Institute InbriefCurrent Issue:
Published: 03/12/2019
Assessing Therapist-client Fit
Welcome to Edition 324 of Institute Inbrief. This edition's featured article acknowledges the common understanding (backed up consistently by research) that a good therapeutic alliance is a prime predictor of success in therapy, and it also notes the converse: that not all therapists can work with all clients. It poses the question of which factors we should consider in making this assessment of therapist-client fit.
Also in this edition:
- The Eclectic Therapist (Order Now)
- Seven Secrets for a Healthy Microbiome
- Helping Clients Identify Sources and Symptoms of Stress
- The Psychology of Bragging
- Quotations, Seminar Timetables & More!
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Welcome to Edition 261 of Institute Inbrief! Catching up on your reading during the festive season? In this edition we have put together a list of our 10 most popular articles for the year, tackling a broad range of topics within counselling, mental health, wellness, productivity and more!
Also in this edition:
- Trends and Statistics of the Contemporary Family
- Understanding Self-harming
- A Review of 2016 (Blog Posts)
- Social Media Updates & Much More!
Welcome to Edition 260 of Institute Inbrief! If you were to have a traumatised client, which type of therapy would you choose to treat them? In a previous article, we explored the use of CBT and CBT-related therapies to treat trauma. In this edition’s featured article we’ll focus on eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing, or EMDR.
Also in this edition:
- Bachelor and Master of Counselling: 2017 Intake Now Open
- ACA Launches Australian Counselling Research Journal
- A Case of Domestic Violence
- Treatment Options for the Depressed Elderly
- Making Your Goals Powerful
- Social Media Updates & Much More!
Welcome to Edition 259 of Institute Inbrief! In this edition’s featured article we’ll explore why motivational interviewing (MI) may be an effective treatment option for clients suffering from anxiety and anxiety disorders.
Also in this edition:
- ACA Releases Australian Scope of Practice for Registered Counsellors
- A Case of Mid-Life Difficulties
- Fostering Resilience: In-session Boosters to Help Clients Bounce Back
- Team Functioning: The Why, What, How, and Who of a Team
- Social Media Updates & Much More!
Welcome to Edition 258 of Institute Inbrief! Most practitioners would be shocked to hear it, but without realising it, many build resistance in clients – lowering their capacity to engage – through protocols and habits which communicate something very different to the client than what the practitioner is asking or intends to convey. In this edition, we look at how practitioners may inadvertently build resistance in clients.
Also in this edition:
- Creative Therapies and Intellectual Disability
- Family Issues When There is Disability, Illness, or Serious Injury
- AIPC Helps Raise $135,414.00 for Charity
- Social Media Updates & Much More!
Welcome to Edition 257 of Institute Inbrief! Because depression in older adults is so widely unrecognised, it can be difficult to comprehend just how forcefully conditions such as deteriorating health, a sense of isolation and hopelessness, and the challenge of adjusting to new life circumstances can create a “perfect storm” pushing an already-depressed person over the edge to suicide. In this edition’s featured article, we look at how depression manifests in the elderly, and explore some of the available psychosocial and medical treatment options.
Also in this edition:
- Treating NPD in the Therapy Room
- Cognitive Restructuring with Anxiety
- Making Your Goals More Powerful
- Social Media Updates & Much More!
Welcome to Edition 256 of Institute Inbrief! Therapists have long wondered how to help clients whose chronic psychological issues have been difficult to treat. Schema focused therapy is an integrative approach to treatment which combines the best aspects of cognitive-behavioural, attachment, Gestalt, object relations, interpersonal, and psychoanalytic therapies into one unified model. This edition’s featured article briefly examines the origin, definition and characteristics of this therapeutic approach.
Also in this edition:
- Skills and Role of the Group Therapist
- What Causes Depression in the Elderly?
- Stress: Busting Six Myths
- Social Media Updates & Much More!
