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Diagnosis & Treatment

Lifestyle Interventions for Depression

Treatments for depression or anxiety, also called “interventions”, fall into one of three categories, and often several are recommended to be taken up at once. These main groupings are: Medical interventions; Psychological interventions; and Lifestyle interventions. In this post we overview a range of lifestyle interventions therapists can suggest when treating depression. Bibliotherapy What is […]

Book Review: The Gentle Self

Schoen, G. (2011). The Gentle Self: How to Overcome Your Difficulties with Depression, Anxiety, Shyness, and Low Self-Esteem. CreateSpace. I think everyone’s a little narcissistic. We all have moments when we wish everyone would be more like us?when we get upset that no one seems to care about what we are feeling.? We also often […]

Psychosocial Treatments for Schizophrenia

Successful treatment of schizophrenia depends on a regimen of both drug and psychosocial support therapies. While antipsychotic medication can help control the symptoms of psychosis associated with schizophrenia, it cannot help the person find and maintain a job, establish effective social relationships, increase their coping skills, or teach them to communicate well with others. Poverty, […]

Book Review: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Anxiety Disorders

Eifert, Georg H. Ph. D., and Forsyth, John P. Ph. D. 2005. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications Inc. There are literally hundreds of publications available, both to the counselling practitioner and lay person regarding the understanding and treatment of anxiety. Many focus on behavioural and cognitive behavioural approaches to assist in dealing with anxiety, ‘Acceptance […]

Temperament and Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are thought to result from a difficult temperament (as well as biological and social factors). Personality traits and temperaments are dimensional characteristics that are heritable and manifest early in life. These characteristics underlie or influence cognitive processes, interpersonal and social functions, emotional and affective states and biological stress systems (Howland, 2007; Shiner, 2005). […]

Personality and Disorders

Everyone has personality traits that characterise them as unique individuals. Such traits refer to the usual way in which a person thinks, feels and behaves. Specifically, personality refers to the pattern of thoughts, feelings and behaviours, consistently exhibited by an individual over a long period of time. Personality is a complex combination of traits and […]

Cognitive Restructuring with Anxiety

Cognitive restructuring, straight thinking or logical reanalysis is based on the belief that the way we feel, behave and respond to situations is based on the way we think. This approach attempts to modify unhelpful thought patterns and beliefs. Cognitive restructuring, also known as cognitive reframing, is a technique drawn from cognitive therapy that can […]

Beck Depression Inventory

The Beck Depression Inventory is copyrighted by the Psychological Corporation. Material here presented is only for educational purpose because the BDI should be used only by registered professionals. The original version of the BDI was introduced by Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock and Erbaugh in 1961 (cited in Victims’ Web, 2007). The BDI was revised in […]

Understanding Panic Attacks

People with panic disorder suffer severe attacks of anxiety which can make them feel as though they are having a heart attack or are going crazy. Symptoms include heart palpitations, chest pain or discomfort, sweating, trembling, dizziness, difficulty breathing and feelings of losing control. Panic disorder involves at least one of these attacks followed by […]

Motivational Enhancement Therapy

Motivational enhancement is a style of person-centred counselling developed to facilitate change in health-related behaviours. The core principle of the approach is negotiation rather than conflict. It aims to help people explore and resolve their ambivalence about behaviour change. It combines warmth and empathy with focused reflective listening and the development of discrepancy between where […]

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessive compulsive disorder is a type of anxiety disorder primarily characterised by obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are distressing, repetitive, intrusive thoughts or images that the person realises are irrational. Compulsions are repetitive behaviours that the person feels forced or compelled into doing in order to relieve the anxiety brought about by obsessions. In other words, […]

Preventing Depression

Prevention is defined as “interventions that occur before the initial onset of a disorder to prevent the development of disorder” (Mrazek & Haggerty, 1994, p. 23). The prevention of depression relies on reducing the risk factors for mental disorder, as well as enhancing the protective factors that promote mental health. The level of risk of […]

Children and Learning Disorders

There are many forms of disabilities that can affect the child’s normal developmental process. Some disabilities can be more severe than others. A common type of disability hindering a child’s development is a learning disorder. Having such a disorder can be painful for children as they have to deal the disconnections they may be experiencing […]