Welcome to the AIPC Online Article Library. The library includes over 300 articles focusing on counselling, life effectiveness skills and mental health. We invite you to explore our range of articles by clicking the category links above, or using the drop-down menu on your right. To learn more about AIPC, visit www.aipc.net.au

What is Critical Incident Stress?

A critical incident, as opposed to a crisis, may be described as any event that causes normally stable and healthy people to experience strong emotional or psychological distress. It is an event which may be regarded as being outside the normal range of experience and has the potential to interfere with the individual’s ability to cope during the incident or in their ability to cope at a later time after the incident. »

Coping with the Death of a Loved One

Losing someone you love can be like losing one half of yourself.  The pain and emptiness felt during the grieving process can go on for months or years, however no two people will ever respond to the same situation in the same way.  Working through grief is a day by day, week by week process.  You may have bad days when you think you will never recover from this loss.  You may also think that you will never function successfully without this person in your life.  The good news is that you will recover and you will be fully functional, if you choose to. »

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a cognitive behavioural therapy developed as a treatment for self harming, particularly in borderline personality disorder (Low et al., 2001). Underpinning ideas of DBT suggest that invalidating environments that may have occurred during upbringing can inhibit the effective development of coping methods to deal with sudden intense surges of emotion (Linehan, 2003). »

Pluralism: Towards a New Paradigm for Therapy

How can we move beyond ‘schoolism’ towards a paradigm that embraces the full diversity of effective therapeutic methods and perspectives? Mick Cooper and John McLeod propose a ‘pluralistic’ approach. »

Page 40 of 79«3839404142»

A Case Using Brief Psychodynamic Therapy

Wendy is a 54 year old woman who has two adult children and has been married for twenty-nine years. Her husband, Steve, has recently and unexpectedly informed her that he no longer loves her and that he wants a divorce. Wendy was shocked to hear this...

The Fine Art of Compassion

Imagine this scenario: you are keen to get a particular job and an opportunity for it comes up. You prepare meticulously for the interview, but somehow, it doesn’t go well. The interviewers don’t seem to warm to you, and you know in your heart that y...

Men and Emotions: From Repression to Expression

In our previous article (read it here), we asked why men do not seem to express emotion as easily as women do. Was there some pathology, or should we just put the differences down to male-female tendencies? We identified Dr Ron Levant’s notion of “no...

The Fine Art of Compassion

Imagine this scenario: you are keen to get a particular job and an opportunity for it comes up. You prepare meticulously for the interview, but somehow, it doesn’t go well. The interviewers don’t seem to warm to you, and you know in your heart that y...