Welcome to Edition 255 of Institute Inbrief! If you are a mental health helper of almost any stripe: social worker, counsellor, psychologist, psychotherapist, or even psychiatrist, it would be surprising for you not to have heard of CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy), such is its fame in the mental health professions. In this edition’s featured article we’ll look at CBT’s principles, strategies and techniques
Also in this edition:
- Motivational Interviewing and Anxiety
- Self-help Strategies for OCD and OCPD
- Post-disaster Resilience: Who Survives Better?
- Social Media Updates & Much More!
Welcome to Edition 253 of Institute Inbrief! The research in neuroscience is highly supportive of counselling’s emphasis on deep listening, empathic understanding, strength building, and wellness. In this edition’s featured article we’ll briefly overview five important processes that explain the impact of counselling on the brain structure. These are: Neuroplasticity, neurogenesis, the importance of attention and focus, understanding emotion and focusing on strengths and positives.
Also in this edition:
- Fixed vs Growth Mindsets
- Challenges of Single-parent Families Due to Death or Separation
- Tips to Manage Study Stress
- Social Media Updates & Much More!
Welcome to Edition 253 of Institute Inbrief! Suppose someone asks you, a mental health practitioner, “What is the most important thing you do as a counsellor for your clients?” Whatever your particular way of framing the answer, the chances are that you have identified a role of supporting and helping build your clients’ resilience, even if you never call it that when you are with them. But just how, exactly, do you do it? What tools or techniques have you got in your bag of tricks to foster resilience at the very practical level of in-session work? This is the focus of this edition’s featured article.
Also in this edition:
- What is MBCT? Definition and Background
- Caring for Others: Avoiding Common Traps
- Emotional Intelligence: Definition and a Brief History
- Social Media Updates & Much More!
Welcome to Edition 252 of Institute Inbrief! The idea that we human beings have not only a quotient of cognitive intelligence, our so-called “IQ”, but also a level of emotional intelligence, called either “EQ” (for emotional quotient) or “EI” (emotional intelligence) has been emerging for at least 30 years. In this edition’s featured article we define emotional intelligence and briefly explore its historical development over the past few decades.
Also in this edition:
- A Free Webinar with Dr Daniel J Siegel
- Suicide: Warning Signs and Prevention Tips
- Caring for others: Ethical Considerations
- Techniques to Manage Study Stress
- Social Media Updates & Much More!
Welcome to Edition 251 of Institute Inbrief! As with questions of diet, exercise is perhaps uppermost in the minds of those looking to enhance their wellness. In this edition’s featured article we explore four components of an exercise program, and how you can help your clients improve (or establish) their exercise regimen.
Also in this edition:
- New Counselling Connection Blog
- Identifying and Replacing Stress-inducing Attitudes in Clients
- The Efficacy of CBT Treatment for Depression
- When It’s All About You: Doing Personality Inventories
- Social Media Updates & Much More!
Welcome to Edition 250 of Institute Inbrief! In this edition’s featured article we examine the main considerations for a healthy diet, identifying brief points that you may wish to emphasise to any clients who need information on the topic in their quest for high-level wellness.
Also in this edition:
- 2016 Mental Health Super Summit
- Schema Therapy: Origin, Definition and Characteristics
- Self-help Strategies for OCD and OCPD
- Stress: Busting Six Myths
- Social media updates, quotes, seminars, and more!
Welcome to Edition 249 of Institute Inbrief! How willing are your clients to acknowledge unhelpful attitudes and beliefs that they may have? As a therapist, you can initiate the discussion about stress by asking clients about negative, unhelpful attitudes. In this edition’s featured article, we discuss how to identify and replace stress-inducing attitudes in clients.
Also in this edition:
- Helping Clients Identify Sources and Symptoms of Stress
- Trauma, ASD and PTSD
- Why Bother Setting Goals?
- Social media updates, quotes, seminars, and more!
Welcome to Edition 248 of Institute Inbrief! Good communication is essential in developing positive relationships and a productive career – especially in counselling. In this edition’s featured article, we explore one of the most important skills in interpersonal communication, and one that is often the Achilles heel of poor communicators: active listening.
Also in this edition:
- Lifestyle, Neurotransmitters and the Brain
- A Case of Grief Using an Eclectic Approach
- Stress: Busting Six Myths
- Social media updates, quotes, seminars, and more!
