Therapy ain’t no picnic (and it’s not life coaching either)….

It’s a commonly held misconception that people see psychologists for ego massaging, an opportunity to experience catharsis (the idea that letting things out makes you feel better), or some sort of self-fest where the therapist builds up self-confidence in a Tony Robbins-style ‘ra ra’ session. I Read More …

Why dogs are happier than you: Understanding primary and secondary emotions…

Dogs experience an internal world that is substantially different from the one you and I inhabit. For dogs, the world is comprised of primary experiences, largely undiluted by the cognitions (including worry) and secondary emotions that we humans constantly bathe ourselves in. Let me elaborate. There’s a great Read More …

Emotions as data: A different way of understanding your feelings…

Emotions are a large part of what it is to be human – nearly all of us live in a soup of subjective feelings that often determine how we act. Not only do we let our emotions govern our actions, they also provide our motivation for, Read More …

An alternate take on Mindfulness…

I’ve written a lot about mindfulness, and up until now, it’s pretty much all been about mindfulness as a way of either feeling or functioning better – sort of a ‘mindfulness for a better you’ stance. This is also the direction taken in a lot of Read More …

How to fail (as an employer, organisation, government, leader, Prime Minister, etc.)…

A few years ago I wrote a book called ‘Managing People in Organisations’ (Amazon link here) – I like to think that it’s pretty good and, my own trumpet blowing aside, it represents a thorough review of the best practices in keeping people engaged at Read More …

How not to be miserable: Challenge, mastery, and flow as panacea…

There’s a pervasive theme among my clients. Time and again, they report having pretty OK lives; they have a comfortable home, supportive relationships, a decent job, and plenty of stuff. But they’re unhappy, or preoccupied, or stressed, or overwhelmed by their emotions (usually anxiety and, Read More …

Riding the hard stuff: An instruction manual for your brain…

First up, my apologies for the lack of a post in the last few weeks – busy times. I’ll get back to a normal publishing schedule in a fortnight. In the meantime – below is an article that I recently wrote for Flow mountain bike and which should Read More …

There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute…

Today’s blog will be a little different, but touches on human credulity, especially in the modern world of mass distribution of (mis)information. As a person trained in science, it pains me to see the amount of crap being pumped through social media, and the remarkable Read More …

Neuroscience vs. psychology: Why we need to understand the hardware and software…

Last time, I wrote about the sometimes bridge between psychological research and practise. I pointed out that many psychologists practise based on nonscientific beliefs, instead of sound, evidence-based protocols. Again, last week, I pointed out that many psychologists practise in almost complete ignorance of neuroscience. Few Read More …

Psychologists vs. psychology: It’s time we started practising science…

This week, I’m going to rant. Actually I’m going to rant about my own profession. As you probably know, I’m a psychologist. I first became involved with psychology as a student 25 years ago. Since then, I’ve spent 11 years at university studying it, and Read More …

The Biggest Exploitation…

Most of my readers will be familiar with the television show “The Biggest Loser” – there are ‘homegrown’ versions of it in Australia, the UK and the US. Today I want to write not only about why they do immense harm (and no good), but Read More …

How well would you cope in a disaster? Performance in extreme situations…

You probably think you’d cope well in a disaster right? In fact, whether it’s their imagined reaction to a car accident, a bushfire, or a medical emergency, most people think they’d deal with it pretty well. Actually, most people think they’d deal with it better Read More …

Performing under pressure: What you need to know…

Some of you probably know that I’m trained as a sport psychologist, and spent four years running a Masters’ degree in Sport and Performance Psychology in London. During that time, I designed what I believed to be a cutting-edge course, had it ratified and accredited Read More …

How to exercise properly: Making sure you get what you need…

I’m on holiday this week – four days in and I’m feeling relaxed – perfect time for a blog. I’ve had this idea sitting in my drafts folder for ages – and given I’m taking a week off exercising it’s probably the right time to Read More …

The power of purposeless activity: Fun (or why I mountain bike)…

When was the last time you had fun? I don’t mean the sort of things that, as adults, we often confuse for fun, like getting pissed or washing the new car. I mean something that was frivolous, purposeless, even pointless, and yet resulted in feelings Read More …

Wellbeing at work (Part 3): Helping your employer be less of an arsehole…

OK, looks like life has conspired to answer my own question – a blog every two weeks seems to be doable, so from now on (unless I get extra excited), expect fortnightly entries. Today, I want to finish the trilogy of wellbeing at work articles. Read More …

Wellbeing at work (Part 2): Taking control…

I’m still not quite decided whether I’ll continue this blog on a weekly or a fortnightly basis – recently I’ve come up with quite a few new ideas, so we’ll see how things go. You can help though! Let me know whether you’d really like Read More …

Wellbeing at work: Cutting through the bullshit…

Apologies for the break last week – turns out that coming up with a new topic every week is actually pretty hard – and there have now been over 65 blogs (stretching over a 14 months). Hits are steadily increasing too – the site just Read More …

The science and practice of Meditation (cultivating your inner daily llama)…

Today’s post comes to you from onboard a train to London – normal service should resume next week on my return home to Melbourne. I realised recently that I’ve spent a lot of time in my posts talking about the importance of meditation, including how Read More …