Philosophy

What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?

What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?

Cognitive behavioural therapy examines the links between thoughts, feelings and actions. The examples below explore this practical approach and its roots in reflective dialogue. Understanding cognitive behavioural therapy through everyday examples When set in the very midst of troubles one should say: Perchance some day the memory of this sorrow will even bring delight. Seneca,

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Living a Beautiful Life: Habits for Mental Health

Living a Beautiful Life: Habits for Mental Health

Habits for mental health take shape in the ordinary choices of each day. These reflections explore movement, stillness and connection with nature as parts of a flourishing life. Habits for mental health in everyday life People come to counselling because they are hurting. Something has gone awry. A relationship ends, a career stalls, health declines.

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Faith without Belief: How to Face the Terror of Living

Faith without Belief: How to Face the Terror of Living

Faith without belief asks whether trust can remain when certainty falls away. These reflections consider aging, vulnerability and the challenge of facing our mortality. Faith without belief in the face of uncertainty One of the challenges of growing older is dealing with the panic that comes with time’s passing. The days might be long, but

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Simplicity: Sanity in Mad Times

Simplicity: Sanity in Mad Times

Simplicity, sufficiency and the limits of more I meet clients who come to therapy when they are hanging by a thread.  Their careers are unforgiving, academic pressures unrelenting. Parents are walloped by the rigours of child-rearing; others are worn thin caring for aging parents. Responsibilities multiply, but the hours remain few. Despite a profusion of duties,

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Nature and Mental Health: The Call to Come Home

Nature and Mental Health: The Call to Come Home

Nature and mental health meet in the simple experience of noticing the world around us. This harbour-side reflection explores belonging, stillness and the relief of a wider perspective. Nature and mental health in an ordinary city moment I am standing by the harbour, peering past the sailboats and skycrapers into the mountains in the distance.

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On the Pilgrim's Path: Walking as a Metaphor for Life

On the Pilgrim’s Path: Walking as a Metaphor for Life

Walking the path of patience and resilience The bamboo forest appeared surreal and fantastical. The vertical, segmented columns rose into feathered tops that swayed in the wind, the path covered by long, papery leaves. I hiked the forest in astonishment. In my imagination, bamboo forests are places of old Eastern legends, the backdrop of martial

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