Counselling

03/06/2019

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy-(CBT):
• One way of summing up CBT is to say “you feel the way you think” but at the same time looking closely at behaviour, as the way you act and behaviour is often determined by how you feel.
• At the core of CBT is the interaction between thoughts, feelings and behaviours. CBT looks at how you think and act in order to help individuals overcome both behavioural and emotional difficulties.
• Modern behaviour therapy is grounded on a scientific view of human behaviour that implies a systematic and structured approach to counselling.
• The view in CBT is that the person is the producer and the product of his or her environment.
• According to CBT, what determines a person’s quality and intensity of an emotion they experience are their thoughts about the event.
• CBT emphasis on the role of responsibility for ones own behaviour , CBT believes that given the techniques and skills of self-change, people have the ability to improve their lives by altering one or more of the various factors influencing their behaviour.
• CBT deals with the client’s current problems and the factors influencing them, CBT therapists look to the current environmental events that maintain problem behaviours and help clients produce behaviour change by changing environmental events.
• Behaviour techniques are used in CBT that help change the relevant current factors that are influencing the client’s behaviours.
• CBT has been found to be effective in treating a number of psychological conditions such as the anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, and problems with alcohol and drug.
• CBT therapists will often assign homework for clients to complete outside of sessions.
• Cognitive: refers to your thoughts and anything else that goes through your mind including your dreams, memories, images and your focus of attention.
• Behaviour: includes everything that you do and all the things you choose not to do.
• Therapy: describes a method of treating a problem- physical, mental, or emotional.





Existential Therapy:

Definition:


• Existential therapy can be best described as a philosophical approach that influences a counsellor’s therapeutic practice. Existential psychotherapy is neither an independent nor separate school of therapy.
• Existentialism is an area of philosophy concerned with the meaning of human existence.
• It looks at issues such as love, death and the meaning of life, and how one deal with the sense of values and meanings in their own life.
• In an existentialist approach to therapy, there are basic dimensions of the human condition. These are the capacity for self-awareness, the tension between freedom and responsibility, the creation for an identity and the concern of meaningful relationships.
• Existential therapy is grounded on the assumption that we are free and therefore responsible for our choices and actions. “we are the authors of our lives, and we design the signposts to follow”
• One basic principle of existential therapy is that we are not victims of circumstance, because to a large extent we are what we choose to be.
• One main aim of therapy is to encourage clients to reflect on life, to recognise their range of alternatives, and to decide among them.
• The goal is to make people realize the ways they passively accepted circumstances and surrender control in order for them to start consciously shaping their own lives by exploring options for creating a meaningful existence.
• The existential view of human nature is captured, partly by the idea that the significance of our existence is never fixed once and for all, but rather that we continually re-create ourselves through our projects.
• The basic dimensions of the human condition, according to the existential approach include, the capacity for self awareness, freedom and responsibility, creating ones identity and establishing meaningful relationships with others, the search for meaning purpose, values and goals, anxiety as a condition of living and awareness of death and non-being.
• Being a person implies that we are discovering and making sense of our existence.

14/06/2018

Here are 10 things to consider in your personal development plan.
1. Start Now
Do something about your personal development plan today. It's going to take some time to achieve lasting change so you need to start now. You can build on what you do today, tomorrow.
2. Small Steps
To make a plan you need to include steps. Break a large goal into it's smallest components. Keep the end result in mind as you focus on the smaller bite sized steps.

3. Learn From Other People
You can gain from the success of other people and you can learn from their mistakes. Your own experience is a harsh teacher so learn from the mistakes of others. If you can find a mentor or coach your task will be easier. Read as many books as you can. If you can't afford to buy books or don't want to spend the money borrow them from the library.

4. Welcome Change
The world is changing all the time. Even if you do nothing you will change by default as the world turns. There is no escape from this. If people and ideas didn't change we would all still be living in caves.
Your personal development plan needs to include how you are going to change, what action will you take? Only action leads to results.

5. Take Responsibility
You are responsible for your own progress. You are responsible for what you are today and where you are today. (This personal development article explains this in more detail)
That means it's your job to initiate the steps involved in your own personal development. If you don’t bother no one else will. It also means you own the result and no one else is to blame.

6. Be Grateful & Recognise Your Worth
Focus on what you already have.
(Personal Development article on gratitude)
Think about how others benefit from what you do. If you improve yourself, those benefits will increase. Your personal development is for others as well as for you.
(Personal development article on enlightenment)

7. Think About Your Intention.
Whatever you intend eventually becomes your reality. Find your true intention before you resolve to do something and make sure you really want what you say you want. If your goal and your intention are not aligned then you’ll think up lots of excuses and all sorts of situations to prevent your progress.

