Dear editor In May of this year, I published an article in Therapy Today entitled Understanding Chronic Pain. In it, I describe chronic pain as caused in part by changes in the sensitivity of our central nervous system. I also described an evaluative process by which our brain can create protective pain in response to an actual or potential …
Article in May’s edition of Therapy Today!
I'm happy to say that I have an article published in May's edition of Therapy Today entitled 'Understanding Pain'. Please read it and let me know what you think?
Humanism as a response to climate chaos
A little before Christmas, Andrew Copson and Alice Roberts, Chief Executive and President of Humanists UK respectively, hosted an online discussion following the publication in 2020 of their new book entitled The Little Book of Humanism. I was very glad to be able to participate in this discussion and to raise a question relating to …
Socratic Method
As legacies go, Socrates has left us a very big one. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in clinical psychology. Socratic reasoning goes to the heart of cognitive-behavioural therapy as even the greenest therapist knows. What is striking by its absence, however, is an appreciation amongst many therapists of the fact that Socrates was not …
‘Story’s End’ (for RC)
Thank you, thank you, and thank you again. Thank you for that smile of quiet rage: the mischievous melancholy that - God knows - my own father lacked. You taught me the meaning of injustice, a hatred of apartheid, of sexism and, of course, the Poll Tax. Always the adult who delighted when I entered the …
How can we help ourselves when we’re struggling and there are no simple answers?
Whatever is going on right now... What’s happening? Give yourself a moment to acknowledge that you’re struggling right now. See if you can notice what you’re feeling in your body; any tightness or breath-holding. Are you aware of any particular thoughts and feelings about the current situation? Maybe some of these are familiar to …
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The Metaphysics of Mindfulness
The Metaphysics of Mindfulness - a response to the Sahanika Ratnayake’s article, The Problem of Mindfulness (Aeon - 25th July 2019) by Neill Bartlett In her article entitled The Problem of Mindfulness, Sahanika Ratnayake makes some observations and criticisms of mindfulness practices and, importantly, of the claims made for mindfulness by some of its teachers. …
Psychotherapist & Mindfulness Meditation Teacher 