A startlingly effective way to reduce interpersonal conflict and distress - discussion & broader applications
19th September 2013
(this post is downloadable both as a PDF file and as a Word doc) Yesterday I wrote a blog post on the very interesting & encouraging recent research paper "A brief intervention to promote conflict reappraisal preserves marital quality over time" which introduces a simple reappraisal method with great promise …
A startlingly effective way to reduce interpersonal conflict and distress - the intervention & results described
18th September 2013
(this post is downloadable both as a PDF file and as a Word doc) The recent research paper "A brief intervention to promote conflict reappraisal preserves marital quality over time" describes a startlingly effective way to reduce interpersonal conflict and distress. The results are clearly extremely relevant for anyone in …
Recent research: articles from summer journals
10th September 2013
I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - EndNote - which currently contains over 20,000 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …
A more personal university reunion - reflecting further, personality change and wellbeing
26th August 2013
At the weekend I went back to my old university and spent warm, precious time with half a dozen old friends. I have already written a couple of blog posts about this experience ... "A more personal university reunion: heading South, emotional intelligence and re-visioning our pasts" and "A more …
A more personal university reunion - heading South, emotional intelligence, and re-visioning our pasts
24th August 2013
"The spirit of a man is constructed out of his choices." Irvin YalomI'm on a train on my way down to East Anglia. This afternoon seven of us, who were all at Cambridge in the late 60's/early 70's, are due to meet up. Last year I went back to an …
CBT Today: keeping up with the literature
21st August 2013
(Note an updated & extended version of this blog post is now available) I have been asked to write a column on "Keeping up with the literature" for CBT Today "the official magazine of the British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies". I thought it might be helpful to put …
Melbourne lecture: "How can we help our clients more effectively?" - encouraging benefits from using sessional feedback
15th August 2013
(the full 48 slide Powerpoint lecture can be downloaded by clicking here) I wrote a blog post yesterday entitled "Melbourne lecture: 'How can we help our clients more effectively?' - the current worrying situation". Although effect sizes produced by psychotherapy are good and subsequent benefits typically outlast gains produced by …
Melbourne lecture: "How can we help our clients more effectively?" - the current worrying situation
14th August 2013
(the full 48 slide Powerpoint lecture can be downloaded by clicking here) I gave a lecture in Melbourne today entitled "How can we help our clients more effectively?" An initial slide highlighted the main points I covered: I talked about the many meta-analyses that have documented psychotherapy's effectiveness, but went …
Therapeutic alliance ruptures/tensions: description, frequency, causes & effects
11th July 2013
I wrote a blog post yesterday entitled "Therapeutic alliance ruptures: common, very challenging & a key area for increasing therapist (and personal) helpfulness". I think this area is so important that I'd like to spend additional time exploring it more thoroughly. I want to clarify what we mean by an …
"Therapeutic alliance ruptures": common, very challenging & a key area for increasing therapist (and personal) helpfulness
10th July 2013
We had another of our small peer Emotion-Focused Therapy supervision/practice groups yesterday evening. Half a dozen of us were able to make it. We'd agreed we would look particularly at "therapeutic alliance ruptures" at this meeting. As a doctor, I can't help finding the term "alliance rupture" rather giggle-inducing. I …