Articles

Spring Has Arrived But Not Everyone Will Feel Better

By Counselling Tips

As the spring season approaches, many Melbournians look forward to an improved sense of vitality and wellbeing that tends to come with the promise of sunshine and warmer weather. For others, mental wellbeing continues to be an ongoing struggle with painful ramifications reverberating throughout every dimension of their lives, affecting the quality of work, family and social relationships. Read More

How to choose a local counsellor who is right for you

By Counselling Tips

Sunshine & Coffee

As a local Melbourne holistic counsellor who works with clients in both Armadale and Malvern I am always appreciative of the daunting process clients may have experienced when trying to choose a counsellor.

I am aware it can be a leap of faith for a client to choose a counsellor that is right for them and their specific needs out of the myriad of professionals that may be advertised within just one local area.

Having a diverse range of therapists to choose from is a wonderful thing, but it can also be confusing and anxiety provoking as the client tries to decide who they will trust with their most precious possession…their inner landscape.

I would like to suggest that more than a leap of faith can be applied when making such an important decision as to who you will entrust with your mental health, private world and wellbeing. It is possible to narrow down the decision of whom you would like to work with by asking yourself some discerning questions that may help you to navigate your way to the right therapist for you. Read More

Feeding Your Demons

By Book Reviews

Tsultrim,  A. (2008). Feeding Your Demons. London, UK: Hay House UK Ltd

Tsultrim has authored a book that offers an interesting mixture of ancient Eastern wisdom combined with the complexities of modern Western psychotherapy. Tsultrim’s teachings are the epitome of Carl Jung’s concepts relating to the psyche striving to balance opposing tensions to create balance and harmony. Read More

Inner Knowing

By Book Reviews

Palmer, H. (1998). Inner Knowing. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam Inc.

Helen Palmer’s ‘Inner Knowing’ is a compilation of essays by an impressive cohort of writers who offer a wealth of collective knowledge in the field of human consciousness, evolution and the search for meaning. The overall message this book conveys is that our ability to self-examine our life will determine its quality. The many essays in this book offer both Eastern and Western philosophies to encourage a more conscious existence and enhance our ability to create a meaningful life.  Read More

Evolutionary Enlightenment

By Book Reviews

Hands holding planet

Cohen,  A. (2011). Evolutionary Enlightenment. New York, NY: SelectBooks, Inc.

Andrew Cohen’s Evolutionary Enlightenment is a poetic and beautifully written dedication to the spiritual and evolutionary potential contained within our often-troubled human race. Cohen reflects upon our creation and the fourteen billion years of evolution that has resulted in life, as we know it today. Cohen takes time to deeply consider how our evolution has been molded and perhaps impeded by our cultural, religious and psycho-spiritual tendencies. Read More

Reconnecting With Nature

By Book Reviews

Light globe and butterfly

Cohen, M.J. (2007). Reconnecting With Nature. Lakeville, Minnesota: Ecopress

Millions of years ago, mankind’s consciousness was pre-verbal and his survival was dependent on an ability to connect to nature and an internal landscape that Cohen postulates was comprised of 52 senses and feelings. Over time, modern man’s brain evolved and formed the neo cortex, comprising of just 13% of our total brain matter, generating language and reason. This small part of the brain dominates our remaining 87% of consciousness and creates a language-based discourse that threatens to disconnect us from our natural instincts and has reduced us to just 5 of our 52 senses. Read More

Living In The Borderland

By Book Reviews

Bernstein,  J. (2005). Living in the Borderland. East Sussex, UK: Routledge

Bernstein believes the emergence of the borderland personality is evolutionary and a collective unconscious attempt to reconnect our ego to its forgotten psychic roots. Borderland people are sensitive to their environment, intuitive, kinesthetic and tuned into the energies around them. They inevitably suffer a split and psychic tension between ego and nature as they attempt to rationalize and integrate their transrational experiences into consciousness. Bernstein says these people are often incorrectly diagnosed as borderline personality types or schizophrenic, causing them further alienation and psychological damage to their already sensitive psyches. Read More

The Foundations of Transpersonal Counselling

By Foundations of Counselling

The term ‘transpersonal’ can be defined as transcending the personal or going beyond ones personal identity.

Transpersonal Counselling is one of a number of approaches that falls under the larger umbrella of Holistic Counselling, melding spirituality and a holistic mind-body-soul approach to facilitate a client’s therapeutic journey. A 1992 article from the Journal of Transpersonal Psychotherapy defined this modality as ‘concerned with the study of humanity’s highest potential, and with the recognition, understanding, and realization of intuitive, spiritual, and transcendent states of consciousness.’ This suggests, the transpersonal counsellor is mindful of the many aspects, which comprise a client’s psyche. Read More

The Foundations of Holistic Counselling

By Foundations of Counselling

In the medical sense, ‘holistic’ literally means treating the whole person.

Holistic  counsellors do this by looking at the client’s presenting concerns and also by exploring how the social, political, cultural and spiritual dimensions of the client’s life informs their here and now experience. This means clients are not restricted to just symptom management and instead can be empowered to become active change agents in their own lives. This shift is possible when a client is given the tools to re-connect to a wealth of inner resources that have perhaps become lost along life’s ups and downs. Read More