Glancing back over recent research studies that I have noticed & downloaded to my personal database, I was struck by a whole series on the effects of diet on psychological state.  I've listed twelve that caught my eye in the last several months - this first of two posts details studies that focus more on overall dietary quality.  The second post in the series focuses more on specific dietary components & psychological disorder.  There are obviously lots of interesting developments in this important area.

"The walls we build to protect ourselves become the prisons in which we live"   Alice Miller (adapted) 

I average a little over three hours weekly scanning medical and psychological journals on the internet. Typically I zoom through the article titles looking for anything relevant to stress, health & wellbeing. If something seems interesting, I read the article's abstract.  I may well then download it to my bibliographic database - I use EndNote. Currently I have well over 19,000 references stored and the number grows steadily.  Sometimes I'll get hold of the text of the full article - by subscribing to the journal, buying the article, searching for the author's academic website, or emailing the corresponding author directly.  I use this information I glean to improve my treatment of clients who come to me for help, and as a basis for talks and articles.

A high percentage of chronic pain sufferers seem to be affected by recurrent imagery that is linked to and aggravates their pain.  Often the imagery's occurrence only emerges with careful questioning.  "Rescripting" these images is associated with impressive short term improvements in pain and distress.  What's exciting is the potential for longer term benefits from this kind of rescripting approach ... not only for chronic pain sufferers but also for people suffering from other persistent distressing states like depression and anxiety.

I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database -

In the last couple of days I've written two posts on the possibility of developing "emotional chainmail" when faced with repeated experiences of suffering ... "Do psychotherapists, doctors and leaders develop "emotional chainmail"?  Description of a possible problem" and "Do psychotherapists, doctors and leaders develop "emotional chainmail"?

I wrote yesterday about how, at the weekend, I was involved in an hour and a half's deep emotional conflict resolution with an old friend that was witnessed in a group by another eight people.  As pretty much always, in the feedback that emerged over the next twenty four hours, different people reported very different reactions to what they had seen.  I still (after forty years involvement in a wide cross section of psychotherapy groups) find it jaw-dropping the sheer variety of what different people feel & think when observing absolutely the same event.  However, it seemed that most of those who spoke were deeply moved and respectful of what we'd done and how well it had worked out ...

I've been in a peer "psychotherapy group" residential retreat again recently and I was involved in an interaction that has crystalised a series of thoughts about potential "emotional armouring" in therapists that I've been aware of more vaguely for some time. And in fact these "suspicions" involve not just psychotherapists, but also doctors and leaders more generally as well. Happily there are great advantages of this emotional stability & resilience, but I believe there can also be very genuine personal & interpersonal costs. So what am I talking about here?