You should just let your anger out (or not) Self-help Hooey topic #2 - myths from pop psychology

If you are prone to angry feelings, which is the better strategy?  Let it out, or hold it in?

The answer is neither, because there’s a far superior option.  It’s much more effective than that old favourite “You must releeeease your anger” – usually by pummelling a pillow, taking a boxing class, or sealing your doors and windows and yelling at the top of your lungs.

Welcome to the second post in the Self-help Hooey series that myth-busts some of the more damaging beliefs of popular psychology.  Read more…

ABC Radio, The World Today:  Benefits and pitfalls of citizenship tests Corporate Psychologist Stephanie Thompson interviewed by Thomas Oriti

Microphone

I was on the radio today, discussing the citizenship test with presenter Thomas Oriti.  Does it really predict anything about a person’s values?  Is it useful?

We also talked about the use of psychometrics in the business world, and how that kind of testing differs.

Click to listen to the interview….

Healing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) The neglected field of recovery research  (update)

Studying health instead of disease.  That was the motto of an informal but far reaching 2006 study into the devastating illness known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) or Myalgic Encephalopathy (ME).

With the cause of the disease eluding scientists, this study sought instead to uncover how those who had successfully recovered from CFS had done so. 

Read more…

No, you don’t have to ‘love yourself’ before being in a relationship Self-help Hooey topic #1 - myths from pop psychology

Self-help Hooey - love yourself

I’m not against self-help literature.  I’m a shrink, so I’m all for it.  There are a few fashionable self-help myths, though, that drive me up the wall because they are not only nonsensical, but it’s actually cruel to lead others to believe in them.

So I’m creating a series of Self-help Hooey posts that expose and put right some of this silliness.  I hope to make you feel a whole heap better about yourself along the way, and equip you with much better strategies.

We’re going to start with these two doozies…   Read more…

Introverts are more easily distracted And lots more you didn't know about introverts, extroverts, and open-plan offices

Open-plan offices

Having the radio or TV on in the background drives me bat-poop crazy.  Fortunately, I and my other half have evolved a reliable arrangement that includes volume controls and a rather spiffy wireless headset.  (For him, not me.)

It wasn’t always this way.  As in any relationship, the compromises of cohabitation are negotiated and whittled over time.  Working from a nice open-plan home much of the time, at first I found myself frustratingly unproductive.  I had discovered the inherent incompatibility between the analytical nature of my business consulting and writing work, and sharing space with a stimulation-craving extrovert.  Read more…

Lies and Perception When fake news & alternative facts are about YOU - how to handle mistruths & rumours

Settled into a comfy chair in a hotel room in the 1990s, at a time when online forums were new, I was counselling my troubled and pacing friend.  He was very upset by some things that had been said about him online.

He was in the public eye just enough to garner gossipy interest from fans and hangers on.  They chatted and gossiped as if he were out of earshot, with comments ranging from the flattering, to invasive and disrespectful, to exaggerations and outrageous falsehoods.  Read more…