What would be your reaction if someone you knew and respected called you a racist? Would you be gobsmacked? Bewildered as to what you could have said or done that made you seem racist? Or perhaps infuriated that someone could think that you, in all probability a staunch promoter of social justice ideals, could actually […]
Counselling
Infidelity: Helping the Betrayed Partner
He sits down and looks at you dolefully, his big eyes full of hurt and desperation. “I don’t know why she cheated on me,” he whispers hoarsely, “but this is the worst hurt I have ever felt. I don’t know how I will cope, or what it means for our kids. I guess my marriage […]
- December 17, 2019
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- Loss & Grief, Relationship & Families
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Assessing Therapist-client Fit
Please consider these two scenarios for a moment. Scenario 1. The new client comes in and makes solid eye contact as she seats herself. You feel a surge of warmth toward her and are immediately interested. As the session progresses, you notice she is similar to you in certain unusual ways, and her passing remarks […]
- December 3, 2019
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- Counselling Dilemmas, Counselling Theory & Process, Ethics & Legal Issues
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Counselling Courses: Choosing The Right Counselling Course
Counselling is one of the fastest growing occupations in Australia. According to the Australian government job site Job Outlook (1), the counselling profession is expected to grow by 18%; with around 22,000 job openings (4,400 per year for 5 years). This growth is driven largely by increasing consumer need. The statistics on the mental health […]
- October 21, 2019
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- Career Development
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Hope, Heroes and Counselling
On January 15, 2009, Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger and his co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles landed U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in New York’s Hudson River after both engines were disabled by a bird strike. All 155 people on board survived. While some of that successful outcome was later attributed to good fortune, much commendation rightly went to […]
- July 25, 2019
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- Creativity in Counselling, Spirituality & Religion
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Narrative Therapy for Aboriginal Clients
At the heart of narrative therapy — and the crucial aspect distinguishing it from more empirically-based therapies (such as CBT) — is the question of how we can know reality. Empiricism tells us that there a single “truth” waiting for us to discover it. Narrative therapists, on the other hand, recognise that the operative word […]
- January 18, 2019
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- 13792
- Counselling Therapies, Multicultural Issues, Spirituality & Religion
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Addressing Paranoia in Counselling
“The way my manager looked at me when I turned in the report — I know he’s planning to sack me soon.” “I can by the way she kissed me; my wife is cheating on me for sure!” “That horrid tart dating my dad is just after his money — to cut my brother and […]
- December 17, 2018
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- 20368
- Clinical Mental Health, Diagnosis & Treatment, Relationship & Families
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Helping Clients Learn How to Surrender
Your new boss shifts the goal posts, demanding a much higher volume of work from you than the high level that was expected before. You take one look at all the new tasks you must do, throw up your hands in despair, and angrily write out your resignation letter. Did you give up or did […]
- November 22, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Personal Effectiveness, Wellness
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Introducing Animal-assisted Therapy
It’s becoming increasingly “official”. More and more, we human beings are using our furry, feathered, and finned fellow beings to help us heal. It’s called animal-assisted therapy, or AAT, and the purpose of this post is to introduce you to it, a therapy adjunct since the 1990s. We look into what it is, how we […]
- August 17, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Counselling Therapies, Wellness
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Helping Introverts Cope with Overstimulation
We live in a noisy, overstimulated, fast-paced world: conditions in which extraverts thrive, but for the roughly half of the population who are introverted, those same conditions are cause for dismay, if not worse. At some stage, you may be asked to help a frazzled, introverted client regain balance. What are the signs and symptoms […]
- August 10, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Relationship & Families, Stress Management
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Benefits and Pitfalls of Counsellor Self-disclosure
Your client’s voice gets very low. In the hushed tones of deep shame, he confides, “I was so depressed yesterday, like never before. This was my marriage; it was so important to me, and I failed at it.” You are suddenly on high alert. You want to rush in and assure him that you know […]
- July 5, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Ethics & Legal Issues, Supervision
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Synchronicity in Counselling
It’s surely happened to all of us, and it will probably turn up at some stage in your therapy rooms, too: a client confides that, just when she was thinking of someone from the past whom she hadn’t seen for many years but who had a huge impact on her life, she runs into that […]
- June 15, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Spirituality & Religion
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Dealing with the Stigma of Hearing Impairment
One in six Australians has hearing loss, and the projection is that one in four will have it by 2050, as our population ages (Australian Network on Disability, n.d.). Thus, even if you never have a profoundly deaf client come to your rooms, you are likely to see someone at some stage who is hearing-impaired. […]
- June 8, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Disability Issues, Loss & Grief
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Shame, Guilt, Humiliation, and Embarrassment
Shame, guilt, humiliation, and embarrassment are painful and universal human experiences; the terms are often used interchangeably and do overlap, but are different from one another. Owing to differences in culture, religion, ethics, and personal standards, we experience them differently to even similar others in our social sphere, and certainly to people in other cultures. […]
- May 29, 2018
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- Counselling Theory & Process
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Getting Your Counselling Practice Going
So, you’ve got your counselling qualification, you’ve hung your shingle out, and now you’re ready and waiting for clients. Are you just twiddling your thumbs, or are clients actually making their way to your rooms? Many of us chose counselling because we wanted to help people and also, we like thinking about the health and […]
- May 3, 2018
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- 9521
- Career Development, Private Practice, Technology & Social Media
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