The Psychology of...

When it comes to interventions that can be used universally, or in other words, to large groups of people, I have always been a fan of teaching mindfulness and positive visualization exercises. This is where I would have people close their eyes, breath deeply, and visualize some kind warm pleasant thought that would highlight the positive that there is in their life. Sounds fine right? There was one glaring problem to this intervention... It was self-centered... And so is depression. When you focus on yourself and your own ideal life a potential side effect, especially if you struggle with the hopeless and meaningless thought patterns that coincide with depression, is that at best you temporarily escape only to return to your dreary reality, and at worst you increase the discrepancy between your expectations for your life and your actual situation. Depression is seeded deeply in unmet expectations. So for some people, this exercise made things worse. Depression is the sympto

Here in Canada we have universal health-care which isn't without it's challenges but most Canadians agree that we wouldn't want it either way. One detraction from our system though, is that often, significant medical procedures involve month long waiting lists. Some argue for a two-tiered system which would allow those who are financially capable to access care immediately. While this appears to be (and I believe actually is) an unfair advantage to the wealthy, some would argue that this lessens the load on the public system, reducing wait times overall. Win-win... supposedly. I know it's apples and oranges but we only need to look to our mental health care system, which is two-tiered, to evaluate how this approach might play out. It is my experience, that since there is such a large need for mental health related services, the public system is completely overloaded, even when a considerable portion of the population is accessing private counselling using their exte

Here are ten quick maxims that help me through my day. Success = (talent + effort) luck Sometimes decent people fail and deserve our compassion. Our society needs to celebrate and honour the courage involved in living a good ordinary life. Everyone needs something transcendent that will both inspire and humble them. Our greatest ambitions should be in the realm of friendships and love. News should present solutions to systemic problems rather than sensationalizing them. Also, the most important news we focus on should often come from our own lived experiences. Slight mental unwellness is inescapable and normal. The sense of meaning in your life that will get you through your most difficult times will come from your responsibilities .  We all do things that make the world worse in some way. Significantly improving the world is as easy as figuring out what we are doing wrong and changing it. Art is life and t

If you have ever gone to counselling or perhaps if you've considered going, you may have experienced the anxiety of wondering what you should talk about with your therapist. You recognize that you are in need of some kind of emotional/psychological remedy but where do you even begin? Especially if you're going to pay for the session out of your pocket, you want to make sure that the time spent in therapy is as meaningful and helpful as possible. There is a framework for mental health treatment that is piquing the interest of many in the field and even stirring up a bit of controversy. It is called the Power Threat Meaning Framework and its purpose is to provide a way of describing unusual behaviour and emotional distress that is alternative to the current, more medically focused, diagnostic model. Whether or not you buy in to this new  model I think it can provide some meaningful points from which a person can launch their introspective journey toward wholeness and wellness.