(this blog post is freely downloadable as a Word doc and as a PDF file)

"Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor."      Dr. Alexis Carrel

"It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away."     Robert Pirsig

"There are people who live their whole lives on the default settings, never realizing you can customize."        Robert Brault

"A friend is someone who sees the potential in you and helps you to live it."     W. B. Yeats (adapted)

"Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger."    Franklin Jones

A few months ago now, I initiated a personal feedback project.  It was triggered by a number of factors.  I was soon to start the third part of an Emotion-Focused Therapy training and was interested in possibly using myself as "a case study" for the course; I had received some quite surprising & confronting feedback from a friend and I wondered how idiosyncratic or widespread his viewpoint might be; I had been encouraging feedback in groups that I run and I wanted to explore this more deeply; and finally I'm in a very good position to ask for & receive honest, thoughtful feedback from a broad social circle.

"O wad some Power the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see us!   It wad frae mony a blunder free us, an' foolish notion."   Rabbie Burns

"He who knows others is learned; he who knows himself is wise."   Lao-tzu

I have written a good deal in the past about variability in the effectiveness of psychotherapists - see, for example, "What shall we do about the fact that there are supershrinks and pseudoshrinks?", "Psychotherapists & counsellors who don't monitor their outcomes are at risk of being both incompetent & potentially dangerous" and other posts on feedback to therapists.

A couple of days ago I wrote a blog post that I think makes a very important point - "Emerging research on diet suggests it's startingly important in the prevention of anxiety & depression".  Much of what the post said is downloadable in Powerpoint and can be printed out as a six-slides-to-a-page handout that looks like this:

The key points of this blog post can be downloaded & printed out as a helpful 6-slide-miniatures-to-a-page Powerpoint handout.

This is the sixth and final blog post about going back to my old university for a reunion dinner.  I wrote three posts last month and a further couple earlier this month.  In the first post of the series, I said: "I've never been back for any kind of reunion before ... not to school, not to university, not to medical college. Why not ... and why am I going back now?  I'm a medical doctor, but primarily I work as a psychotherapist ... as a specialist in stress, health & wellbeing.

It's the day after our "university reunion dinner".  It was weird ... and actually very lovely ... and fun and warm and moving and interesting and hugely welcoming.  Gosh, I really couldn't have imagined that script if I'd tried.

"Who will prefer the jingle of jade pendants if he once has heard stone growing in a cliff?"  Lao Tzu

"To stand and stare, to watch the rising sun, fills me with such calm happiness, I am sure I have
dwindled away too much time on inessentials."  Diana Gault (when dying of cancer)