For those of you who have read my opinion on stress management you will know that I was a practicing therapist. As part of my training I had to do intensive training in psychotherapy and counselling which was an ongoing part of my job and I have trained in these techniques over many years. It was not an easy path to take, and I do have some controversial views on this subject. I hope that you gain something out of this opinion. You may find that some of my opinion may seem a little clinical in my approach. This is because I am trying to provide an understanding of the method itself. For anyone that has undergone psychotherapeutic counselling then you ...  Read the complete review

I guess I ought to pin my colours to the mast straight away - I am one. Or at least I'm working as a counsellor and training to be a psychotherapist...and of all my 250 opinions, this is the one I've found it hardest to write. Apart from deleting and restarting countless times, it's actually taken me months after suggesting this category before I've put fingers to keys and decided to try. Maybe it's partly because it's such an enormous subject that I know I won't do it justice, and maybe it's the perfectionist in me knowing that this has no chance of being as good as I would like it to be, but it's hard to know quite where to ...  Read the complete review

Last weekend I was sitting in a van on a hillside. Behind me, on the metal floor, lay a sheep with a hurt leg, about to be driven to the vets. The sheep was unable to escape from the hard, alien surroundings of the van, gazing anxiously at some vague point between myself and the sheepdog beside it. Its heart was thumping fast, and I expected it to panic at any moment. The dog meanwhile shuffled over to allow it more room, its eyes gazing with quiet bewilderment at the huge face beside it. Every now and again the dog turned to me as though looking for reassurance that it was doing the right thing. I told it, with a smile, that everything was okay. Turning ...  Read the complete review

This is my 2nd op on here, thanks to those of you who took the time out to rate my first one thus encouraging me to do this one! I hope that I am putting it in the correct category? I did read the little bit on here about psychotherapy counselling and came to the conclusion that it really did best suit my experience below. Thank you. I would ask you here to bear with me on this one. I am writing it from personal experiences, some of which are a little hard to confront again. I hope that I will be articulate enough in this opinion? And I think that it is going to be a long opinion too, thank you to those of you who will want to stay with me the whole way through. ...  Read the complete review

Personally I wouldn't recommend cognitive therapy to anyone. My experience of it, which I have to say was back in the 80's, left me with the feeling that everyone considered me to be totally insane and stupid. I began to wonder if the therapist actually knew what I was there for (I was, and still am suffering from anorexia). At the first appointment I was asked to find the matching pair, for example she said table and I had to say chair, she said knife I had to say fork. The list went on. I will just add, incase you are wondering, that I was in my early twenties. By the time I left I felt about four. I dreaded the next appointment,and ...  Read the complete review