Category: Psychotherapy
Was Diogenes an authentic person? An existential reflection
Popular explorations of what it means to be an authentic person often include ideas such as “living in accordance with our own values and ideals”, “despite challenging circumstances” and “regardless of other people’s opinions”. Some people may also include “unique, idiosyncratic preferences” in their definitions. This may be why Diogenes of Sinope, the ancient Socratic…
Existential concerns: Death, Aloneness, Freedom and Meaning
Existential concerns are deeply significant areas of human enquiry. They relate to the core of human existence and they can form the basis of much avoidance, fear and anxiety. They can also be important catalysts for growth, as they make us face repressed anxiety and facilitate our living with renewed enthusiasm and meaning. Irvin Yalom…
Overview of Jung’s psychology
in JungianCarl Jung was a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and psychologist who studied with Freud until their theoretical differences brought them apart. Jung went on to develop a unique school within psychoanalysis based on his model of the self and the methodology to work within it: a framework of symbols, dreamwork, dialogue, active imagination, and inner exploration. To…
Exploring the central humanistic ideas
The humanist tradition spans philosophy, literature, ethics, psychology and many other areas of human endeavour across the centuries. This makes it hard to define and delimit, but Sarah Bakewell does just that brilliantly in her book “Humanly possible”. — In this article, I wanted to lean on Sarah’s attempt to name the core ideas in…
Hegel’s Master/Slave Dialectic: collective healing in our complex world
in HumanisticHegel proposed the Master/Slave thought experiment to understand human’s need for self-consciousness through the genuine recognition of (and by) others. Hegel argues that self-consciousness is not just being alive or thinking, but about knowing yourself as a subject. Unlike Descartes, for whom thinking alone proves existence (‘I think, therefore I am’), Hegel argues that existence…
Are we ever free? The experience of fear and the embracing of responsibility in our work towards freedom
Freedom is complex. Are we ever free? Do we want to actually be? And how do we even know we are? This article explores how true freedom is not about escaping fear and responsibility, but about embracing them The struggle to be free is the struggle to exist. We’re driven to free ourselves from our…
Overview of Internal Family Systems
in IFSInternal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic approach founded and developed by Richard Schwartz based upon a mix of influences from humanistic and psychodynamic counselling, family system therapy, systems thinking and spirituality. The below is based on No Bad Parts and Internal Family Systems Therapy. —- The main premise of Internal Family Systems is that…
How School-Based Counselling Helps
I worked with Mick Cooper to design a poster to promote his latest piece of research. It shows the ways in which school based humanistic counselling helps young people. I found interesting that “advice” was an important process of change – if you read the paper you will also find out what aspects of the…
Having vs being as modes of existence
in HumanisticErich Fromm was a humanist philosopher and psychoanalyst associated with critical theory. He blended the analysis of social and psychological factors to explore different philosophies of living. In To Have or To Be?, he examines two broad perspectives on life. — He explored how spiritual and cultural traditions have intertwined with structures of power to…
