Clear Thinking Out Loud: Recent Episodes
Mark Tyrrell
If you are a therapist or coach of any persuasion; counsellor, psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, life coach, bodyworker, in fact anyone who works in the helping professions, you will glean valuable, actionable ideas, tips and techniques from Mark Tyrrell's Therapy Skills podcast, 'Clear Thinking Out Loud'.
What can a lack of meaningful creative challenge do to people? Part seven in this series explores the detrimental effects of this unfulfilled need.
Depression gets us using a strictly negative bias. Under its baleful influence, anything ‘good’ that happens is interpreted as simply the ‘exception that proves the negative rule’. Here’s how to reframe that toxic outlook.
Have you noticed that some clients feel under pressure to ‘perform’ or ‘do it right’ when it comes to the hypnosis part of therapy?
Dream analysis is often simplistic and one size fits all. Here’s a guide to why your clients dream, and ways to figure out what their unconscious mind is trying to express.
“But this feels insurmountable!” How I break down my clients’ therapy goals into easy steps.
Provocative language is important when you’re treating someone with trauma. Here are three specific techniques to use when treating post-traumatic stress disorder and phobias.
The connection between the body and mind mean mental and physical health cannot be disentangled, especially with it comes to meeting our Primal Human Needs.
Some of our clients are essentially balanced, happy, productive people when circumstances are fine. But when they’re going through a terrible time, it’s only natural that their ability to meet their needs is compromised.
Why you need to grab your client’s attention if you’re going to be able to help them and how to do so quickly.
Artfully crafted therapeutic reframes are a wonderful way to rapidly help your clients discard limiting beliefs.
The way you ‘package’ your therapeutic task request can make all the difference. Here are four ways to improve client outcomes by being a kind taskmaster.
When we communicate hypnotically, we need to know which part – conscious or unconscious mind – we are communicating with and seeking to influence.
Here are 5 tips to help you help a client who may be stuck in the web of a sociopathic narcissist (or someone with ‘Narcissistic Personality Disorder’).
Part three of the series explores the need for control and how it can betray us when it is met in unhealthy ways.
It seems that to be effective, therapists need to focus on client resources and potential solutions at least as much as pathology and causes.
Whenever anyone asks me why I use hypnosis in psychotherapy, I feel like a swimmer being asked why he feels the need to get into water to swim. There’s a variety of positive reasons to introduce clinical hypnosis into your practice.
Here are six ways you can help terminally ill clients find comfort, relaxation, and resolution.
Long gone are the days when it was assumed the mind and body were separate and distinct, that the thoughts and feelings of the mind had no or little direct effect on the workings of the body.
If we are to help our bullied clients, the first thing we need to understand is what exactly is happening when someone is being bullied.
False memories can be created during regression. Here are four reasons why taking your client back to the past isn’t always the right approach.
Character is built through experience – here are 3 therapy strategies which help your client reflect on what they have learnt from their troubles
Questions have an amazing ability to disrupt toxic thought patterns and widen perspectives. Here are 17 really useful solution-focused questions you can use with clients.
Wanting to be recognized can easily morph from a need to a demanding, all-consuming greed. So why is the drive for status so strong?
It’s useful to ask when the out-of-control spending began and what, if anything, changed during that time. So often a problem pattern is a sloppy and unconscious way of trying to meet a primal emotional need.
Regular, deep sleep is a necessity for a healthy life, so here are three more tips for treating insomnia.
If client motivation is something you’ve struggled with from time to time, here are some quick tips…
We asked our Uncommon Practitioners this question on our Facebook page and the response was fantastic with many wise words shared. Rather than one answer being the ‘right one’ or the only one, I see your informed replies as vital parts of a whole ‘mosaic’ of possible depression causes.
Why I encourage all therapists to learn about hypnosis, even if they aren’t planning on delivering hypnotherapy.
It sounds strange, but positive feedback and compliments can make people suffering from ‘imposter syndrome’ feel even worse about themselves.
You may know exactly what your client needs, but how do you deliver that advice so it gets acted upon?
When you’re not getting the results you want, stop what isn’t working and try something new and unexpected. Widen the way you see the problem.
When a client is at the mercy of their own feelings, they can feel out of control. Introduce the idea of self-mastery with these techniques.
Language and attitude is vital when helping clients transcend their self-sabotage during therapy.
When our lives feel meaningful we are energized and focused. Even suffering is made more bearable. So when the human need for meaning is met in an unhealthy way, it can wreak havoc.
It appeared that Kennedy had himself fundamentally flagged as having alcoholism rather than as having conquered alcoholism.
Many therapists and counsellors don’t feel confident treating depression. But we can make all the difference in the world and here are three ways to start.
Clients often don’t really believe they can get better. Here’s 3 cunning psychotherapy techniques that subtly show them they can.
If your client tends to leap to emotional conclusions, here’s 3 ways to subtly dispute irrational beliefs and help them see the world in a much clearer way.
