The window of tolerance after Cyclone Gabrielle is shifting. Here’s what it means for response and recovery. In Dan Siegel’s book, The Developing Mind, he describes how everyone has a range of intensities of emotional experience that they can comfortably experience, process and integrate. This is the ‘window of tolerance’, and it varies widely. For […]
My heart goes out to those all over NZ coming to terms with flooding events recently. Just heart-wrenching. Even with my 35+ years of experience, even I wonder what is to be done. This interview I did with RNZ last Friday might help orient you I’ve also been thinking about the experience of Canterbury and […]
With my focus on building my Substack and other life things, I’ve neglected my blog a little. I hope to remedy that in 2023. In the meantime, please let me wish you all the best for Christmas and the holiday season, and a very happy new year.
There is a new pathway for about 3000 counsellors to be accredited to work in publicly funded mental health and addiction roles. Until now, counsellors haven’t been able to work in publicly funded clinical roles, because it’s a self-regulated profession in New Zealand. A new accreditation pathway has addressed this concern. This has raised hopes […]
My heart has beaten almost 2 billion times. I have burned 1378 candles on all my birthday cakes. I have travelled around the sun 53 times – that’s about 50 billion kilometres. The moon has circled around me 706 times. I’ve been on the internet for over 31 years. And today, I am 19,301 days old […]
As we can see from case numbers today and most likely in days to come, this is going to become an increasingly more common experience. Even though it’s a new thing to do, and it’s never easy to tell someone you may have an infectious disease and that you may have been a situation where […]
Prepare for surging case numbers over the next days to come. It will take some time for us to come to terms with this changing reality. Already, people are coming forward to be tested in greater numbers in Auckland – this will probably increase the number of identified cases in days to come. What can […]
Exiting the pandemic now is unrealistic Transitioning into what happens next is likely to be bumpy. What comes next – some people are talking about endemicity – is undefined. Whatever comes next will look very different in different places in the world, continuing to magnify and intensify inequities that pre-existed the pandemic. The strength of […]
As we watch and wait it’s important not to be lulled into a false sense of safety in this new uncertainty. The experts tell us that we will likely experience a lag before we detect cases and confirm that there are indeed more omicron cases in the community. So, we need to maintain our safe […]
“Stop telling me to be calm!” And anyway, why’s it so important? You’ve had the experience of people – me included – telling you that being calm is important, right? Often, telling us to be calm produces the exact opposite effect. For example, remember being told, ‘don’t jump on the bed’? What did you do? […]