Positive Health Online

Inner Critic: Friend or Foe?

by John Kent

The author points out the inner voice in our heads, which seems to run a non-stop tape of injunctions, criticisms, directives, sometimes loudly, sometimes like a background hum whi...

Inner Voices: Embracing all the Parts of our Personality

by John Kent

The author touches on the Voices of our Personality; our Primary Self which is one of vulnerability and our essential needs which can be summarized as Attention, Approval, Affect...

It's All Too Easy

by Beata Bishop

The author takes a stab at the commercial world's key word "easy" to advertise products from bestselling books (easy to read), garments in fashion catalogues (easy to wear) and lat...

Junk is the Enemy

by Beata Bishop

Regular contributor Beta Bishop discusses the hanging-on versus letting-go conflict, which operates powerfully over all age groups and can cause real problems. She says our persona...

Life By Design - An Aesthetic Therapy

by Edwin Alan Salter

Dr Salter believes that the function of therapy often is to find an aesthetic design within our experiences – and this leads to the idea that as we may re-cast the story of our pas...

Looking for a Fix

by Beata Bishop

It's possible to get addicted to anything, not only alcohol, drugs, tobacco. A middle-aged man is reported to have got hooked on cough remedy. The author saw a woman popping throat...

Lost for Words

by Beata Bishop

The author was inspired to write this column after reading a small news item on how many parents don’t talk to their young children at all, and as a result these kids are barely ab...

Managing Times of Change and Transition Amidst the Chaos of Everyday Life

by Simona de Serdici

Have you ever thought of journal-writing as a powerful and effective way for managing times of chaos, stress and decision-making? Taking time out to express your thoughts, feelings,...

More on Existential Philosophy and Modern Psychotherapy

by Sheldon Litt, Ph.D.

In an earlier issue of Positive Health (Issue 40, May 1999) the influence of existentialism on modern psychology was discussed. Here we will continue this discussion, looking at bo...

Moving Towards Serenity

by Beata Bishop

The experience of finding a quick solution to a problem by looking at it from a slightly different viewpoint flashes through my mind every time a client or a friend complains abo...

On Being Alone

by Beata Bishop

In this column the author discusses solitude as she wonders whether all the noise and chatter that most people create around them is to help them feel connected and ‘un-alone’. S...

Our Best Drug

by Dorothy Rowe - Deceased

This article points up the difference between old and new methods of psychiatric drug research. Most important is the way new methods emphasize the importance of placebos, followin...

Personality, Types and the Energygram

by Dr Heather Parsons PhD

This article is a detailed account of personality types, based on the idea that very early in life we choose what kind of a person to be.

Psychosomatic Disorders and Hypnotherapy

by Sally Stubbs

At age eighteen I left school and joined The Manchester Royal Infirmary to train as a nurse. I wanted to be involved in curing suffering. Observing many horrific illnesses in the wa...

Psychotherapy as a Humane Discipline (A paradigm for therapists)

by Sheldon Litt, Ph.D.

Many psychotherapists are uncertain about their values and confused about the general values of psychotherapy.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T - Strategies for Defusing Anger

by Dr Joseph Shrand

Deeper inside your brain resides the limbic system. This more ancient portion of the brain, the product of millions of years of evolution, directs our impulses and emotions, and hou...

Shock and Trauma

by Will Wilson

Effects of shock are often missed by doctors and therapists. Such things as surgery, falls, car accidents and physical, emotional or sexual abuse, and less obvious events such as f...

The Dance of Selves in Relationship

by John Kent

In becoming the person we are, we develop certain aspects of personality and suppress others. Often we fall in love with another person because they express the sides of ourselve...

The Either-Or Fallacy

by Beata Bishop

Beata Bishop draws on her own experiences of dealing with cancer 20 years ago to explain the dangers of ‘either-or’ thinking in one’s approach to healing.

The Hamster on the Wheel

by Beata Bishop

Beata Bishop uses the image of a hamster on a wheel, climbing endlessly and getting nowhere, to symbolize the pitfalls of circular thinking.  She comments how it is usually based...