My name is Clare Hickey and I am a Counselling Psychologist working at the Novara Centre Bray. The question that sometimes arises in conversation when work comes up is: Why is psychotherapy any better/ more useful than having a conversation with a good friend? I would like to address some of the issues that may answer that question. Firstly I...
Continue ReadingTroubled times can call on us to take special care of ourselves. Shiatsu nourishes the body, mind and spirit in a deeply relaxing and restoring way. Treatments are given through the clothes in a calm and caring atmosphere. Many clients describe a shiatsu treatment as like being put back together again Cross-European scientific research (Long, A. 2008) proves shiatsu to...
Continue ReadingWe all experience depression at some stage throughout life; this is generally as a result of a stressful life event. In the majority of cases we work through these difficult times naturally. However, depression as a mood disorder results in intense and prolonged disturbance in personal, social and work performance. Rates of depression are steadily increasing. According to the World...
Continue ReadingCognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is concerned with the meaning events hold for people and how their thinking in response to these events can create feelings of fear and despair. It is based on identifying negative thoughts and feelings, and on giving the person the means to change these for the better. Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis, both originally practicing psychoanalysts,...
Continue ReadingWhen ‘Depression’ is not just about the economy Feeling sad or finding it difficult to see the positives in our lives, are common to all of us from time to time. The term ‘Depression’ is used to describe a wide spectrum of experiences from feeling a bit low, to the grief and despair following a death or loss of a loved one, to...
Continue ReadingMinding our Mental and Emotional Health Step 1: Acceptance Sometimes the hardest thing about dealing with the difficulties life throws at us is not so much the happening itself but the mental torture we inflict on ourselves. We repeat ‘If only I had’ …or ‘Why me’? …or ‘How could they do that to me’? Such self-inflicted torture may be eased...
Continue ReadingWhat is Complementary Healthcare? This name was initially coined to represent the therapies that could work side by side or add to GP care/conventional medicine. It is now taken to mean a broad range of therapies.# What is Integrative Healthcare? In the integrative model different models of healthcare are brought together. This is based on the dual assumption that different...
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