I have recently written a couple of blog posts about diet and mental health - "Emerging research on diet suggests it's startlingly important in the prevention of anxiety & depression" and "So what dietary advice should we be following - for psychological as well as physical health?"
I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database -
(This post on "Written exposure therapy" is downloadable both as a PDF file and as a Word doc)
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. James Hollingworth
Denise Sloan, associate director at the US National Center for PTSD, has produced many fine publications on therapeutic writing. However I think she has surpassed herself with her most recent:
(this blog post is freely downloadable as a Word doc and as a PDF file)
"Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor." Dr. Alexis Carrel
"It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away." Robert Pirsig
"There are people who live their whole lives on the default settings, never realizing you can customize." Robert Brault
"A friend is someone who sees the potential in you and helps you to live it." W. B. Yeats (adapted)
"Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger." Franklin Jones
A few months ago now, I initiated a personal feedback project. It was triggered by a number of factors. I was soon to start the third part of an Emotion-Focused Therapy training and was interested in possibly using myself as "a case study" for the course; I had received some quite surprising & confronting feedback from a friend and I wondered how idiosyncratic or widespread his viewpoint might be; I had been encouraging feedback in groups that I run and I wanted to explore this more deeply; and finally I'm in a very good position to ask for & receive honest, thoughtful feedback from a broad social circle.
"O wad some Power the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae mony a blunder free us, an' foolish notion." Rabbie Burns
"He who knows others is learned; he who knows himself is wise." Lao-tzu
I have written a good deal in the past about variability in the effectiveness of psychotherapists - see, for example, "What shall we do about the fact that there are supershrinks and pseudoshrinks?", "Psychotherapists & counsellors who don't monitor their outcomes are at risk of being both incompetent & potentially dangerous" and other posts on feedback to therapists.
A couple of days ago I wrote a blog post that I think makes a very important point - "Emerging research on diet suggests it's startingly important in the prevention of anxiety & depression". Much of what the post said is downloadable in Powerpoint and can be printed out as a six-slides-to-a-page handout that looks like this:
