2019 · 21. February 2019

In last week's Southern Star, I explained why CBT largely focuses on the here and now rather than the distant past. The column is reproduced below. “I’m very good at the past. It’s the present I can’t understand”. That line – from a character in Nick Hornby’s novel High Fidelity – is one many people will relate to. Focusing on past events might help you understand where a problem originated, but it does not necessarily solve that problem or improve your day-to-day life. That’s...

2018 · 09. February 2018

How can we break bad habits? Last week's Your Mental Health column in The Southern Star discussed how changing your environment in all kinds of subtle ways can help. The column is reproduced below. Breaking bad habits isn’t easy, which is why many people will have already given up on their New Year resolutions. To understand why, consider the following story about heroin addiction among US soldiers during the Vietnam war. There had long been a history of opium use in Vietnam and many American...

2017 · 31. December 2016

West Cork readers may have noticed my New Year resolutions piece in the December 31st edition (pictured) of The Southern Star, which suggests people can improve their chances of achieving their 2017 goals by focusing on incremental changes and avoiding self-criticism. To read the article on the Southern Star website, see http://www.southernstar.ie/news/roundup/articles/2017/01/01/4132435-be-realistic-with-your-resolutions/ Not all of the newspaper article appears in the online edition so I've...