The MindFields College Blog

Lots of changes are in the air, from Obama becoming president of the USA to the turning of the season.

At MindFields changes are occuring too -  a new masters programme in Human Givens Psychology has been launched, a joint collaboration between MindFields College and Nottingham Trent University.

The new programme further enhances the reputation of human givens psychotherapy as an effective approach for dealing with severe emotional distress. It has been carefully designed to incorporate the existing, highly successful Human Givens Diploma course with some additional days, self-directed study, assessments and, at full MA level, a research project.

For those not wishing to complete the full MA Degree, there are two ‘exit points’ and associated awards – a Post-Graduate Certificate and a Post-Graduate Diploma, each worth 60 university credits.

At whichever stage of the programme students choose to graduate, they will receive an award from both MindFields College and Nottingham Trent University. NTU holds graduation ceremonies at the end of every academic year to which successful students will be invited.See these links for more information:

Course Overview >>

Diagram of course route to qualification >>

If you would like further information about the new programme, or you would like to discuss your options in more detail before applying, please don’t hesitate to contact the College Registrar, Kathy Hardy, on 01323 811440.

Sooner or later we all have to face the fact that we are mortal beings. Only human beings have vivid insight into our own mortality and the stressful nature of our existence. We all discover that bad things can happen to good people and that, often, life is simply not fair. So stress reactions like worrying and depression are a vulnerability we all share, regardless of how mentally well equipped we are to deal with unexpected personal disasters.

Some people, however, seem able to cope better than others and the one thing that carries them through the tough times, more than anything else, is their sense that behind all the unfairness of life there is a core of meaning to their existence - something to live for that is above and beyond the problems they are tackling. They rely on this foundation of meaning to carry them through, round or over any obstacle, whatever emotional turbulence it is causing them. Someone with meaning in their life therefore has a high level of psychological robustness - which they can use to weather the storms of life, with all its ups and downs, sadness and loss that happens to everybody at some point.

There are three main ways in which we stretch ourselves to get meaning into our lives:

To serve others - to have people who need us provides a great sense of meaning and purpose. Hence raising a family is always meaningful, looking after grandchildren or elderly grandparents, having friends who value your support, work colleagues you can’t let down, patients or clients you must keep appointments with, students you must keep on teaching or people less fortunate than yourself who you can help. Pledging time contributing to the community for free, for example doing any sort of voluntary work, supporting a football team, or being a member of a Parent Teacher Association, is stretching. Even looking after animals that depend on you for their survival is service.

Learning and problem solving - being involved in activities that challenge and stretch us. Active problem solving is good for us. Your brain must be stretched like muscle as when it is bored and slack, it is an unhealthy brain. Viewing life obstacles as problems to be overcome is the most healthy way of dealing with them, and this is because we thrive on challenges that focus our attention and give us something to work towards. For example, you might hear a successful businessman say, “The best thing that ever happened to me was when my company went bankrupt and I lost everything. I was right down in the lowest place possible but I learnt lessons I wouldn’t have learnt otherwise and then built myself up again. I wouldn’t be the strong person I am today if that awful situation hadn’t happened to me.”

Commitment to coherent philosophy of life greater than yourself - People who have a committed religious practice have better mental health and live longer than those who don’t, but you don’t have to be religious to get the same result. Some people would not call themselves religious but nevertheless have a ‘spiritual orientation’ and open-mindedness towards any quest involving the possibility of a greater intelligence system in the universe. Secular people who consider themselves to be on an active quest for ‘scientific truth’, ‘justice’ or ‘better education’, ‘saving the environment’ or improving the ‘quality of life’ for others, also gain the beneficial effect of a coherent philosophy of life.

Read more at the lift depression website, and listen to clip 3 on this page >>

 

From the Telegraph today, a new discovery on problem solving:

“A moment spent working on something else or taking a break altogether allows the brain’s unconscious thought process to take over, American psychologists believe. When the brain kicks back into gear, the conscious thought process will pick up on the solution, they found.

The discovery was made by a team of scientists who asked 130 volunteers to conduct a word association experiment.

Half the group were told to break off from their test to concentrate on something entirely different for five minutes.

The results showed that those who spent time focusing on a different task were much quicker at solving the first task when they returned to it than the group that had stuck with it.

The research, which is led by a team at Northwestern University in Illinois and published in the September issue of the journal Psychological Science, appears to contradict previous evidence that the distraction of emails and text messages can lower the IQ more than twice as much as smoking marijuana.

Professor Adam Galinsky, who led the study, said: “Conscious thought is better at making linear, analytic decisions, but unconscious thought is especially effective at solving complex problems. Unconscious activation may provide inspirational sparks underlying the ‘Aha!’ moment that eventually leads to important discoveries.”"

Source 

Caetextia = ‘context blindness‘, a chronic disorder manifesting in the inability to adjust behaviours or perception to deal appropriately with interacting variables (i.e. context)

Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell first coined the term in 2007 to describe the most dominant manifestation of autistic behaviour at the highest levels of the autistic spectrum. Human givens psychologists and psychotherapists started using the word from June 2008, after Griffin and Tyrrell presented a paper, which they illustrated with numerous filmed examples of Caetextic behaviour, to members of HGI and other professionals at Sunningdale Conference Centre as part of a MindFields College Advanced Human Givens Studies course.

You can find out more and download this landmark article on the caetextia website.

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If you liked this post, you might like Demystifying autism and Asperger’s syndrome.

