Practice for Integrative Clinical Psychology & Authentic Change

21/03/2026

sounds about right. In the early stages of the development of the foetus the brain and gut are one. The gut has the highest amount of nerve endings of any organ apart from the brain.

What seems impossible is unfolding in gut-brain axis research centers where scientists have demonstrated for the first time that specific gut bacterial species — including Lactobacillus reuteri and Bifidobacterium longum — directly produce serotonin precursors and GABA in the intestinal lumen, with these molecules crossing into circulation and measurably altering brain neurotransmitter levels — providing the first direct mechanistic evidence that gut dysbiosis causes depression through neurotransmitter depletion, not merely correlates with it.

The study transplanted microbiomes from depressed human donors into germ-free mice — the animals developed identical depression-like behavioral signatures within 14 days, with their brain serotonin levels dropping by 40% compared to controls receiving healthy donor microbiomes. Reversing the dysbiosis with targeted probiotic restoration eliminated depressive behavior within 7 days. This is not a correlation. The bacteria are the cause. Every antidepressant prescribed while the gut microbiome remains broken is addressing the symptom while ignoring the factory that makes the molecule the symptom requires.

04/03/2026

We tend to think that depression and other mental illnesses are medical conditions caused by problems in the brain, and that framing them this way reduces stigma and leads to better treatment.

However, Joanna Moncrieff argues that this is deeply mistaken, and that medicalising mental distress can actually increase stigma, undermine hope of recovery, and distract us from what really helps.

Drawing on science, philosophy, and the history of pharmaceutical marketing, join Joanna in the search for a new and better model of mental health.

Joanna Moncrieff is a British psychiatrist and academic. She is Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry at University College London and a leading figure in the Critical Psychiatry Network.

Tap here to watch her full interview. https://iai.tv/video/the-medicalisation-of-mental-illness-joanna-moncrieff

19/02/2026

the Greeks understood the psyche ( a Greek word) VERY well. Their mythology is an incredible map of the human psyche, their tragedies pointed to fundamental human pitfalls and their Theater in which actors wore masks called „personas“ led the whole audience through a process the names „catharsis“.

Long before the modern Olympics, Greek athletes followed rules that would sound extreme today.

They didn’t only train their bodies.
They trained who they were.

Because to the Greeks, fear of failure was the real enemy of performance.

Not weak muscles.
Not missing talent.
Fear.

So they practiced a method called prokatálepsis —
a mental ritual so powerful it was later banned for giving an “unfair advantage.”

Athletes described it as:
“The moment the future stopped being threatening.”
Here’s how it worked.

The night before competition, the athlete did something unusual:

He imagined losing.
Fully.
Clearly.
Painfully.
Without excuses.

Not to discourage himself.
Not to spiral.
But to drain fear of its power.

Because the Greeks believed you can’t be afraid of what you’ve already accepted.

Then came the second step — the part that made the ritual famous:

After visualizing defeat, the athlete stood alone in silence and repeated one sentence until his body felt it was true:

“What remains after fear is my true form.”
They believed this revealed the identity beneath ego, expectations, and imagined judgment.

And something strange happened:
Athletes slept deeper,
moved more freely,
and competed with a calm that felt almost untouchable.

Modern psychology later confirmed it.
When you vividly face the worst outcome and survive it mentally, your brain reduces the fear response tied to it.
Today it’s called exposure reconsolidation.

The Greeks called it:
“Returning to yourself before the world interferes.”

Try it next time fear tightens your chest.
Accept the loss for sixty seconds.

Then say the line.
You may feel something very old stirring awake inside you.

We are creating a space for those ready to let the mask fall — to step out of constant self-monitoring, and meet themselves as they truly are, their authentic self, long forgotten under pain and self-protection.

Follow us if you value awareness over control.

13/02/2026

deeply human and very touching.
His red hand files are also an amazing example of practiced humanity in the internet.

18/01/2026

adversity incentives growth

20/08/2025

it’s been a long time coming. Psychedelics will be a growing part of giving the surpressed spiritual, mystical and paradoxically ineffable a voice… as it always has been. A voice which needs to be given a good place and should be cultivated in our culture. I believe it has a role to play in countering ignorance, cynicism and anxiety, instead promoting the permanence of inter-connectedness of the individual with the universe as one fundamental underlying principle of existence which can be trusted to an extent it can lead to embrace your own death. What would a person who would be afraid before would have needed to experience?

An Australian-first trial using psychedelic-assisted therapy for terminally ill patients is showing promising results.

18/07/2025

Dear friends of systemic family constellations,

For the past 15 years my wife Jai Ram and I have had the privilege of offering Systemic Family Constellation weekends predominantly in the Fremantle area. We are now introducing a new format for the way we offer these workshops.

Instead of full weekends, which we have offered in a more spread out time-frame in the past, from August onwards, we will offer single constellation workshop days more frequently, approximately once a month in Fremantle. The Margaret River workshop weekends will continue to be 2 days.

These more frequent and regular one day workshops provide a space to experience systemic family constellations as the precise, efficient, diagnostic and healing approach it is and where people can come for a single or multiple days to set up, explore and address their issues and concerns with this modality.

Our intention is to make systemic family constellations more accessible for those for whom a whole weekend is difficult to organise time-wise or financially. We intend also for it to become an open constellation group, or constellation "clinic": a setting where this valuable approach is available on a more regular and ongoing basis and which, with time, may even develop into a fortnightly occurrence as demand grows.

You may book a single workshop day which is ideal to get an idea of how systemic constellations work and to experience it first hand as a representative by participating in someone else’s constellation or simply just watch the processes unfold, which can also be profound and enlightening.

If you want to set up your own (family) constellation/ address your own issue, we recommend the 2 or 3 day option for a discounted price as this give you plenty of time for your own process and to bring your issues into focus. When booking a bundle of 2, you can choose from the upcoming 4 workshop dates. Or book a bundle of 3, choose from the upcoming 5 workshop dates.
Upcoming dates:

2025 - 9th August; 13th September; 18th October; 29th November
2026 - 21st February; 21st March; 2nd May
with more dates to be added.
Registrations are open.

Follow the link in the comments.
Or read more about Systemic Family Constellations here:
https://www.systemicsolutions.com.au/systemic-family...

We hope to see you at a constellation day soon.

Kind regards,
Beant & Jai Ram

25/05/2025

a friendly reminder

Be sure to follow the author of this quote Michell C. Clark

19/11/2024

agreed.

03/11/2024

One of the things to consider with psychometric test and questionnaires…
Additionally it’s often „the unmeasurable“ which contributes to peoples positive change process

https://charleseisenstein.org/essays/our-new-happy-life-the-ideology-of-development/

23/08/2023

Book now for September 16th & 17th workshop - https://mailchi.mp/5b6854e4758f/next-workshop-july-8140927

16/06/2023

Early birds till 23.6 for Constellation workshop 22 & 23 July and announcing a workshop in Yalingup! https://mailchi.mp/e994d985583d/next-workshop-july