8. Challenge Yourself.
Your goal/s needs to be just out of reach. If your reach for an impossible target you are setting yourself up for a failure. If you stick to what’s easy you’re denying yourself the satisfaction of achievement and only minimal change will occur.
9. Do What You Like
Its no good doing things that you don't like. Pick methods that appeal to you. Pick people to help you that you like. Make sure you are following your heart but don't run from the hard issues. They need to be addressed one day.
10. Keep Going & Never Give Up
Life works in cycles and moves to a rhythm. You will have up and downs. When you hit a slow point or things don't seem to be moving, don't give up, keep going. There is no such thing as continual rapid advancement and that means your personal development plan needs to be achievable and balanced. Find your rhythm and go with the flow. There’s no such thing as finished self-development. You can go on learning, changing and renewing for all of your life.

Depression
Work Stress
Self-Harm
Low self-esteem
Anger
Grief
Anxiety
Addiction
Post-traumatic Stress

28/08/2017

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy-(CBT):
• One way of summing up CBT is to say “you feel the way you think” but at the same time looking closely at behaviour, as the way you act and behaviour is often determined by how you feel.
• At the core of CBT is the interaction between thoughts, feelings and behaviours. CBT looks at how you think and act in order to help individuals overcome both behavioural and emotional difficulties.
• Modern behaviour therapy is grounded on a scientific view of human behaviour that implies a systematic and structured approach to counselling.
• The view in CBT is that the person is the producer and the product of his or her environment.
• According to CBT, what determines a person’s quality and intensity of an emotion they experience are their thoughts about the event.
• CBT emphasis on the role of responsibility for ones own behaviour , CBT believes that given the techniques and skills of self-change, people have the ability to improve their lives by altering one or more of the various factors influencing their behaviour.
• CBT deals with the client’s current problems and the factors influencing them, CBT therapists look to the current environmental events that maintain problem behaviours and help clients produce behaviour change by changing environmental events.
• Behaviour techniques are used in CBT that help change the relevant current factors that are influencing the client’s behaviours.
• CBT has been found to be effective in treating a number of psychological conditions such as the anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, and problems with alcohol and drug.
• CBT therapists will often assign homework for clients to complete outside of sessions.
• Cognitive: refers to your thoughts and anything else that goes through your mind including your dreams, memories, images and your focus of attention.
• Behaviour: includes everything that you do and all the things you choose not to do.
• Therapy: describes a method of treating a problem- physical, mental, or emotional.

08/04/2017

My name is Alan Hanafin and I’m looking forward to working with you in counselling. The purpose of this client information form is to provide you with basic information about your rights as a client and to tell you what to expect during typical counselling sessions. The first thing I should say is that there is, of course, no such thing as a typical counselling session. You are unique, and the problems and challenges you’re facing in your life and in yourself are unique.
As a counsellor, it’s my job to help you express what you’re thinking, feeling, and experiencing. You should think of me as a sort of companion. I will accompany you as you explore yourself, your problems, your life situation, and all of your personal experiences. Generally, I won’t give you expert advice or tell you what decisions you should make in your life. Instead, because the form of counselling I provide is “integrated counselling” I will help you focus on your own thoughts and feelings. There are two reasons why I don’t offer expert advice to clients: First, you’re a different person than I am, and therefore I can’t and shouldn’t tell you what you should do with your life. Your personal decisions are completely up to you, and I respect and trust your ability to make informed decisions about your life. Second, I also don’t give out expert advice because I’ve discovered that clients rarely benefit from such advice. You will benefit from struggling with your own personal decisions and discovering what’s right for you. Even though I won’t be giving you expert advice, that doesn’t mean I won’t be expressing some of my opinions or feelings during counselling. At times, when I have a strong feeling or reaction to you, I will tell you what I’m thinking or feeling as honestly as I can. I will try to openly express thoughts and feelings that I have that might be helpful as you explore what’s right for you.
Being in counselling is not always easy, and it’s never an emotionally neutral experience. Sometimes in counselling you may feel good because you’re getting to express everything you’re feeling and thinking while I’m trying my best to listen and understand all of what you’re experiencing. At other times you may find yourself talking about and feeling things that are very hard and painful. Counselling is not a neutral experience because it requires you to face yourself more completely than you do in your ordinary life. It’s like really scrutinizing yourself in a mirror. Even though the mirror does not judge you, as you look in the mirror you will probably judge yourself. As you explore every square inch of yourself on the inside and on the outside, you may feel both pain and joy.
If you have questions or concerns about counselling, you have the right to ask them at any time. I will do my best to respond to your questions as soon as possible. Overall, my view is that counselling is an excellent opportunity for you to explore, in greater depth, who you are, what you want, and how you want to live. I am delighted to accompany you on your journey of self-discovery.