We are very pleased to be able to launch our latest website, lift-depression.com.

The site is primarily aimed at depressed individuals and any family affected by depression, it is also aimed at professionals responsible for treating depression, such as GPs, psychotherapists, counsellors etc. and those responsible for providing mental health services at government level.

The more people who know about the link between worrying, dreaming and depression, the sooner rates of depression in the population will begin to fall.

Features of the site include:

I hope you get a chance to explore the site, and if you have any feedback or a reciprocal link request don’t hesitate to get in touch via the contact form.

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If you liked this post, you might like How to break the cycle of depression and How to lift depression - effective brief therapy

The connection between molar memories, autism, trauma and compulsive anger outbursts are just some of the fascinating topics covered in the exciting fourth publication in the ‘Essential Help in Troubled Times’ series – Release from Anger. The clearly-written book explodes many common myths and gives effective strategies to curb anger outbursts or excessive rage. It also reveals important facts about the causes, effects, triggers and behaviour patterns of anger and aggression, and explains the difference between healthy anger (a natural survival strategy) and destructive anger.

Release from Anger is also packed with clear advice and practical real-life examples of how to deal with inappropriate anger, whether yours, a client’s or someone else’s. It explains what happens, both mentally and physiologically, when anger suddenly erupts, looks at anger as an addiction and explains the reasons behind many compulsive outbursts.

It also shows you how effective communication skills, verbal and non-verbal, can unlock trance-like anger states and defuse aggression in even potentially violent situations.

Vital information that could save your life

— Why anger is essential for survival and what it does to our bodies
— How excessive anger can affect our physical and mental health
— How to avoid the common triggers for anger
— Why venting angry feelings will not make anger go away but is actually more likely to increase it
— How to predict anger outbursts in yourself and others
— The connection between anger and depression, and anger and trauma
— Why talking about angry feelings rarely helps, especially for men
— The importance of effective communication skills
— How to use your body language to reduce the emotional temperature of a situation.

Read more about and purchase the book from our online shop.

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If you liked this post, you might like this seminar: Effective Anger management.

Videos about the Human Givens approach are included in the Guerilla PeaceFair in Norwich tomorrow, Thursday 15th May, if you’re in the area, do drop in!

In 1985 Benjamin Libet performed a study which shocked the scientific world. He showed that the preparatory brain activity that occurs as you make a ‘free’ choice about something is actually made a few hundred milliseconds before the decision reaches your conscious awareness.

In other words, your brain makes a decision before you do, and ‘free will’ is an illusion.

How he interpreted his data drew criticism from his peers. Some thought that the tiny amount of time in which this brain activity occured was too short, and could be accounted for by innaccuracies in how his participants reported their decision making.

However, a study by Chin Siong Soon et al, published in Nature Neuroscience this month has replicated Libet’s results by using modern brain imaging techniques, a more accurate way of measuring decision making in the brain:

The BPS research digest reports on the study:

Yesterday mental health charity Mind announced the shortlist for its annual Book of the Year Award. The award, now in it’s 27th year, celebrates writing that contributes towards a greater understanding of mental health issues in all their forms. The seven short-listed titles range in genre from fiction, memoir and psychology, presenting both personal experiences of mental health problems and mental distress from the viewpoint of the intimate spectator. Fear, hope and perseverence feature in works that explore what it is to observe, fight and recover.

It is a great honour for everyone involved in the human givens approach that An idea in practice: using the human givens approach has been shortlisted for this award. The book, published to coincide with the 10th anniversary last year of the coining of the phrase ‘human givens‘, is a compilation of articles, case studies and practical information on how the important insights from the human givens approach is benefiting education, mental health and social services. It also includes chapters on what the human givens approach can bring to ethics, and how Joe Griffin’s insights into ‘molar memories‘ are helping to resolve previously intractable cases.

The other shortlisted works are:

One Unknown by Gill Hicks

The Mistress’s Daughter by A.M Homes

Why do people get ill? by Darian Leader and David Corfield

Minding by Chris Paling

The Father I had by Martin Townsend

The centre cannot hold - a memoir of my schizophrenia by Elyn Saks

The winner will be announced on 15th May at the Mind Awards ceromony to be held at Kingsway Hall Hotel, London, hosted by Mind’s president Lord Melvyn Bragg.

The newest title in the “Sound Advice” series of CDs from HG Publishing is entitled, “Demystifying Autism and Asperger’s syndrome: help for parents, carers, teachers and others interested in autistic spectrum disorder.”

On this enlightening CD, Angela Austin talks to Ivan Tyrrell about how the human givens approach brings clarity and effectiveness to both understanding and supporting those on the autistic spectrum. The number of people diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is increasing: there are many reasons for this, and much work is being done to investigate the causes of autism. However, for those who are dealing with children and adults with ASD on a daily basis, the question is, what do we do?

As the first principal of Hillingdon Manor School, hailed for its effective pioneering approach in working with children and young people with ASD, and their parents, Angela has extensive knowledge of what works and why. The approach she developed is based upon the human givens and, when commenting on the school, Ofsted said that it is “very effective in meeting the needs of the pupilsâ€, that “pupils and staff clearly enjoy coming to the school†and that “parents appreciate the close working partnership.â€

Angela now works as a private HG therapist and also teaches the autism and Asperger’s syndrome workshop for MindFields College.

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If you liked this post, you might like the workshop: Demystifying autism and Asperger’s syndrome.