Worrying is not harmless; it has consequences possibly leading to clinical depression. Helping your clients to stop worrying can have multiple benefits.
We can, and even must, use a person’s character and personality to help them thrive. Here are three ways to help you see your client clearly so you can work with them effectively.
A step-by-step guide to treating painful memories causing your clients problems in the present.
When a client is unresponsive to therapy, it can feel deflating. Here are five ways to think outside the box and regain your therapeutic motivation.
Part five in the series explores our innate human desire for a sense of community and how it can work against us.
The therapeutic alliance is a base from which therapy can happen. And in order for that base to develop, we need to be a certain way for our clients.
You may already be familiar with the idea of giving your clients ‘homework’ to do between sessions. Therapists like Milton Erickson and Jay Haley took this a step further, famously assigning behavioural tasks that could make a massive difference to their clients – and yours.
When left untreated, destructive anger can steal friendships, partners, jobs and even health. Here are five calming tips to tame the beast within your angry clients.
It was a tragedy, but I didn’t know it at first. In the long-shadowed gloom of a winter evening, Mary painted the painful picture of what had happened to her husband Dave…
Blaming others for everything removes your client’s sense of control. Here are three ways to gently help them see their own influence.
As terrible as depression is, some simple interventions can be surprisingly effective in relieving symptoms. Use these techniques to help clients rediscover their enjoyment of life.
Depression is a ‘disease of civilization’ and a curse of modern living. Here are some of the common life events that pose a risk of depression, and the reasons why it might happen.
We all approach life’s crossroads sometimes. There are paths, maybe many, to choose from. Help your clients see things more clearly so they can move forward.
By giving you the seven worst therapy business mistakes I made, I hope you can speed up the process of developing a successful practice!
My quick advice for a new therapist with perfectionist tendencies who is nervous about seeing her first client.
Diagnosing PTSD can be tricky – here are 3 questions I always ask to find hidden trauma.
Setting boundaries with clients doesn’t come naturally to therapy practitioners. Empathy and wanting to help people is what brought you to this work, and for us it’s hard to be cruel to be kind.
Part two of the series explores the inherent human need to feel safe and secure and shows how it can lead those desperate enough into unsafe situations.
These cognitive behavioural therapy strategies can help clients move past limiting fears and feel more socially comfortable.
For safe effective trauma treatment, it is vital to understand how PTSD and phobias are affecting your client
Here are three reasons why I never get a client with PTSD to relive their traumatic experiences.
Help free your clients from unhelpful depressive thought patterns by working with their unconscious and conscious minds.
Milton Erickson was arguably the greatest psychotherapist in history. Here are 3 of his key hypnotherapy techniques.
External discipline, when required, within a supportive environment may be the primer for the development of self-discipline.
3 hypnotherapy techniques which can be applied to a range of client problems, from confidence troubles to healing from trauma.
Arguing against a reluctant client will push them further away. Follow these reframing tips to help them see the benefits therapy can bring.
Relationships can be hard to maintain for those on the autistic spectrum. Loneliness and isolation are common, as the seemingly random ‘noise’ of emotionality and human interaction leave them feeling constantly overwhelmed. Here are three ways to help your Asperger’s clients find the intimacy they seek
How is it that some people – and some situations – can persuade us so much more than others?
Hypnosis is more effective and productive if we ‘soften up’ our clients, readying them for a trance state before we ever get to the ‘official’ hypnosis.
Hypnotherapists use the word ‘deep’ to describe a state with a greater degree of perceptual abstraction. Here are three ways we can help our clients go deeper into trance naturalistically.
Anger is not good or bad, but it needs to be contextual, useful and, because of its health and other implications, infrequent. Use these 7 steps and 3 CBT techniques to help clients regain control.
What causes an emotional crisis and how can we successfully manage it? Here are five ways to handle a client in crisis, so you can feel confident in your crisis intervention skills.
Why do otherwise rational human beings do crazy things? This series on the dark side of human emotional needs seeks to answer just this question, and to show you how you can use this understanding to help your clients, enrich the lives of those around you, and, most importantly, make sure you are meeting your […]
Milton Erickson yelled at a therapy client. I flirted with an elderly lady. Sometimes therapy goals can be met in the strangest ways…
Here are five cases from my own records in which trauma was found to be driving the current problem despite initially not being obvious.
Here are three ways to cut through a client’s negative rumination and ask healing antidepressant questions.
Three tips to help you work effectively with clients who challenge your therapeutic objectivity.
The symptoms of depression and characteristics of a hypnotized subject share some similarities. This causes hypnosis to resonate strongly with depressed patients, and it can be an effective healing tool if used in the right way.
Here are four ways to free your clients from the influence of negative memories using the Affect Bridge
Hypnosis may not look like ‘hypnosis’. The ‘eyes wide and glassy’ look, lasting only a couple of seconds, may be just as receptive a state for new ideas to take root.
Subtle gentle ways to change your clients’ thinking style so they stop catastrophizing about the future
Why you sometimes want your client to think the worst and how it helped Peter become a better public speaker.
