Discover Chris Warren-Dickins, Psychotherapist with practices in South West London and Central London.
The areas covered in South West London (Southfields, SW18 - near Wimbledon) include: Southfields , Wandsworth , Earlsfield , Wimbledon , Putney , Clapham, Merton, Clapham, Roehampton, Kingston Chris Warren-Dickins BACP Registered Counsellor E: chris@exploretransform.com T: 07816681154 W: www.exploretransform.com The first step to recovery is to recognise the different stages of addiction. Check out the Jellinek Curve and let me know what you think
Chris Warren-Dickins BACP Registered Counsellor E: chris@exploretransform.com T: 07816681154 W: www.exploretransform.com Still unsure whether counseling is right for you? I offer a free 15 minute telephone consultation to answer any of your questions.
Book online today. Chris Warren-Dickins LLB MA LPC E: chris@exploretransform.com T: (201) 779-6917 W: www.exploretransform.com ‘I don't want to see anyone. I lie in the bedroom with the curtains drawn and nothingness washing over me like a sluggish wave.’ In her novel ‘Cat’s Eye’, this is how Margaret Atwood describes depression. As a psychotherapist, I have worked with a number of clients who have worked through their depression, and Atwood’s description is spot on.
Someone who is depressed will often find himself caught in the following double-bind –
The World Health Organization predicts that by 2030 depression will be the ‘leading cause of disease burden’ worldwide (‘The increasing burden of depression’, Jean-Pierre Lepine and Mike Briley). In the UK it is reported that one in five people become depressed at some point in their lives (Royal College of Psychiatrists), and so it is very common. Sadly, not enough people talk about having experienced it, and so there is often an element of shame attached to it. If someone is experiencing depression, they may find that they are helped by –
Whichever approach we choose, I always work from a person-centred core. This means that I listen actively to the client, paraphrasing their experiences back so that they know they are understood. I do not make assumptions and instead I work hard to understand the client’s meanings (for example, what he means by ‘depressed’ and how this impacts on his life). Sometimes just having the magnitude of one’s feelings acknowledged can be healing in itself. But sometimes this is not enough, and so I work with the client to see what else we can do with the client’s experiences. There is currently research being carried out to investigate what is known as theanalytical rumination hypothesis. In brief, this hypothesis suggests that depression serves a function, just as a fever indicates that the body is fighting an infection. Some have suggested that the ruminative thoughts involved with depression might offer opportunities for that person to improve. What a trained expert can do is to help that person along the rumination process, finding solutions for the problems that are causing the depression. For example, someone might be depressed because of a recent relationship breakup, and the ruminative thoughts might be about the depressed person trying to work out how they will live as a single person, or how they might live in a relationship differently in the future. This implies that there is a resolution to the process, once the depressed person makes sense of this new information. If this is true, trying to medicate someone who is depressed might not be useful, as it might prevent the person from working through these ruminative thoughts and finding some sort of resolution. The research on the analytical rumination hypothesis is far from conclusive, and so professionals urge people to not stop taking prescribed medication, but it is interesting to at least consider this as a possible explanation for depression. Some clients have found mindfulness to be a useful approach with depression. This approach was best described by Jon Kabat Zinn in his book ‘Full Catastrophe Living’: ‘The essence of the practice is non-doing', it is a letting go’. The purpose is not to achieve anything but to acknowledge and be aware of what is’. So one approach might be to stop trying to fight the depression and see how it might be to accept it, in the hope that this might give it less power, and it might eventually fade into the background. If CBT is the chosen approach, this would involve examining a client’s thoughts and assumptions. For example, by talking to a trained expert the following clients might start to understand that –
Chris Warren-Dickins BACP Registered Counsellor E: chris@exploretransform.com T: 07816681154 W: www.exploretransform.com I have a particular interest in working with those affected by parental alcoholism. Have a look at this video put together for the Fragile Childhood activity which has been running in Finland since 1986 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwdUXS94yNk Chris Warren-Dickins BACP Registered Counsellor E: chris@exploretransform.com T: 07816681154 W: www.exploretransform.com Work or live near Wimbledon Park? If you need to talk to an experienced psychotherapist or counsellor, get in touch to book an appointment
Chris Warren-Dickins BACP Registered Counsellor E: chris@exploretransform.com T: 07816681154 W: www.exploretransform.com If someone is suicidal, how can talking to a trained expert help? Here is another chance to hear my radio interview where I discuss this. Let me know your thoughts https://soundcloud.com/wandsworthradio/wandsworth-tonight-210715
Chris Warren-Dickins BACP Registered Counsellor E: chris@exploretransform.com T: 07816681154 W: www.exploretransform.com We all get angry. Anger is an emotion as acceptable as any other, and yet for some their anger has become a problem. They feel that they tend to react more angrily than the average person, and for some it has even threatened to ruin a career or destroyed a special relationship. So at what point is the expression of an emotion a problem that needs to be managed?
To help us understand this, we can look at anger in contrast with other emotions. Why do some people feel that they react more angrily than others? –
What are your thoughts on this? Chris Warren-Dickins BACP Registered Counsellor E: chris@exploretransform.com T: 07816681154 W: www.exploretransform.com Some find it helpful to look on addiction as a cycle, and by viewing it this way, they can see how to break that cycle:
1. Someone may experience distress or discomfort 2. In response, that person might seek relief through alcohol, drugs, excessive eating, gambling, or whatever behaviour that may become addictive. 3. The relief is only temporary, and so, when the relief subsides, the distress or discomfort returns, perhaps this time with guilt or shame over the addictive behaviour. 4. In response to the return of the distress or discomfort, and perhaps the guilt or shame, that person engages in more of the addictive behaviour. Awareness of this cycle of addiction is the first step to learn how to break it. Chris Warren-Dickins BACP Registered Counsellor E: chris@exploretransform.com T: 07816681154 W: www.exploretransform.com Five shields against work stress -
Chris Warren-Dickins BACP Registered Counsellor E: chris@exploretransform.com T: 07816681154 W: www.exploretransform.com |
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October 2022
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