Alan Hanafin

18/02/2017

The family systems therapist emphasizes each person’s participation in the system, not what motivates individual behaviour. (Brown, 2007) Murray Bowen a psychiatrist originated this theory and its eight interlocking concepts. Where formulated the theory by using systems thinking to integrate knowledge of the human species as a product of evolution and knowledge from family research. A core assumption is that an emotional system that evolved over several billion years governs human relationship systems. People have a "thinking brain," language, a complex psychology and culture.
A triangle is a three-person relationship system. It is considered the building block or "molecule" of larger emotional systems because a triangle is the smallest stable relationship system. A triangle can contain much more tension without involving another person because the tension can shift around three relationships. One example to show the importance of this is where a two-person system can only exist alone as long as there is calm. When stress is encountered, the minimum outsider interaction needed is one person, which forms a triangle Bowen (1976)
Differentiation and its antithesis, fusion, are Bowen’s terms to describe the extent to which people are able to separate their emotional and intellectual spheres. Highly fused people function automatically and respond emotionally to life situations. On the opposite end of the spectrum are highly differentiated people who have an autonomous intellectual system that can keep control over their emotional system. Differentiated people respond better to life’s stresses.
The nuclear family emotional system describes the family’s emotional system during a single generation. This pattern, however, was already replicated for generations. Father and mother interaction will follow the patterns of their parents and will pass the patterns on to their children .One example of this At some time in the wedding process, be it the engagement, the ceremony, or the first home, the fusion will inevitably be initiated. It is critical that the spouses be at an equal level of differentiation. Unbalanced levels of fusion in the couple can result in anxiety for one or both parties. The most common way of dealing with this stress is emotional distance or emotional divorce.
Family Projection Process describes the primary way parents transmit their emotional problems to a child. The projection process can impair the functioning of one or more children and increase their vulnerability to clinical symptoms. Children inherit many types of problems (as well as strengths) through the relationships with their parents, but the problems they inherit that most affect their lives are relationship sensitivities the importance here is for us to be aware of such a heightened needs for attention and approval, difficulty dealing with expectations, the tendency to blame oneself or others, feeling responsible for the happiness of others.
The concept of the multigenerational transmission process describes how small differences in the levels of differentiation between parents and their offspring lead over many generations to marked differences in differentiation among the members of a multigenerational family. The transmission occurs on several interconnected levels ranging from the conscious teaching and learning of information to the automatic and unconscious programming of emotional reactions and behaviours .One example of this or trend is the repetition of relationship patterns, including divorce, su***de, and alcoholism, associated with emotional dysfunction that can be traced through several generations of the same family. Bowen actually hospitalized entire families so that the family system could be the focus of therapy. Corey, G (2009).
The concept of emotional cut off describes people managing their unresolved emotional issues with parents, siblings, and other family members by reducing or totally cutting off emotional contact with them. Emotional contact can be reduced by people moving away from their families and rarely going home, or it can be reduced by people staying in physical contact with their families but avoiding sensitive issues.. For example, the more a man cuts off from his family of origin, the more he looks to his spouse, children, and friends to meet his needs .It is very important to be aware here that he may be vulnerable of too much to expectations of him out of fear of jeopardizing the relationship.
Sibling position idea is that people who grow up in the same sibling position predictably have important common characteristics. For example, oldest children tend to gravitate to leadership positions and youngest children often prefer to be followers. The characteristics of one position are not "better" than those of another position, but are complementary. Another example of this is a boss who is an oldest child may work unusually well with a first assistant who is a youngest child.
Societal Emotional Process describes how the emotional system governs behaviour on a societal level, promoting both progressive and regressive periods in a society. Cultural forces are important in how a society functions but are insufficient for example the ebb and flow in how well societies adapt to the challenges that face them. An increase in the problems young people are having is part of an emotional process in society as a whole.

25/01/2017

Stages of Grief

1.Denial – The first reaction is denial. In this stage individuals believe the diagnosis is somehow mistaken, and cling to a false, preferable reality.
2.Anger – When the individual recognizes that denial cannot continue, they become frustrated, especially at proximate individuals. Certain psychological responses of a person undergoing this phase would be: "Why me? It's not fair!"; "How can this happen to me?"; "Who is to blame?"; "Why would this happen?".
3.Bargaining – The third stage involves the hope that the individual can avoid a cause of grief. Usually, the negotiation for an extended life is made in exchange for a reformed lifestyle. People facing less serious trauma can bargain or seek compromise. For instance: "I'd give anything to have him back." Or: "If only he'd come back to life, I'd promise to be a better person!"
4.Depression – "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"; "I'm going to die soon, so what's the point?"; "I miss my loved one, why go on?"
During the fourth stage, the individual despairs at the recognition of their mortality. In this state, the individual may become silent, refuse visitors and spend much of the time mournful and sullen.
5.Acceptance – "It's going to be okay."; "I can't fight it; I may as well prepare for it."
In this last stage, individuals embrace mortality or inevitable future, or that of a loved one, or other tragic event. People dying may precede the survivors in this state, which typically comes with a calm, retrospective view for the individual, and a stable condition of emotions.

