Overview

In this book, you will find a very clear, brief, easy to read introduction to a novel approach to 'counselling the whole person'. This emotive-cognitive approach does not restrict itself to mental processes. We go beyond what the client is 'telling themselves', or 'signalling themselves'; or what went wrong in their family of origin. We also include how well they manage their body-brain-mind in terms of diet, exercise, sleep, and emotional self-management (including self-talk, or inner dialogue). And we propose that it is better for counsellors and therapists to operate in a primarily right-brain modality, and to use the left-brain, cognitive processes, secondarily. The most important, and novel, chapters in this book are as follows: Chapter 4, which summarizes our research on the impact of diet/nutrition and physical exercise on mental health and emotional wellbeing. Chapter 5, which reviews the science of sleep hygiene, plus common sense insights, and presents a range of lifestyle changes to promote healthy sleep, and thus to improve mental and emotional wellbeing. Chapter 9, which explains how to incorporate the learning from chapters 4 and 5 into any system of talk therapy or counselling. There is also a chapter (8) on counselling individuals using our Emotive-Cognitive approach, in which there is a section (8.3(b)) on using the Holistic SOR model to explore many aspects of the lifestyle of the client. To be more precise: The holistic SOR model states that a client (a person) feels and reacts, at point 'R' (Response), to a (negative or positive) stimulus at point 'S' (Stimulus), on the basis of the current state of their social-body-mind (or their whole Organism). Important variables include the following: How well rested are they? How high or low is their blood-sugar level (which is related to diet and nutrition)? How well connected are they to significant others (which is a measure of social support)? How much conflict do they have at home or at work? What other pressures are bearing down upon them (for examples: from their socio-economic circumstances; physical health; home/ housing; work/ income; security/ insecurity; etc.) And how emotionally intelligent are they? (Emotional intelligence is, of course, learned, and can be re-learned!) Within the Holistic-SOR model (as shown in Figure 8.2 below), in the middle column, what we are aiming to do is to construct a balance sheet (in our heads) of the pressures bearing down on the client (person), and the coping resources that they have for dealing with those pressures. In addition, there is Chapter 6, which teaches how to help the client to re-frame any negative experience, using six perspectives, or frames, or lenses. These Six Windows mostly conform to some of the best insights among the philosophical propositions shared by moderate Stoicism and moderate Buddhism. But we discard the harsh and unworkable elements of extreme Stoicism and extreme Buddhism. This 'Six Windows' Model, which was created by Jim Byrne, with a contribution from Renata Taylor-Byrne, is easy to understand and easy to use. Chapter 7 deals with how to understand and manage human emotions. This chapter reviews a wide range of perspectives, including: Darwin and the evolutionary psychology perspective; the Buddhist and Stoic views; and many modern perspectives, including: neuroscience; cognitive science; interpersonal neurobiology; attachment theory; and affect regulation theory. And that chapter includes a good deal of guidance on how to manage anger, anxiety and depression using a multifactorial approach which straddles diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, emotional self-management, mind-management, and so on. And the book includes a quick review of a whole range of models and tools which we use in Emotive-Cognitive counselling, and which can be incorporated into the practices of integrative and holistic counsellors, psychologists and psycho-therapists.

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