A good way of assessing attachment style across a variety of close relationships: the ECR-RS questionnaire
Last updated on 24th May 2013
I'm a big fan of Self-Determination Theory (S-DT). For me it's one of the best ways into understanding flourishing and wellbeing. I use the ideas all the time in my work and in my life. The fine S-DT website at Rochester University in the States gives vast amounts more information. I've mentioned S-DT many times in this blog - see for example the post "Self determination theory" from five years ago that gives links to the slides of a lecture I gave on S-DT and a whole bunch of relevant handouts.
I have recently written a couple of blog posts about diet and mental health - "Emerging research on diet suggests it's startlingly important in the prevention of anxiety & depression" and "So what dietary advice should we be following - for psychological as well as physical health?"
(this blog post is freely downloadable as a Word doc and as a PDF file)
"Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor." Dr. Alexis Carrel
"It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away." Robert Pirsig
"There are people who live their whole lives on the default settings, never realizing you can customize." Robert Brault
"A friend is someone who sees the potential in you and helps you to live it." W. B. Yeats (adapted)
"Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger." Franklin Jones
A few months ago now, I initiated a personal feedback project. It was triggered by a number of factors. I was soon to start the third part of an Emotion-Focused Therapy training and was interested in possibly using myself as "a case study" for the course; I had received some quite surprising & confronting feedback from a friend and I wondered how idiosyncratic or widespread his viewpoint might be; I had been encouraging feedback in groups that I run and I wanted to explore this more deeply; and finally I'm in a very good position to ask for & receive honest, thoughtful feedback from a broad social circle.
"O wad some Power the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae mony a blunder free us, an' foolish notion." Rabbie Burns
"He who knows others is learned; he who knows himself is wise." Lao-tzu
I have written a good deal in the past about variability in the effectiveness of psychotherapists - see, for example, "What shall we do about the fact that there are supershrinks and pseudoshrinks?", "Psychotherapists & counsellors who don't monitor their outcomes are at risk of being both incompetent & potentially dangerous" and other posts on feedback to therapists.
"When I get to heaven, God will not ask ‘Why were you not Moses?'. He will ask ‘Why were you not Susya?
Why did you not become what only you could become?'" Susya, a Hasidic rabbi
(This post on purpose in life questionnaires and the previous one on the importance of purpose in life for health & wellbeing have been combined into a handout that is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file)