Page 9 – Therapy Institute

Learning Points: Post Leaving Cert holiday can be a parental dilemma

Now that the Leaving Certificate has ended and all that exam stress has dissipated and the house has returned to some semblance of normality, parents can finally start to enjoy the summer. And yet for many parents, a new kind of stressor is visiting them as they decide whether or not to let their teenage son…

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Questions Answered

Have we left it too late to unspoil our child?

I have only recently realised how spoilt my child is. Last week, my five-year-old son caused such a scene in our local shopping centre, because we didn’t buy him a toy he wanted. I felt like walking away from him because I could feel the judgment from the people who stopped and stared at us.…

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Adult Mental Health Front Page

Learning Points: Finding ourselves among the changing tribe

It’s about refusing to allow your dreams to destroy you, writes Richard Hogan So, my time in the Philippines has come to an end. After all the long goodbyes, mango floats, and tears I’m heading home, exhausted but with a full heart. I’m currently hurtling over the Himalayas towards the Western World, where my life awaits. Of…

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Adult Mental Health Front Page

Learning Points: ‘Do what is fulfilling, not expedient’

There are many names for the sea gypsies of the southern island of Davao in the Philippines: Badjao, Samal Badjau, or Bayao to mention but a few, writes Richard Hogan. They are an ethnic group traditionally from the islands of the Sulu Archipelago in the Philippines, they are also scattered around the costal areas of…

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Front Page Teenagers

Learning points: Exposure to porn corrupts young vulnerable minds

The terrible crimes that shook this country over the last number of weeks left all of us feeling a little numb and confused. Anastasia Kriegal’s murder at the hands of, what now appears to be, her classmates, is as incomprehensible as it is terrifying. And the senselessness of the Jastine Valdez abduction and murder by a stranger…

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Adult Mental Health Front Page

Learning Points: Embrace ageing for a longer and fuller life

We all dread it, the scarecrow staring back at us in the mirror. The circles, the hollow cheeks, the thinning hair and the down turned mouth. The terrible fish that stalks us all. Well, that’s if you look at ageing from a very negative viewpoint. And that’s exactly how the trillion-dollar industry built around it wants you…

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Comments on society

True equality means cherishing every opinion

Our society really isn’t seeking equality. It is a society that is seeking equality as long as your notion of equality is the same as mine, writes Richard Hogan. NOTHING has polarised our society so much in recent times as the abortion debate. It is an issue that I find very unsettling. And some would say I…

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Adult Mental Health Front Page

Learning points: The pursuit of happiness

Happiness. One simple word, yet an infinitude of meaning. The pursuit of which is a relatively modern phenomenon. It is indescribable. And yet, its absence can drive us to despair, writes Richard Hogan. In my clinical experience the inability to find it causes much mental dysphoria. Often, when I ask clients what the word means for…

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Questions Answered

My daughter gets upset when my boyfriend stays

I have been separated for two years. I had a difficult time on my own, but, thankfully, I have recently met a wonderful man, who is generous and caring. My six-year-old daughter likes him, but does not like when he stays over. She is angry and irritable in the mornings, after he has stayed. I…

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Front Page Teenagers

Learning points: Show your child how to cope with anxiety, not beat it

Parents often come to me feeling they have exhausted every avenue and are looking for practical steps to help their child’s anxiety. The parents often present as being very anxious themselves.When parents ask me ‘so, what should we do?’ I begin by looking at what has been their approach so far. It’s important, in the…

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