Stressed To Zest

Birmingham BABCP conference: pre-conference workshop on emotional regulation therapy with Doug Mennin & David Fresco (1st post)

Stressed To Zest — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 06:18:22 +0100

Well ... here I am again at one of the British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) annual summer conferences. It's before breakfast on the first morning and I'm a bit wrapped in a funny mix of feelings. It's about 6.30am on a stunning morning. The view from my room is of a lovely sun-splashed green lawn leading to a lake. I'm really looking forward to the conference too. It's got all kinds of goodies in it. Fascinating. But in the train on the way down from Edinburgh yesterday, I 'tweaked' my back. It stiffened up overnight and when I first got going this morning, I wondered if I was going to be able to make it to the conference today. Well, it seems to be loosening up. Dignified cautious posture & movements are on the menu just now. It seems like there's a good chance it will progressively ease over the next few hours. Fingers crossed!

European positive psychology conference in Amsterdam: flourishing, science backbone & harmonious or obsessive passion (5th post)

Stressed To Zest — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 06:32:14 +0100

European positive psychology conference in Amsterdam: self-determination, positive aging, and the economic crisis (4th post)

Stressed To Zest — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 05:36:04 +0100

I have already written three blog posts about early July's 7th European Conference on Positive Psychology in Amsterdam ... firstly on pre-conference workshops "Positive supervision and positive relationships", then on "Love, national happiness comparison tables, & life satisfaction assessment" and most recently on "What proportion of well-being is genetically determined?"

Treating social anxiety disorder: still more on video (and still) feedback (7th post)

Stressed To Zest — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 06:24:28 +0100

Treating social anxiety disorder: video (and still) feedback (6th post)

Stressed To Zest — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 06:51:44 +0100

European positive psychology conference in Amsterdam: what proportion of well-being is genetically determined? (3rd post)

Stressed To Zest — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 06:53:52 +0100

European positive psychology conference: love, national happiness comparison tables, & life satisfaction assessment (2nd post)

Stressed To Zest — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 06:17:27 +0100

European positive psychology conference in Amsterdam: workshops on supervision and on relationships (1st post)

Stressed To Zest — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 06:24:08 +0100

The 7th biennial European Conference on Positive Psychology (ECPP) began here in Amsterdam yesterday. Four years ago, I went to the 5^th European Conference in Copenhagen. It was pretty special and I wrote extensively about it in this blog - see, for example "European positive psychology conference in Copenhagen: arriving, opening speeches & reception".

Five 'prescriptions' for flourishing more fully

Stressed To Zest — Sun, 25 May 2014 07:33:05 +0100

(this blog post is downloadable as a handout both in Word doc and in PDF format)

Professor Ken Sheldon is a bit of a hero of mine. I've followed his research for many years and have great respect for his work and what I've gleaned about the way he leads his life. I have just been looking at the recording of a lecture he gave at the University of Missouri a little while ago. The points he makes about how to flourish more fully are still pretty much bang on.

The importance of 'emotional' not just 'rational' empathy

Stressed To Zest — Mon, 12 May 2014 06:25:50 +0100

I'm just back from four days away with friends down in Cumbria. I have been going to these long residential Spring weekends on the edge of the Lake District for well over twenty years and have written a lot about them too ... see for example the sequence of posts from a couple of years' ago beginning "Peer groups, Cumbria spring group: first morning - arriving".

Ten ways of coping now my heart's constricted with fear: identification, information & perspective (2nd post)

Stressed To Zest — Mon, 05 May 2014 07:01:24 +0100

I wrote a couple of days ago about lying frightened in a tent listening to the dawn chorus in Kintail. I explained that as a doctor & psychotherapist I'm working to help people cope with anxiety & fear almost every day. It feels like a good opportunity, when I'm scared, to deconstruct how I deal with it to see if there's useful information in here. In this post I want to write about identification, information & perspective.

Ten ways of coping now my heart's constricted with fear: introduction (1st post)

Stressed To Zest — Sat, 03 May 2014 06:16:45 +0100

"With singing and banners": trauma, conflict, resilience and poetry

Stressed To Zest — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 05:51:48 +0100

It's coming up to the two year anniversary of one of the major potential traumas of my life - see "Walking in Skye & Kintail: mountain rescue, helicopter winches, and avoiding death & PTSD." I felt there was so much to learn from this experience that I try to re-read the description every month to help me remember the precious lessons that were involved.

Emotional intelligence: the potential value (and potential cost) of identifying and naming what we're feeling

Stressed To Zest — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 05:44:27 +0000

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” Rainer Maria Rilke "Letters to a young poet".

Improving therapeutic success rates: how to generate personal practice data to rate oneself using the UK IAPT targets

Stressed To Zest — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 05:40:39 +0000

I wrote a blog post yesterday about recently published IAPT psychotherapy data and how it provides a fascinating set of targets which one can use to assess the effectiveness of one's own therapeutic practice. When one gets down to the nitty-gritty of what data from one's own practice to collect and how, then it can be a bit tough. Lots of questions to clarify here, but part of the good news is that there is also lots of IAPT guidance on how to do this.

Improving therapeutic success rates: using UK IAPT data to assess how well we're doing therapeutically

Stressed To Zest — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 05:57:11 +0000

CBT Today: keeping up with the literature - exposure, mindfulness & reappraisal - winter '13/14 (2nd post)

Stressed To Zest — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 05:37:12 +0000

In yesterday's post on "Keeping up with the literature", I wrote about the wealth of updated knowledge that has emerged with publication of the third UK National Survey of of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) and about useful qualitative research on why most health professionals (including psychotherapists) tend to be poor at providing help for sexual difficulties. I would now like to say a little about some new findings in exposure therapy, and some additional insights into mindfulness, relaxation & reappraisal.

CBT Today: keeping up with the literature - UK sex survey - winter '13/14 (1st post)

Stressed To Zest — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 16:01:31 +0000

Simple self-help for insomnia: an upgrade to counting sheep

Stressed To Zest — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 05:29:22 +0000

this blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file

Are dietary supplements a dangerous waste of money?

Stressed To Zest — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 06:38:17 +0000

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple" Oscar Wilde