Sorry. Having difficulty posting.

Happy Family Day

     For some people celebrating Family Day is a wonderful time to be with the family, explore some sites and be with each other.  For others, family day is a reminder of how much "family" they lack in their lives.  There are also those, who suffered much in their families, and they are reminded of the horrors they have endured.  What does family day mean to you?  Are you happily married?  Are you feeling bored in your relationships?  Are you lonely?  Do you have anyone in your life, you consider family?  Are your pets your family?  Is it time to examine your definition of family?  Are you running away from your family?
     Why not take a bit of time today to examine where you are?  Ask yourself, who do I consider my family?  Do I make time for my family?  Why not?  Do I love my spouse?  What happened?  Do I nurture my children?  Why not?  The answer to ourselves, are within ourselves.
     The concept of family is changing.  We can not change other people, but we can change ourselves.  Why not get off the computer today or off the couch and go out and explore your town, country side or city.  Why not go for a drive with someone who is in your life?  Why not spend time with someone who you consider your family?  Your room mate may be your family.  Your dog may be your family.  You and your child may be your family.  Instead of thinking why the cup is half empty, try thinking that it may be half full.  What do you have in your life right now that inspires you; makes you happy?  Maybe today is the day, when you can begin to think of how important your mental health is?  What cost do you associate with it?  Who have you become?  Do you like yourself?  If you do not like what you see or who you are with, what can you do to change that?  You can be your own family, so be kind to yourself today.  How will you like to extend the family in you outward to someone else?  What do you really want to do today, on family day?  Maybe this is the first step in discovering what the people in your life really mean to you?  Are they important?  Are you spending enough time with the people you think are important?  What do you think?    

Making Sense together (tid bits - edited for blog)

Organizing Principals of the Client

     Buirski and Haglund explain that a client has symptomatic behaviors that stems from how he,   has organized and made sense of his unique life experience, and how this is interpreted by him. The principles that organize experience are formed in the early relationships with caregivers (pp 31-32).   This provides the client with a template of how he has interpreted meaning of events in an understanding of himself and his relationship with others.  

The Inter-subjectivity Approach to Psychotherapy

The Inter-subjectivity approach is trying to relate in ways that are experienced by our clients as providing needed self object experiences.  This is accomplished by relating with our clients in ways that promote the recognition, articulation and integration of discrepant affect states.   By doing this we attend to features that contributed to this client’s particular organization of experience that have undermined the development of self cohesion (ibid, p 82).  The psychotherapy process unfolds through dialogue (ibid, p 104). Self awareness is a key, in that it alerts the therapist to her inevitable impact on the patient’s subjective experience.  Each person, and his story is unique, and the experience and meaning of the therapeutic work will unfold as a construction at the intersection of the two distinct subjectivities (ibid. p 105).   Change results from making sense together and making sense together includes the two subjective experiences of therapist and client, the unique field created by their mutual influence and the specific understanding of the patient’s subjective experience that emerges through their work (p 32).    

The New Formulation of the Clients Organizing Principles

     The psychotherapeutic task is to “illuminate” the underlying organizing principals from which the behavior is from, thus allowing for the transformation with a new understanding gained in a relationship with the therapist.  The inter-subjective perspective recognizes that these organizations of experience exert their influence while remaining largely unconscious (Ibid. p 124).

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[1] Buirski, Peter and Haglund, Pamela.  Making Sense Together The Intersubjective Approach To Psychotherapy.  Lanham, Maryland:  Rowman &Littlefield, 2010.  References to the text will be indicated by  page number.

Personality (psychology) - definition

Personality defined:
1.  What is unique and recognizable about a person.
2.  It is inferred from behavior.
3.  It is observable behavior.
4.  It is the inner structure of the mind.
5.  It is consistent and patterned and is a developing structure.
6.  It is dynamic and changing.
7.  It directs behavior and thought.

cont....

Longitudinal Research Design (cont) (psychology, notes)

Research on the same person or group of persons over an extended period of time yields age related changes on a number of psychological variables.  Such research tracks long-term individual development.  Problems with such research are attrition, sampling bias - above average in income, intelligence, etc.  Testing that is repeated also produces a practised effect.

Happy Valentine's Day!

What meaning does Valentine's day have for you?  Who is your valentine?  Loving ourselves is important.  Who do you love? Is it your family?  Your mate?  Your pets?  Why not show an expression of love to someone today?  Happy Valentines day from me to you!!!!!!!