My story: who am I, how did I get here and why do I do what I do?
It has been a while since I shared my background: who am I, how did I get here and why do I do this work? Here is the story of my journey so far…
It has been a while since I shared my background: who am I, how did I get here and why do I do this work? Here is the story of my journey so far…
As children, we want to be liked, accepted and loved. So we adapt our behaviours to gain the approval of our caregivers and to ‘fit in.’
However, the behavioural adaptations we made in order to survive childhood often do not serve us as adults. At this point we might blame all of our problems on our parents – after all, was it not them who forced us to behave in these unhelpful ways?!
But how much can we blame on our parents and to what degree must we be accountable for our choices as adults? How can we bring our unconscious patterns into our awareness and break the inter-generational chain of trauma?
In the two months leading up to Christmas, I spent two days per week on placement at two psychiatric hospitals. This was part of of my psychotherapy training – giving me a fuller view of mental illness and our mental health system, whilst also helping me understand the limitations of psychotherapy. This blog outlines what I learned from my placements at two psychiatric hospitals.
Whilst the Covid-19 pandemic continues to bring challenges to our personal and social health, there is a hidden epidemic that is a harmful to men’s health as heart disease. Loneliness: a taboo subject but one that we need to address urgently. In this blog, Paul explores the individual and social factors beneath loneliness, and shares his personal journey out of chronic loneliness.
“What is the difference between psychotherapy, psychology and psychiatry?” In this brief blog, Paul offers a response to this commonly-asked question…and shares why he loves psychotherapy.