I was asked recently by a reader, what would I say is the single most important thing parents can do to make for a happy home? I have considered that question and this is my response.
In my experience, setting healthy clear boundaries that respect the individuality of your child is crucial for a successful happy…
Adult Mental Health
The most positive people are the ones that can also see life for what it truly is; a beautiful wonderful gift, not without adversity, writes Richard Hogan
WHAT makes someone think positively? This is a question I often ask myself when I’m in the therapeutic setting with a client that is having difficulty seeing any good in…
Children are far less likely to have psychological issues if the separating parents promote a healthy relationship, writes Richard Hogan
In the 1980s child psychiatrist Dr Richard A Garner coined a term to describe the process whereby one parent turns their child or children against the other parent; his term for this behaviour was ‘parental alienation’. And…
By Richard Hogan
One of the most difficult relationships to navigate is the one we have with our ex-partner in the immediate aftermath of a separation.
It brings with it so many new challenges and yet it is something that really doesn’t get written about that often. The issues that brought the relationship to an end can…
The nature of our rapidly lived lives can often mean that we lose contact with our partners, writes Richard Hogan.
The intimacy that was once so easily expressed in those early days can quickly dissipate due to the demands and responsibilities each member of the couple feels in that relationship. And the nature of the modern couple…
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…
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…
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…
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…
New Year, new you, right? But what if I told you that most of the resolutions you will make this year are designed to fail so that you can achieve the self-fulfilling prophecy that you are just too weak to be able to accomplish it in the first place?
Or that, resolutions are often set into…