Counselling Madrid – Blog

Personal Growth Groups
As Personal Growth Groups provide an excellent opportunity to improve inter-personal skills we dedicate this weeks Blog to Group Counselling. Let me explain what Groups are about and feel free to contact me if you would like to have more information:

During Group Counselling, Group members create a supportive environment, together with the Group facilitator. It is the self created supportive environment that creates a drive toward sanity and health so strong that groups “push” members toward normalcy. Within the Group, members are often able to observe other members behavior and give feedback and thereby encourage others to comment of their behavior. This pressure to move forward in a positive direction is a creative force that ancourages members to move away from defensiveness and rationalization toward specific personal sharing that is for so many members a new way of being.
As Group members assists in the helping relationship, they realize the worth of human relationship and feel less helpless and defensive. Experiences of trusting and being trusted can be extremely effective in meeting the needs of alienated individuals whose fears of our manipulative society have forced them to withdraw or to adopt maladaptive behavior patterns. Giving and receiving of acceptance, assurance and support rom others within the group are therapeutic. Bonds of common concern are developed and members begin to develop a positive interest in the growth and well-being of others. This can be a very powerful and significant force in the lives of individuals who have been preoccupied with themselves.
Groups at Counselling Madrid start every 2nd Thursday of each month. More information is available at admin@counsellingmadrid.org

2008-11-07 15:34:15
What makes Therapy work
During the last decade the amount of funding for therapies has been increasingly linked with the “Evidence Based” components of various types of therapy. There is now evidence that the following elements increase the effectivness of therapy:

- Goal consensus and collaboration
- Cohesion in Group Therapy
- The Therapeutic alliance
- Empathy

Other elements currently being investigated and looking promosing:

- Management of countertransference
- Feedback
- Positive regard
- Congruence
- Self-disclosure
- Relational Interpretations
- Repair of alliance ruptures

How can we summarize the above and inform clients better when they are about to make a decision about where to go for therapy or when they want to evaluate their progress with their current therapist?

The above seems to indicate that therapies tend to be less effective when your therapist doenst invite you to become actively engaged in Therapy. This means for example that Homework assignments will allow clients to make more progress than those clients who limit their efforts to the once a week session with their Counsellor.

From the above we can also deduct that when you have a good bond with your therapist you are more likely to achieve more progress. This is onviously linked with the Empathy element.

Overall we can say that motivation plays a decisive role when it comes to defining the elements that influence Therapeutic progress. “Being send” to see a therapist is obviously less of a good starting point than go “shopping” and selecting the therapist you feel most comfortable with. This is why I sometimes ask people who phone me on behalf of there partner, if it is at all possible to let their partner call me. Experience tells me that when Clients dont call themselves to make the first appointment, normally therapeutic progress is slow and sessions tend to end premature.

Clients who choose to ehter therapy themselves are more willing to adopt the client role; have higher expectations of therapeutic outcomes; believe that psychological treatment will be of help to them and have realistic expectations about what will happen intherapy.

Source: Therapy Today / September 2008 / The facts are friendly
Counselling Madrid is dedicated to expats, spouses and students. We provide CBT, CT and Humanistic Counseling Services to the expat community in Madrid.

2008-10-24 14:42:13
OCD
a poem from A.A. Milne about OCD
Lines and Squares

Whenever I walk in a London Street
I’m ever so carefull to watch my feet
And I keep in the squares
And the masses of bears
Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
The sillies who thread on the lines of the street
Go back to their lairs
And I say to them, “Bears
Just look how I,m walking in all the squares!”
And the little bears growl to each other, “He’s mine
As soon as he’s silly and steps on a line.”
And some of the bigger bears try ti pretend
That they came round the corner to look for a friend
And they try to pretend that nobody cares
Whether you walk on the lines or squares.
But only the sillies believe their talk;
It’s ever so important how you walk.
And it’s ever so jolly to call out, “Bears
Just watch me walking in all the squares!”

2008-10-06 08:31:19
Living abroad
How well were you prepared when you moved abroad? Not that preparing well guarantees a safe and pleasant landing abroad but it does make a significant difference.

Many expats are so focussed on their job during the final weeks before leaving there home country that they forget to take a look at things in a broader perpective. On top of this, spouses often make their first move abroad and just hope “to make the best of it”. No surprise that often, several weeks after landing abroad, the blues start looming as things appear to be more challenging than one expected when sitting in your chair at home several weeks before.

The following Ten Tips can serve as a guide line when re-focussing your lives abroad.

Ten Tips to keep moving after your arrival abroad:

- learn the language
- go and meet other expats
- keep focussed on your relationship
- learn to relax and reflect
- stay in touch with home
- seek support when you need it.
- learn to appreciate cultural differences
- focus on outside targets
- include physical excercise into your schedule
- learn something new: either travelling, studying or joining a new activity.

A final Tip is to take things “A Day at a Time”. Avoid trying to solve all your concerns in one day or even one week. This approach works well as it makes you aware that there is only so much you can do in one day and reduces frustration levels when things take longer than anticipated.

About Counselling Madrid
Counselling Madrid offers confidential Counseling services to expats, spouses and student currently living and working in Spain. Counselling services provided are

- Group Counselling
- CBT Counselling
- CT Counselling
- REBT Counselling
- Humanistic Couselling

2008-09-07 15:28:55
Two years of Counselling Madrid: dedicated to Expats, Spouses and Students
Two years after opening Counselling Madrid many expats, spouses and students have found their way to our private practice. Looking back we can say that our objectives to make counselling services widely available and easily affordable have been accomplished.

In order to make it easier for clients making up their mind whether counselling could be of any help, we will start updating our Blog on a weekly/monthly basis starting in September. Our aim is to show the human face behind the private counselling service with an emphasis on both the personal and theoretical aspects involved in counselling.

Joseph Maussen
Head of Counselling Services