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
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 new wave of up to date CBT, which learns and adapts as new science informs us, it is just as important … 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Click image to enlarge. Click to full site link: http://www.becauseiamagirl.ie/2013/12/09/veronica-walsh-owner-cbt-feeling-good/
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
The third wave of CBT is holistic – taking the best practice from psychology today, and blending it with Eastern and Western philosophy, and the wisdom of the great intellectual thinkers through the ages – including acceptance, living in the present, and mindfulness. Taking the lead from that, this post introduces Mark Twain – writer, … Continue reading
A SHORT EXERCISE FOR MANAGING ‘EMOTIONAL REASONING’ “I feel bad, therefore it is bad…” Emotional reasoning is one of the most common bad habits. It is when we judge situations according to how we FEEL, not on evidence or rational thinking. But feelings are not facts… Do you fear that you use emotional reasoning too … Continue reading
Scroll below… and simply click on the images to open a new window for any of the following hi-res zoomable newsletters for corporate training, workshops, and private sessions. Some are old, some are new. Note: bespoke seminars and training can be put together for any psychological ‘brain training’ needs, call to discuss or to request a … Continue reading
Training: Practical public speaking skills and tools.
Is it true that companies and organisations can develop attitudes and beliefs and behaviours that are not helpful? That foster upsettness and poor choices of action? That are not compatible with good communications? That give poor outcomes? Yes. Yes it is. We all know of workplaces that are accused of having ‘a toxic culture’. Workplaces … 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…
… an example handout/worksheet – use it as a template to catch and change your own thinking and behaviour… click on the above image to view/enlarge, then read the below practical guide. Some new self talk suggestions to replace your Negative Automatic thoughts: I am fortune telling something that hasn’t happened yet, and may not … Continue reading
Sucessful CBT requires that we examine our thinking, and that ideally we write things down to help us figure them out. The following ‘self esteem’ exercise is one of the best known with the best results. It allows you to build awareness of possible distortions in the way you perceive yourself, distortions that make you … Continue reading
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
Freud had a gene for inefficiency, and I think I have a gene for efficiency” ~ Albert Ellis, 1913 to 2007 This photo is Ellis with a patient circa 1940’s – (or it could be his receptionist hamming it up for the shoot). This post introduces you to Albert Ellis and his basic ‘guide to … 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
The psychological impact of protracted unemployment can be devastating and possibly permanent. Losing a job often also means the loss of: structure, certainty, routine, security, social networking, a sense of contributing/belonging, confidence, and ultimately hope… And never having had a job, and living with unemployment, especially in disadvantaged areas, often creates a state of low … Continue reading
CBTandFeelingGood.com – CBT Handout/excercise – A Thought/Fight or Flight guide… FIGHT OR FLIGHT – So.. we now know your body joins in on the fun when you’re anxious and ‘seeing’ dangers and hazards everywhere … Exercise: use the following guide to journal and catch when situations and irrational thinking cause upsettness (emotional & physical), all … 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
Let me preface this post by telling you that I adore a glass of wine, and I’m not suggesting adults shouldn’t choose to have a glass of wine at home – we’re just going to have an academic look at the science of this particular habit. It’s interesting – and the purpose of the post … Continue reading
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
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
Introducing the ‘ABC’ Technique of cognitive behavioral therapy. If we cannot ‘catch’ our negative automatic thoughts, (how we are explaining things to ourselves, literally), then we cannot examine and challenge them. CBT gives you homework and exercises designed to guide and mentor you in the process of identifying unhealthy distorted thinking, and reframing it to healthy … Continue reading
Evolution produced us: today’s fabulous human beings. But… there are a few design flaws. And some primitive automatic responses we’ve been saddled with that often do more harm than good these days. But we can learn to understand and control them with CBT… What is ‘fight or flight’? When we perceive a threat, our bodies … 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
As a freelance trainer, I teach a workshop called ‘Making Choices’ for the unemployed. The flexible modules include theory and application of the latest proven methods and strategies for great psychological health (more specifically the self help components of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), and an introduction to MindMapping, a wholebrain colour and imagery mapping skill for … Continue reading
When we are stressed and anxious, our Negative Automatic Thoughts (NATs) assault us involuntarily… the thoughts go round and round… they become more and more unhelpful and destructive – they cause us to ‘feel’ distressing emotions – this prevents us from doing things we wish we could/would – and of course procrastinating gives us even … Continue reading
