Emotion-focused therapy workshop series (third post): narrative therapy and trauma processing
Originally added on Sat, 14/01/2012 - 05:21Last updated on Fri, 27/01/2012 - 06:09
Yesterday was the third day of the seven seminar "Emotion-focused psychotherapy: Level 2 workshop series" that I'm attending at the University of Strathclyde. I wrote about the second workshop last autumn in the posts "Emotion-focused therapy workshop series (first post): excitement and why am I doing this?" and "EFT workshop series (second post): client processes and therapist-client conflict". So how was yesterday's workshop for me? Irreverently that question reminds me of the joke "The love making was so good that even the neighbours stopped for a cigarette".
An intriguing and encouraging development in therapeutic writing
Originally added on Wed, 14/12/2011 - 05:22Last updated on Thu, 12/01/2012 - 13:56
"Naming emotions" is another useful self-regulation & mindfulness strategy
Originally added on Sun, 07/08/2011 - 04:38Last updated on Tue, 06/09/2011 - 06:10
Therapeutic writing & speaking: inspiration from values (specific instructions)
Originally added on Sat, 18/12/2010 - 12:37Last updated on Thu, 06/01/2011 - 07:17
See the two earlier blog posts - "Therapeutic writing & speaking: inspiration from values (background information)" and "Therapeutic writing & speaking: inspiration from values (how-to-do-it)" for fuller details of these self-affirmation, self-transcendence approaches.
This "instructions" post is downloadable as a Word doc.
Therapeutic writing & speaking: inspiration from values (how to do it)
Originally added on Sun, 12/12/2010 - 09:46Last updated on Wed, 30/03/2011 - 14:20
I wrote yesterday about "Therapeutic writing & speaking: inspiration from values (background information)". Today's post looks more at how-to-do-it details. Self-affirmation research describes a number of effective ways to reduce stress, clarify thinking, and boost effectiveness. If the affirmation exercise is being done in response to a particular stress or threat, it's sensible to choose a subject to write (or speak) about that is of real personal importance but that is different from the area that's being threatened. Happily several other writing research studies suggest additional ways of making this type of exercise even more helpful. So a standard set of self-affirmation instructions might well involve asking participants to choose a particularly important personal value (for example, kindness,
Therapeutic writing & speaking: inspiration from values (background information)
Originally added on Sat, 11/12/2010 - 06:29Last updated on Wed, 05/01/2011 - 06:45
Writing (or speaking) about our values or areas of our lives that are of particular personal importance can help us feel less threatened by stresses and more able to see situations clearly. There are many research studies demonstrating this. For example writing about personal values has been shown to reduce both subjectively experienced psychological stress and the body's adrenaline response to taking an academic exam (Sherman, Bunyan et al. 2009). This easing in sense of threat tends to boost the exam results people achieve, especially for those who tend to get more stressed (Cohen, Garcia et al.
Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.- Douglas MacArthur
K: Life skills for stress, health & wellbeing, session 10 (part 2 - therapeutic writing)
I wrote yesterday about the first part of this tenth "Life skills" evening. I particularly discussed development of Goodwill practice - very much in the "Nourishing positive states" section of the "Four aspects" diagram (below). In the second half of the evening we moved on to the "Exploring & processing" section of the diagram with the introduction particularly of various forms of therapeutic writing.
Further Pages
Manchester BABCP conference: disagreeing with Jamie Pennebaker - writing can be used with positive experiences too (ninth post)
Originally added on Tue, 24/08/2010 - 04:41Last updated on Wed, 08/09/2010 - 06:13
Manchester BABCP conference: disagreeing with Jamie Pennebaker - writing can help past, present & future concerns (eighth post)
Originally added on Mon, 23/08/2010 - 20:30Last updated on Thu, 09/09/2010 - 04:58
Manchester BABCP conference: Jamie Pennebaker, expressive writing & timing issues (seventh post)
Originally added on Sun, 22/08/2010 - 05:30Last updated on Thu, 09/09/2010 - 04:48