We talk of the ‘pain’ of break up and this word is more accurate than you might have realised. When we feel rejected from a relationship, the same parts of the brain that process physical pain become active.
You and I know that a healthy, loving, secure and mutually respectful relationship shelters us from life’s storms and gives us solace, stimulation and support. Healthy relationships are good for us.
Master these story therapy techniques and you’ll be able to work much more directly with your client’s unconscious mind.
Some clients can adopt a deep passivity about their lives, expecting and waiting for things to be done to and done for them.
Help clients break free from the compulsions controlling them with these CBT techniques for obsessive compulsive disorder.
While making people feel bad for feeling bad doesn’t help, there is something to be said for practising gratitude and reflecting on comparative difficulties.
Anxiety makes mountains out of molehills, and monsters out of moles. Here are six tips for treating generalized anxiety disorder in your clients.
The utilization principle appeals to an individual’s unique personality traits and interests to bring about change
Well into adulthood, my mouth would water whenever I heard a key turning in a lock. You may be wondering what on earth happened to me! The answer is, nothing particularly odd. But it’s why I’m a chocaholic…
“Why do you two hate each other so much? Why don’t you just get a divorce?” I asked, interrupting the pattern of their well-practised bickering.
Frustratingly, client motivation to change isn’t always 100%. Here’s how to help them meet their therapy goals…
Story therapy at the right time can facilitate psychological and even physical healing.
Here are 3 powerful, hopeful metaphors you can use to help your depressed clients gain a fresh perspective on their experience.
“My father murdered my mother. Right in front of me and my brother. The police came and took my dad away and eventually he was put in a secure psychiatric hospital. After that, me and John went to live with our grandparents. That’s when the real trouble started.”
Confidence isn’t just about certainty. We may be the professionals, but we are not all-knowing seers.
When treating clients we can get hypnotized by detail, by the shape and colour of the person’s life, the minutiae of their issues – leaving us confused and overwhelmed.
Sandy’s militant perfectionism had left her isolated and lonely. Here’s how I helped her change her thinking style.
A depressed client may (quite naturally) want to tell you all about their depression, but to really begin working with them you’ll need to discover where they actually want to go in positive terms.
Working with low self esteem is much easier when you understand how it is warping your client’s thinking style.
How solution focused questions helped Jeremy use swimming to wash smoking out of his life forever. And help your clients learn not to have their problem.
Setting boundaries with clients doesn’t come naturally to therapy practitioners. Empathy and wanting to help people is what brought you to this work, and for us it’s hard to be cruel to be kind.
All OCD sufferers describe ‘spacing out’ while they perform their obsessive behaviour. This gives us a key insight into how to treat OCD.
Sometimes a large part of anxiety therapy is helping your client overcome the ‘feeling like a freak’ effect.
Depression often causes physical symptoms such as sleep disturbance, aches and pains, loss of sex drive and so on. Here’s how to reframe the 5 most common ones.
When smokers come for help quitting, they are not always powerfully motivated. Here are some ways to get them moving.
When you read Milton H Erickson’s case studies, it can seem as if he was working on another plane entirely at times.
Therapy goals are great ways to give a client a sense of confidence and engage them in their therapy – as long as they do them!
The technique of ‘priming’ – the art of preparing clients for change and optimistic goal setting – can get ‘difficult’ clients on the right track and engaging with therapy.
Learned helplessness – feeling helpless when you’re not – is a central feature of depression. Here’s how you can help a client take back control.
When a memory gets ‘stuck’ and doesn’t age, a client may need a little hypnotic help allowing it to fade into the background.
The idea of ‘resistance’ is deeply embedded in psychotherapy, but how you approach a recalcitrant client can greatly effect how they respond to you and your suggestions.
Of every 100 people who experience a traumatic event, only 20-25 will go on to develop symptoms of PTSD. It’s important to know how to tell if a client is traumatized or not.
Praise has got out of hand in recent decades and little attention has been paid to its unintended side-effects.
Dealing with toxic people is difficult, and a good therapist needs to show their clients how.
All effective therapy involves reframing, so here are 3 ways to help make your reframes work for clients.
Jealousy can be difficult to deal with if you’re purely dealing with thoughts, because it’s driven by emotion. Here are a few ideas to help change the emotions behind it.
Sometimes as a therapist, counsellor or psychologist you need to be a little artful to get the clammed-up client communicating.
When you begin with the end in mind, ending therapy feels natural and right to clients.
4 principles and techniques for treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in your clients.
Five tips for approaching inferiority complex in your therapy, counselling or psychology practice.
How to help the bereaved client who feels that without their deceased loved one, their existence is meaningless.
Sometimes we need to help our clients find the shades of grey so they can build on the more subtle improvements in their situation.
Before assuming something’s seriously wrong, assess how your client is meeting the Primal Human Needs we all share.
If you’re treating less severe anxiety conditions, CBT techniques can be useful when used with approaches that work directly to calm the emotions. These are 3 simple ways we can help the client take back control.