As a non-traditional graduate student working towards my MS in Community Counseling, and obtaining my LPC. I find it perplexing trying to obtain the appropriate mentorship relationship within the field of counseling. Often the terrain has been ambiguous; at one point there seems to be a connection until I present my views outside of the box pertaining to multicultural issues and the connection between mind and body as being a whole entity. Perhaps it is the environment that I am enmeshed within… Continue

I am tired of the mind vs body debate that rages through clinicians and patients alike when it comes to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I'm tired because as yet, no one has fully recognised that to separate mind from body is like trying to develop an egg with no yolk. The albumen is part of the egg and to separate, egg from yolk, is to render each part useless to the whole. And that's my contention.

How on earth can we treat one aspect of ill health without treating the greater unit that is the organ… Continue

Have you thought much about what makes some relationships work and others fail? I have been interested in this question, through working with individuals and couples with relationship issues over many years. I am always interested in what helps some couples have loving, respectful and successful relationships and others experience constant pain and heartache.

Dr John Gottman, professor of psychology at the University of Washington has researched couples for close to 40 years. Dr. Gottman has de… Continue

How and Why we Lose Self-Esteem

There are some periods of our life when we become stressed about our circumstances. These can be avoiding pain, family issues, financial and emotional pressures and fatigue from over working, and many other daily occurrences. However, many problems we face in our lives arise from the lack of true life meaning.
When we lack clarity and purpose in our life at times, our ego takes some control and we feel some cleverness to hide ignorance and usually obscure… Continue

I found myself a few days ago, explaining in the broadest possible terms to my partner, one of my client's dilemmas. Having suffered from depression for nearly 2 years, she had been pushed from pillar to post, she'd been drugged up repeatedly, prescribed CBT and was on the waiting list for it, and had begun to identify herself as a Mental Health Patient. I stopped here in my explanations. To elaborate a little for the professional reader read on.

Every which way she turned, she was faced with t… Continue