“The petrol light’s on”…
An unwelcomed thought at the best of times but very real this week. The media’s coverage of potential fuel shortages has created a frenzy and ground the nation to a standstill. Hour long queues have formed for a substance which is responsible for transporting us to our desired destination. At Pocket, this situation got us wondering about a more important fuel crisis.
Clients who visit our psychologists for consultations often believe that they’re constantly at a standstill in their lives. A single psychological difficulty is preventing them from reaching a desired goal or state of mind.
When people are struggling with something, psychologists ask what is fuelling the psychological difficulty? The process of exploring, understanding and adjusting the fuel sources is at the heart of what we do. We call this ‘formulation’ and often use this as an alternative to a diagnosis.
Formulation:
A client and psychologist work together to understand the difficulty and any significant events, relationships or environments which could have contributed to its development and maintenance. In short, it’s a hypothesis based on psychological theories with consideration of the client’s personal interpretation of their experiences.
Our therapeutic work has shown that many of us are not aware of what fuels their psychological difficulty, whether it be anxiety, relationship problems or work stress. We can get sucked into unhelpful patterns without awareness; rather like panic buying fuel! At Pocket, we think that this is the real fuel crisis and the media should be covering it!
So, here are six common fuels to psychological difficulties:
- Early childhood experiences (i.e. bullying)
- Troubling family dynamics (i.e. problems in communication)
- Unrelenting high standards (i.e. perfectionism and self-criticism)
- An absence of compassion and nurture towards ourselves
- Lack of perceived control and sense of hopelessness
- Rigidity (i.e. a non-flexible response to change)
If you would like some help to discover what fuels your psychological difficulty, we offer one-off adult consultations. Sometimes, one session is all it takes to reduce the fuel supply. However, we also provide follow-up sessions for those who feel they need support to manage the change process. And of course we can help families discover their fuel supply too!
As always, take care.
Pocket Family Psychologist.
