I’ve got a song stuck in my head. A piece of music actually. I don’t know its name, but it’s an ominous, minor-keyed, bass-heavy, slow-groove. Its is the call waiting music for my superfund. I’ve spent endless hours listening to this composition over the last month. I had been calling my superfund for a simple problem to be rectified, which...[ read more ]
“I can’t cope with the kid. She used to be such a sweet girl, now she doesn’t do a thing I say, in fact she usually does the opposite”. Kyle was pulling his hair out, his daughter, Ava, just wouldn’t listen to him. This is going to sound a bit rich coming from a psychologist, but sometimes talking things...[ read more ]
It’s been 5 years and 45 days since the birth of this blog. And I skipped a year, and even then, I’m 2 months late, but I thought it time to resurrect the sacred tradition of the Most Popular Blog list. You can see earlier versions here, here and here. As with the last time (in 2021), I’ll give the top...[ read more ]
I cheated myself Like I knew I would I told you I was trouble You know that I'm no good. I’m no Good by Amy Winehouse “I knew it was bad for me to get in touch with Brett, but I was feeling lonely, and I couldn’t help it!” Hayley was beating herself up and hooking up with...[ read more ]
As we all know, there’s been a lot of talk about artificial intelligence lately. All areas of life will be infected by AI, and psychology is not immune. AI Apps already exist to do the job of psychologists. Will these really work? Most of my clients wouldn’t dream of dumping me for a therapy-bot (I hope). Well, I for one...[ read more ]
A recent one from the Journal of the Bleeding Obvious: Chinese researchers found that restaurant serving staff, who memorise patrons and meals, perform better on a working memory test than restaurant security staff, who don’t. In a subsequent study, the same researchers trained uni students on a restaurant serving game for several weeks found that the trained students’ working memory...[ read more ]
And it was hard to explain why it (EMDR) worked (it still is): Somehow, by moving eyes from side-to-side, trauma memories become less distressing allowing for them to be reframed and put in the past. Justin Hendriks, End Recurrence: EMDR Last post I introduced the trauma treatment EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing). This treatment was initially laughed at...[ read more ]
A balding, bearded, bespeckled man with a strong Austrian accent pulls a pocket watch out of his vest. “Follow zee vatch vit your eyez. You are getting verrry szleeeepy” he drones as he gently waves the watch in front of the patient’s face. The patient’s eyes turn into spirals, and she becomes a mindless zombie. It feels like I...[ read more ]
Part II: The Solution Pirahas laugh about everything. They laugh at their own misfortune: when someone’s hut blows over in a rainstorm, the occupants laugh more loudly than anyone. They laugh when they catch a lot of fish. They laugh when they catch no fish. … . This pervasive happiness is hard to explain, though I believe that the Pirahas...[ read more ]
I wake up to my alarm, 1 hour and 13 minutes before sunrise (according to timeanddate.com). A month ago, the same alarm would wake me, but it was still light outside. I check the app attached to my exercise watch and it tells me that I’m “maintaining”. The app suggests that if I increase the variety or volume of exercise,...[ read more ]