed to be helping us … 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
When stress becomes a disorder, it causes a shift in thinking to a negative distorted bias. When this happens, your distorted thinking is largely the cause of your feelings and behaviours – events and situations only influence them, no matter how challenging… If our thinking defaults to a negative and distorted view, we are going … Continue reading
Do you suffer from musterbation? Is it always ‘must‘ and ‘should‘ and ‘ought‘ with you? This is a phrase coined by the renowned father of CBT, Albert Ellis. Musty thinking is a classic recipe for general anxiety and unhappiness. In psychotherapy it is also known as inflexible ‘DEMAND THINKING’, and ‘RULES FOR LIVING’. Let’s take … Continue reading
Check out this post to see if you suffer from social anxiety… Are you desperately uncomfortable when attention is on you? Do you shake with nerves or blush? Most people experience some form of shyness, but others are so immobilised by the fear of being judged negatively that they can barely function and develop avoidant … Continue reading
The following is a commissioned article I wrote for the Dublin City Enterprise Board: All reports indicate that the global downturn is escalating incidences of anxiety and depression in people – not just for those who find themselves unemployed, but also those who remain in an unstable workforce – unsure of what is going to … Continue reading
An exercise in disputing irrational extreme ‘Interview Anxiety’ with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy… Interview Anxiety – A Case Study Click the above table image for easy reading, or download as a PDF handout: CBT_ABCD_InterviewAnxiety On examination, Patricia learns that she has a negative ‘self-talk’ pattern. Her thoughts are absolute and extreme and not quite rational (not … Continue reading
