Extreme Anxiety and Panic Attacks
Panic attacks are all too familiar these days with many people experiencing extreme anxiety or panic at some point in their lives It’s a much mis-used description – panic attack. Sometimes people claim to have them when they simply feel a bit nervous or rushed but anyone who has ever experienced one will know what […]
When brief, time-limited therapy might be enough
Time-limited therapy, also known as short-term or brief therapy, is a valuable form of therapy and can improve people’s lives. Arranged within a set period of time, usually up to ten sessions, this type of therapy can be more beneficial to some clients in certain circumstances than longer-term
What is CBT and can it help?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a practical talking therapy that helps people with problems and issues by addressing and changing how they think and behave. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy focuses on the present problems that are happening now and the relationships between thoughts…
Does talking help?
With text messages, online networking and email so easy, talking to another person may seem old-fashioned. These days, communication is abbreviated and electronic. A quick text message or a short email is usually enough to get our message across. But humans have been talking to each…
Understanding our body’s messaging service
The French novelist Marcel Proust said, ‘It is in moments of illness that we are compelled to recognize that we live not alone but chained to a creature of a different kingdom: our body.’ Proust was making the point that only in illness do we become aware of our bodies. Through pain,…
Wonderful or weird? A short film on psychoanalysis
The Institute of Psychoanalysis has commissioned a short animated film that sets out to demonstrate the function and process of psychoanalysis. The patient, dressed in worried black, attempts to resolve a perceived issue with his boss. Using free association and dreams, the…
Facing sexual issues
Sexual issues are common. Sex taps into many different parts of us: the emotional, the physical, the psychological and even the spiritual. The opportunity for something to go wrong in our sexual wiring is great. Most people will experience some kind of sexual dysfunction at some point in…
Sexting among children and adolescents is on the increase
Schools around the UK have known for some time of cases where children text naked images of themselves from their mobile phones. The practice of ‘sexting’ is becoming more common as a generation of children grow up entirely comfortable recording the details of their personal lives…
The unspeakable emotions
If you have ever experienced a distinct but unfamiliar feeling that you couldn’t name, you might have encountered one of the many emotions for which there are no words in English. Though no language is sophisticated enough to name all human emotions, when it comes to describing…