“Mindfulness is paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”— Jon Kabat-Zinn If the idea of starting a meditation practice feels daunting, there are ways to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life simply and naturally, while doing what you’re already doing each day. Start by paying attention to your…
Automatic thoughts are mental functions that occur without conscious judgment, deeply affecting our actions and emotions. These thoughts, which occur depending on the events in the environment, originate from our more stable beliefs and schemas. These thoughts are considered by the person to be true. Negative automatic thoughts that lead to dysfunctional and unresolved moods…
Almost every day my life crosses with someone who is living with some form of loss. One day I am standing in a driveway talking to a man who is slowly watching Alzheimer’s claim his wife one memory at a time. Another day I am visiting a woman in a nursing home with the same…
Self-care is perhaps never more important than while grieving. Eating well, staying active and spending time with friends and family all play an important role in a person’s ability to take a healthy approach to grieving. Taking time for yourself, however, is just as critical. A self-care box is a safe and happy place ideal…
An estimated 1 in 4 pregnancies ends in miscarriage (1 in 5 if we only count women who realised/reported the miscarriage) * Around 11 in 1,000 pregnancies are ectopic* About 1 in 100 women in the UK experience recurrent miscarriages* Unfortunately, my wife and I fall into the statistics above. Our most traumatic miscarriage was in…
Bereavement Bereavement defined; time that is spent adjusting to the loss. There is no quick fix, right/wrong way to grieve and certainly no magic formula. Everyone grieves and deals with bereavement differently. The main stance that any counsellor should adopt, when guiding a client through the grieving process, is that grief and bereavement is not…
More and more people seem to be burdened with some sort of mental illness or condition. The medical industry, where much of the psychotherapy is conducted, seems hooked on palliative ‘solutions’ such as medication and curtailed programs of manualized ‘sausage-machine’-style psychotherapy which assume that every patient is the average patient. There’s no time to actually…
This year many schools are having graduation ceremonies. Due to the success of the vaccines, the CDC has acknowledged that it would be safe to hold graduation ceremonies. This is very different from last year when graduation ceremonies were canceled due to the Coronavirus. While schools are having graduation ceremonies, they will most likely be…
Memorial Day is a day for every American to remember and honor every man and woman who have served in the military, who have been injured while serving in the military and especially to remember those who died serving in the military protecting our rights as American citizens. In addition, it is a day to…
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and many people will be celebrating it with the person who gave birth to them and raised them as a child. However, this is not the case for everyone. For some people their mother died during childbirth or due to cancer or a car accident. The point is the mother who…