Category: Reflections

Do You Have To Be Mentally Ill To Benefit From Counselling And Psychotherapy?

Counselling and Psychotherapy are powerful tools for personal and social change.

They enable us to resolve emotional issues that are preventing us from being happy with ourselves and our lives, and from having fulfilling relationships.

They can also be helpful in cases where physical problems are caused or aggravated by emotional stress. Somatic or Body Psychotherapy can be especially helpful in this respect. read more

Pushing Back the Stigma of Mental Illness

Here is an interesting question. Does a person’s anxiety, depression or other distressing feeling indicate that they are mentally ill, or absolutely normal?

Different schools of thought will give you different answers. In core development terms, however, anxiety, depression and other signs of emotional distress often indicate that your sense of self is healthy enough to produce these symptoms of a deeper, often hidden emotional conflict. read more

Experiential Learning

Experiential Learning and its relevance to Somatic Psychotherapy, Counselling and Education.

by Donald Marmara

I will share an experience that I had when I was 20 years old. This is a true story and one of the formative experiences of my life.

I grew up in Malta, and I happened to meet an interesting guy at a party one night. I started chatting with this man, and discovered that he was one of England’s leading meteorological experts and that he had been hired by the government to help set up a met office in Malta. read more

What is “Normal”?

Counselling and Psychotherapy are sometimes seen as ways of helping people adjust to society.  Whilst this is what some people may want and some counsellors and psychotherapists may provide, this is not what I do. I do not measure a person’s mental health by how well adjusted they are to society. read more

Stress and Unresolved Feelings

When I was 7 years old I asked: “Why were we Humans put on this Planet? All seemed to be going well until we came along!”

Little did I realise what a profound question this was until I grew up and became aware of the extent of my own and others’ emotional and psychological wounding, and how deeply this affected our wellbeing and the way we treat each other and the environment. read more

Dealing With Your Emotions

So many arguments and discussions, whether in politics, religion, personal relationships, work and everyday life, attempt to deal logically with emotional issues.

When the emotional charge is high, logic has no impact. If anything it can act as an avoidance of the underlying issues, and make things worse. Or it can appear to make sense but nothing actually changes. read more

Do I have to be Extraordinary to be OK?

I’ve been to many networking events, workshops and seminars that place so much emphasis on being extraordinary that I’d come out feeling that there must be something very wrong with me for not aspiring to reach the dizzy heights of extraordinariness(!)  that these people claim to have achieved. read more

STRESS, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION : THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY!

Individual Sessions, Couples Sessions, Sessions For Parents and Teenagers(together and separately), and individually tailored Talks and Workshops for Groups and Organisations.

  • Are you stressed, anxious or depressed, or know someone who is, but hesitate to seek help because you do not want to be labelled dysfunctional or mentally ill?
  • Have you wondered why, despite our advances in technology, and the increasing use and availability of counselling, coaching and psychotherapy, these issues are still major problems?
  • Have you considered that stress, anxiety, depression and other emotional states may be symptoms that need to be explored to find their cause, rather than “negative” emotions that need to be  eliminated? Like a flashing red light on an instrument panel?
  •  Have you wondered whether so-called “dysfunctional” feelings may sometimes arise because you do not fit into the boxes that you are expected to fit into?
  •  Are you interested in exploring different ways of dealing with these issues?
  • Would you like to explore these questions with an experienced practitioner who has been helping people with these issues for 40 years, and who has turned his own life around after struggling for several years with serious anxiety and depression?                                                           
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Donald Marmara  grew up in Malta where he gradually became aware of the extent of his own and others’ emotional and psychological wounding, and how deeply this affected our wellbeing and the way we treat ourselves and each other. read more

Hunger for Truth?

John Steinbeck makes this comment in one of his novels: “as long as there is a hunger in the stomach, the bombs will continue to fall”.

Yet as a society, we seem to be going around in never-ending circles, dealing with violence rather than with the underlying causes. Often we meet violence with violence. The hunger in the stomach, our physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, are not being met.

In his book “Fear of Life”, Alexander Lowen writes: “We are like the inmates of a mental institution who must accept its inhumanity and insensitivity as caring and knowledgeable to be regarded as sane enough to leave.” read more

Youth suicide: Students counselled after Sydney primary school girl, 10, takes her own life

(Reported in The Sunday Telegraph ,December 07, 2014)

We continue to treat this as if it were an individual problem, as if there’s something wrong with the children and adults who harm themselves, or who are anxious or depressed.

When will we wake up from our illusion of separation, and acknowledge that this is our problem as a society and indeed as a human race? read more