Deep thoughts and philosophical arguments.
Therapists (psychologists, counsellors, social workers) talk about falling into the trap of seeing a client as a problem to be solved. It is really very easy to fall into this trap and many therapists fall into it for all the right reasons and with all the best intentions. But it definitely is a trap. When […]
Many people today are yearning for a greater sense of purpose in their lives and for a ‘spiritual’ path— a way to day by day become wiser, kinder, more patient and more compassionate. For some, this thirst is for a wholly secular spiritual path— a foundation of meaning divorced from religion. For others, this thirst […]
Here’s a little game that I like to play with myself. During those tough parenting moments — the 2am strolls up and down our hallway, the entirely inconvenient and loud tantrums, the discovery of a glorious mess – I reach deep into my own heart and I find the love I feel for my daughter. Now […]
I recently gave an ignite presentation on self-soothing, ‘Self-soothing during infancy and toddlerhood: Our dangerous misconceptions’, at the Association for Contextual Behavioural Science’s international conference in Sydney. An ignite presentation is quite a unique style of presentation! You get 5 minutes and 20 slides and the slides auto-advance. I’ve recorded my ignite presentation and uploaded […]
When I was in the second year of my undergraduate studies in psychology at the University of Queensland, one of my lecturers, Professor Ottmar Lipp (who still teaches at UQ) said something particularly marvellous. He said that every question in psychology has the same answer and the answer is this: it depends. At the time […]
Can someone please tell me why our generation of parents has decided to turn back the clock and raise our children with 1950s gender expectations? Or has our generation forgotten to even think about how we want to raise our children with regards to gender? As a psychologist and a researcher, my opinions about gender […]
I live in Australia and, since my last blog post, our Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a national apology on behalf of the Australian Government to parents and children affected by forced adoption practices in Australia from the 1950s to the 1970s. At that point in Australia’s history, unmarried mothers were expected to relinquish their […]
One of my pet peeves is this particular phrase “she’s only doing it for comfort…” It is a phrase you hear frequently and often with a dismissing air, the subtext being that as it is only for comfort she should hurry up and stop doing it. Oh, how this phrase frustrates me! It frustrates me […]
It is so easy for us as parents to get side-tracked by the latest short-term goals. We may start feeling that our latest short-term goal, whether it is introducing solid food, independent sleeping or managing temper tantrums, is what we are parenting for. We may even begin to feel that our very worth as parents […]