Category Archives: Counseling and Therapy

Counseling and Therapy

Suicides Outnumber Road Deaths in New Zealand

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According to the Christchurch Press today, ten people per week kill themselves, with this total exceeding the number of road fatalities per annum. Of course the actual number of suicides would be higher, as this number only considers those deaths that are confirmed as suicide. We need to talk about this topic more publicly. If you need someone to speak to, call (in NZ) Lifeline on 0800376633.

Mental Illness as Part of a Simplistic Dichotomy

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I avoided psychology units as an undergraduate, because I felt that this field of study had too simplistic a paradigm of human existence. Being largely influenced by a medical model, people were often quickly labeled as “ill” mentally and slotted into various simplistic pathological categories. Even as a late teenager, I wondered where was the place in these models for the complexity of the human condition?

Over the last years, however, there have been shifts towards more holistic views of human psychology. As it has recently been stated, ” . . . we should move away from understanding human experience as being neatly dichotomized into positive and negative, well and ill, healthy and unhealthy, strength and weakness. These are false dichotomies, and ones that were rejected by our humanistic psychology ancestors, who instead proposed a more holistic approach to what it means to be human (Joseph and Worsley, 2005). The convergence of these perspectives around this uniting theme suggests that we might be seeing the beginning of a perspective shift in modern psychology. In time, positive psychology and coaching psychology might both be seen as forces that forged a more complete understanding of the human condition.” (Linley and Harrington, in Handbook of Counselling Psychology, 2007). Let’s hope that any future paradigms will take such a holistic approach!

References:

Joseph, S. and Worsley, R. (2005) A positive psychology of mental health: the person-centred perspective. In S. Joseph and R. Worsley (eds.) Person-centred Psychopathology: A positive psychology of mental health. (pp. 348-357). Ross-on-Wye, UK: PCCS Books.

Palmer, S. and Whybrow, A. (eds) 2007, Handbook of Coaching Psychology, East Sussex, UK: Routledge.

The Finality of Suicide

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When a person is thinking of committing suicide, many images of their death and subsequent events come to mind. Some think of their family and friends mourning for them and take comfort in these thoughts. Some think of themselves beautifully dressed at the funeral. Death, however, is rarely so beautiful.

Death is about decay and loss. The photo below shows what is left of a woman who jumped from the Empire State Building in New York City many years ago. The photo attracted a great deal of attention because of what seemed to be a peaceful pose in death. Does the woman really look that peaceful, though? One only has to look at the effects of her fall on the car she landed on to imagine how this impact would have affected her body. There is the illusion of a peaceful death on the surface of this image, but what about the effects of this act on her family? What if someone was sitting in the car at the moment she landed on it? Are they dead too?

Death is final. If you or someone you know is thinking of suicide, check out the resources at http://www.spinz.org.nz.

Suicide Prevention New Zealand

Suicide Prevention Information New Zealand YouTube Channel

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SPINZ has a YouTube channel on which they have posted videos from their 2009 National Symposium. The URL for this resource is:

http://www.youtube.com/SuicidePreventionNZ

Suicide Prevention Information New Zealand is a information service dedicated to promoting “safe and effective suicide prevention activities.” The SPINZ website is found at:

http://www.spinz.org.nz

If you are having thoughts of self-harm, you are not alone!

Depression Resources from Beyond Blue

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If you or someone you love is suffering from depression, you are not alone. Beyond Blue (www.beyondblue.org.au) has been set up as a national initiative in Australia to help educate the public about depression. The site is full of information, including some helpful downloadable .pdf files that you can print out or forward on to others by email. These resources are available at:

http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx?link_id=7.980

If you live in Christchurch and are looking for in-person counselling for depression, contact us to see how we can help. If you are outside of Christchurch and you want depression counselling by telephone, email or online chat, please use our contact form to tell us about your needs.

You are not alone!

A free counselling calendar that is web-based and available offline

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[Note: In addition to counselling theories and other topics, I thought some might find interest in software that can be used to support a counselling practice. The following is an example of software that can be used by counsellors.]

Here was my issue – I wanted a calendar that was online, so I could assess it anywhere I happened to be in the world, but that I could also assess offline on my own laptop. I wanted at least the following:

1. A calendar that was “browser-based”, so I could check my schedule from any computer.
2. A calendar with high security (we can’t have our client session times available to the world).
3. A calendar that I can synchronize with a copy on my laptop.
4. A calendar that will send me reminders by email or SMS.
5. A calendar on a robust server, so that I could be assured that the chances of me losing my calendar was low.
6. A calendar with add-on information regarding holidays and other calendars for countries of interest.
7. A calendar that allows me to add a view for the calendars of my office colleagues, so I can plan around the schedules of others in the office.

I spent frustrating months using everything available, until I finally decided on Google Calendar (web-based) with Mozilla Sunbird (computer-based). I now get text messages on my mobile phone for all sessions and other meetings and I can look at a copy of my calendar in Sunbird, when I am offline. I have also added a NZ holiday calendar to the system and I have added my business partner’s calendar (with her permission). so that I can plan around her schedule too. Finally, for clients who also use Google Calendar, I can set the system up to send them an SMS reminder before their scheduled appointments.

All of this is free and is available at:

Google Calendar:

http://www.google.com/calendar

Mozilla Sunbird:

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/

Information for integrating these two programs is found at:

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=99358#sunbird

It takes a wee while to set up and get used to, but it has worked very well for me. You can also integrate Google Calendar into an entire email client – Mozilla Thunderbird – but I haven’t yet bothered to do this.

Seasonal Affective Disorder and Summer in Hagley Park

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If you have found yourself down over the colder months and you weren’t sure why, you might want to ask your health care provider about Season Affective Disorder (SAD). While some people can get this mood shift at the change of any season, it is most common to feel depressed during the cold and cloudy winters.

One of the ways to deal with SAD is to have light therapy, which can involve sitting in front of sun lamps, but most simply involves getting out in the sun for awhile (but remember to wear your sunscreen). I was thinking of seasonal affective disorder the other day, as I walked through Hagley Park in Christchurch. I took some photos of the rose garden (two of which you can see on this post), as I walked through the park, thinking to myself what a beautiful city we in Christchurch call home.

If you are experiencing mood shifts that you cannot deal with or that are decreasing your quality of life, please contact us to see how we can help you.

Here’s to a rekindled passion for living!

Jerry