Welcome to Edition 247 of Institute Inbrief! Managing your time better is a proven way to increase your overall wellbeing. But where do you get started? In this article, we examine a time management technique you can start implementing in your life today: the master and daily lists.
Also in this edition:
- Supporting People with Chronic Pain (video)
- Postnatal depression: Onset, prevalence and consequences
- User-friendly therapeutic strategies for intellectual disability
- Stress: Busting six myths
- Social media updates, quotes, seminars, and more!
Welcome to Edition 246 of Institute Inbrief! Suppose someone asked you: “Why are you here? What is the purpose of your existence?” Would you be able to answer that in a meaningful way? Aligned to that question is: “What do you value? What has meaning for you?” In this edition’s featured article, we highlight the importance of connecting with our purpose in order to live happier, more fulfilled lives.
Also in this edition:
- A brief comparison of psychologies (video)
- Loss and grief: Why we all grieve differently
- CBT interventions for trauma
- Study Strategies to enhance your learning
- Social media updates, quotes, seminars, and more!
Welcome to Edition 245 of Institute Inbrief! The multi-faceted challenges of distance professional services can generally be grouped into three categories: those arising for the providing professional, those faced by the industry, and those experienced by the client. In this edition’s featured article, we explore each of these categories.
Also in this edition:
- Latest news and updates
- Articles and CPD information
- Social media review
Welcome to Edition 244 of Institute Inbrief! To come into relationship with the notion that one is – and probably has always been – different from the “norm” of heterosexuality is for many individuals a terrifying experience, bringing with it a plethora of social, interpersonal, intrapersonal, employment, and sometimes religious and legal issues. Yet how many mental health helpers are prepared to work with this population? In this edition’s featured article, we consider three key issues when counselling sexual and gender minorities.
Also in this edition:
- Latest news and updates
- Articles and CPD information
- Wellness tips
- Social media review
Welcome to Edition 243 of Institute Inbrief! The world’s religions, most scientific literature (Treadway, 1998), and most cultures’ traditions of common sense and wisdom agree: as human beings, we need balance. In this edition’s featured article, we look at the importance of down time, self-care rituals, and relaxation/meditation for creating and maintaining balance in our lives.
Also in this edition:
- Latest news and updates
- Articles and CPD information
- Wellness tips
- Social media review
Welcome to Edition 242 of Institute Inbrief! If you had to endure a traumatic event, would you want to talk about your experiences later? Early models for treating trauma asked clients to do this, insisting that the cure was in the retelling. Just around the millennium, however, research began to show that, while some people were helped by going over the trauma again with a counsellor or other “de-briefer”, many others’ trauma symptoms were exacerbated by the insistence on going over the event. In this edition, we explore this idea through Briere’s “therapeutic window” model.
Also in this edition:
- Latest news and updates
- Articles and CPD information
- Wellness tips
- Social media review
Edition 241 of Institute Inbrief! If you were to have a traumatised client, which type of therapy would you choose to treat them? On what would you base your decision? In this article, we explore a range of CBT interventions used to help clients deal with trauma.
Also in this edition:
- Latest news and updates
- Articles and CPD information
- Wellness tips
- Social media review
Welcome to Edition 240 of Institute Inbrief! Nearly four decades of research has shown that intelligence is not fixed as scientists used to think; rather, people can develop their brains like a muscle if they put in the effort. People who do that – persisting despite obstacles – can be said to have a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset and they enjoy significantly more success than their fixed-minded peers. In this edition’s featured article, we define and compare these two kinds of mindsets, and outline the benefits of developing a growth mindset.
Also in this edition:
- Latest news and updates
- Articles and CPD information
- Wellness tips
- Social media review
Welcome to Edition 239 of Institute Inbrief! As mental health helpers working with terminally ill clients, how are we to view death, and what philosophical or spiritual framework will help us work with clients dealing with it? This edition’s featured article entertains this question.
And a happy new year to you – let’s make 2016 your best year yet!
Also in this edition:
- Latest news and updates
- Articles and CPD information
- Wellness tips
- Social media review