21/01/2017

Alan Hanafin

Counselling can also help you cope or come to terms with the symptoms and mental distress of an ongoing physical problem, illness or disability.

• Depression
• Breakdown of a relationship
• Bereavement
• Self-harm
• Low self-esteem
• Anger
• Sadness
• Psychotic disorders Schizophrenia or Bipolar disorder
• Anxiety
• Obsessive compulsive disorder
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Eating disorders

Alan Hanafin
(BA Honours in Counselling Skills, Psychotherapy and Youth Studies)

Call for Appointment
Phone in Confidence 087 2589496

21/01/2017

Defence mechanisms

In psychoanalytic theory, a defence mechanism is an unconscious way to protect one's personality from unpleasant thoughts which may otherwise cause anxiety. This can work well in small doses. However, a defence mechanism can also lead to a neurosis if it causes a person to adopt ineffectual or inappropriate coping strategies.
Examples of defence mechanisms include:
• Displacement. Redirecting emotion from a 'dangerous' object to a 'safe' object. For example, punching a cushion when angry at your partner.

• Introjection. Internalising the values or characteristics of another person, usually someone who is significant to the individual in some way. For example, adopting the ideals of a charismatic leader in order to deal with feelings of ones own inadequacy.

• Projection. The opposite of Introjection. Attributing one's own emotions or desires to an external object or person. For example, saying others hate you when it is you who hates the others.

• Rationalization. Inventing a logical reason to justify an already taken emotional action. For example, striking one's child in anger and insisting it was for the good of the child.

• Reaction formation. Converting an uncomfortable feeling into its opposite. For example, turning hate into love.

• Regression. Behaviour reverting to a previous age.

• Repression. Moving thoughts unacceptable to the Ego into the unconscious, where they cannot be easily accessed.

• Sublimation. A 'healthy' form of displacement. For example, playing sports to relieve stress or anger.

• Denial. Insisting something did not occur.

08/11/2016

Understanding anger
It's important to realise several things about anger before you start tackling it. First, anger is a normal process that has allowed humans to evolve and adapt. It isn't a bad thing in itself, but problems occur if it isn't managed in the right way.
Anger is also a mixture of both emotional and physical changes. A big surge of energy goes through your body as chemicals, such as adrenaline, are released.
Once the cause of the anger is resolved, you may still have to deal with the physical effects - all that energy has to go somewhere. This can be taken out on another person, such as a partner, or an object - by punching a wall, for example. This last option can lead down the road to self-harm.
The other alternative is to suppress the energy until the next time you're angry. This may mean you release so much pent-up emotion that you overreact to the situation. Realising this can lead to feelings of shame or frustration when you reflect on your actions, and to further repression of your feelings.
On the other hand, just letting your anger go in an uncontrolled fashion can lead to a move from verbal aggression to physical abuse - don't forget, the other person is probably feeling angry with you too.
But there is a flip side to anger. Because of the surge of energy it creates, it can be pleasurable. This feeling is reinforced if becoming angry allows the release of feelings of frustration, or if a person's response to your anger gives you a sense of power.
It's important to acknowledge and keep an eye on this side of the problem - it can have an almost addictive element.
Top
Recognising why you get angry
It's important to be aware of the positive feelings you get from anger as well as the negative ones.
By recognising the positive and negative feelings associated with your anger, it's important to find other means of achieving and concentrating on the positives ones.
Each person's positives are different, so there will be different solutions for everyone, but some strategies might include:
• Trying a non-contact competitive sport.
• Learning relaxation or meditation.
• Shouting and screaming in a private, quiet place.
• Banging your fists into a pillow.
• Going running.
Any of these may help to vent your frustration and burn off any feelings you're bottling up.

21/10/2016

Dr Harry Barry states in his book Flagging the therapy that we have two types of bipolar with different social symptoms, here are some examples of type one, a person may experience fatigue, low self-esteem, anxiety, feeling low, having sleep difficulties all these are associated with depression. But during the mania which is the opposite of depression there is a period of elevated mood, a person will display the following extremely inflated self-esteem and mood, decreased need for sleep, talkativeness where speech will often rhyme like poetry, racing taught and ideas, high creativity, anger upon being challenged and impairment of social function with everyday activates.
With bipolar type two a person suffers mainly from bouts of depression and interspersed with periods of hypomania .With hypomania comes a sudden increase in energy levels, racing thoughts, and feeling on top or the world. Barry (2011). Bipolar disorder can interfere with work and school performance, damage relationships, and disrupt daily life. Although it’s treatable, many people don’t identify with the warning signs and get the help they need. Bipolar disorder tends to worsen without treatment.