Psychology insights
In these articles, Brent Munro looks at some of the patterns that bring people to therapy, what the research can genuinely tell us and how that may be useful in everyday life.
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A brief personal comment from a psychologist can help a client feel understood, or leave them caring for the therapist. The difference often lies in whose need the disclosure serves and what happens afterwards.
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A brief personal comment from a psychologist can help a client feel understood, or leave them caring for the therapist. The difference often lies in whose need the disclosure serves and what happens afterwards.
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Some childhood histories concern the comfort, protection or interest that repeatedly failed to arrive, leaving the person with experiences they may struggle to describe.
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A recent ACT review raises questions about choosing between credible treatments and how a psychologist explains the methods used for a particular person.
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Keeping reactions private and asking for very little can protect a person from conflict while leaving needs and disagreements difficult to communicate, including in therapy.
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Telehealth can support a strong working relationship, while privacy, attention and the way concerns are discussed need to be assessed for the person using it.
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Repeated research and reassurance can prolong a decision when the person is waiting to feel completely certain, even after the information needed for a reasonable choice is available.
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ACT can help a person consider whether a meaningful action is possible while anxiety, grief or low motivation remains present, with attention to the circumstances that make the step manageable.
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Repeatedly reviewing a conversation may feel like preparation for next time, while attention remains fixed on possible mistakes and other people's unknowable judgements.
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A lack of progress needs to become part of the treatment discussion, with a clear review of what was expected to change and what should happen next.
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A first appointment can begin with the concern that brought you to therapy, without requiring a diagnosis, an organised life history or a decision about the treatment you need.
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Veteran care needs to consider service history and current circumstances alongside symptoms, including changes in responsibility, belonging and identity after leaving a role.
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Waiting periods can differ between practices and change over time, so arranging care involves checking current appointment options alongside the clinician's suitability for your needs.
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Affirming care combines respect for identity with clinical understanding of minority stress, while allowing the person to decide how relevant sexuality or gender is to the concern they bring.
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Therapy can begin with situations, bodily responses and actions when someone finds emotions difficult to identify or describe.
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Doctors and executives can continue meeting responsibilities while exhaustion, poor recovery and increasingly costly coping responses affect the rest of their lives.
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EMDR and Schema Therapy can be integrated around a clear formulation, while direct research on the combined approach remains much more limited than the evidence for the individual treatments.
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Understanding a recurring response can reduce confusion, while changing it often requires emotional work and repeated practice in the situations where it becomes active.
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Clinical endorsement recognises additional assessed training in clinical psychology, which is relevant when choosing care for complex, longstanding or diagnostically uncertain difficulties.
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Police and first responders may continue functioning at work while trauma symptoms, disrupted sleep or reactions to repeated exposure increasingly affect life outside the role.
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Trauma therapy can begin with the current effects of an experience, while the amount of detail discussed and the timing of memory-focused work are planned together.
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CBT and Schema Therapy share cognitive and behavioural methods, while Schema Therapy gives more explicit attention to developmental patterns, emotional needs and the therapy relationship.
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Choosing a psychologist for childhood trauma involves understanding their experience with the difficulties you have now and how they would plan treatment with you.
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Workplace distress can persist after rest or reduced hours when the person remains troubled by guilt, betrayal or an event that conflicts with deeply held values.
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After a sudden death, agreed practical roles and dependable contact can help a family manage immediate responsibilities while keeping children informed and involved.
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After-hours rumination can continue long after work has stopped, particularly when unfinished tasks or rules about responsibility make it difficult to give attention to the evening.
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Affirmative therapy needs to understand how discrimination, concealment and anticipated rejection may shape a person's difficulties, alongside the other concerns they bring to treatment.
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Arguments about different subjects can follow a familiar sequence in which one partner presses for a response and the other withdraws, leaving both more convinced that their concerns will go unheard.
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Children develop regulation through repeated interactions with adults who respond to distress, maintain limits and help them recover when an interaction goes wrong.
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Avoiding trauma reminders can bring immediate relief while making it harder to discover which situations can now be approached safely.
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Functional neurological symptoms are involuntary and can require coordinated neurological, rehabilitation and psychological care, beginning with a diagnosis the person can understand.
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A reassuring cancer scan may bring relief while leaving a person uncertain about how to respond to symptoms and live through the months before the next appointment.
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Trying to recover from poor sleep by spending longer in bed and monitoring every sign of wakefulness can become part of the pattern that maintains chronic insomnia.
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Persistent pain can involve changes in how the nervous system processes threat and sensation, creating possibilities for psychological treatment alongside appropriate medical and rehabilitation care.
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Reassurance can bring immediate relief in OCD, while repeated reliance on another person's certainty makes it harder to leave the next doubt unanswered.
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For some adults with ADHD, the most disruptive part of the day is how quickly an emotion arrives and how difficult it becomes to settle or choose a response.
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High standards can support careful work while repeated checking and fear of mistakes make performance increasingly costly and satisfaction difficult to sustain.
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