Category Archives: Basic & General

Mental Health Check-Up

Basic & General, Treatment Approaches

We are advised to go for health check-up every year (for those above 50 years old) and every 2 to 3 years (for those younger and are rather healthy). But it seems that mental health or our psychological wellbeing are never part of it.

During the last two years, I started to see some younger people who are generally not doing too badly coming to see me. Why?

“I just want to know if I’m okay.” (usually facing some major events in life)

“I don’t want things to get worse or out of control.” (usually feeling a little “not right” but still manageable)

“I don’t see why not [doing this]. It’s good to speak to professionals to learn about ourselves anyway” (same with the above)

“If there’s a problem, I want to solve it. If it isn’t, it’s good to know, and I get to understand myself and improve my resilience or coping skills anyway” (same with the above)

When I first came back to join the local mental health field, I used to think that the Malaysians would only see a mental health professional as a last resort, if they had any other choices, they wouldn’t come to us. So usually when they finally show up and ask for help, their problems are in almost their worst form, with comorbidity and complications (Do you know that when you ignore/suppress your emotion and the information it’s trying to tell you, it can show up as some physical symptoms?). It is often hard and taking a lot of time to help them get better. But…

Things start to change! (just a little, but it’s worth writing!)

These people make me happy, as their therapist, as a practitioner in the field, as a person in the community. People start to see the importance of looking after their own emotional and psychological wellbeing, when it feels a bit not right or when they are a bit unsure, before things get worse and too complicated. People start to see the need to get a “psychological check-up”, our health is no longer just about the physical health! Not just that, it’s also about improving our self-awareness, general wellbeing, coping abilities and resilience! People are now more open to learn about psychology, and improve their general sense of psychology wellbeing.

What do you think? Will you do so?

Why people come for Therapy

Basic & General, Treatment Approaches, , , ,

There are many different types of therapy, and there are many reasons people approach those therapists for help. Here are some reasons:

In general, for any psychotherapy:

  • Feeling moody, low, and/or depressed
  • Feeling anxious
  • Lacking confidence
  • Worrying too much
  • Not able to sleep/rest well
  • Relationship related problems
  • Feeling hopeless and lost
  • In need to talk to somebody and get some advice
  • Combination of all the above (common!)
  • Obsession and compulsion related
  • Eating related disorders
  • Anger related problems, being irritable
  • Schizophrenia and psychotic related symptoms
  • Being diagnosed as Personality Disorders (e.g. Borderline is more commonly seen)
  • Being diagnosed as developmental disorders (e.g. ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, learning disability)
  • Wanting to be assessed to see if anything is wrong (just like when you go for medical check up; this is not common, but I’ve seen a few now!)
  • In need of guidance during their self-discovery and self-improvement journey (this is rare! But glad that I’ve seen a few too!)
  • In need of guidance after being diagnosed of cancer
Taken from google image.

For hypnotherapy:

  • Wanting to remove a piece of memory
  • Wanting to forget something or someone
  • Wanting to recall something or someone
  • Being in pain
  • Wanting to be more confident
  • Looking for the root cause of some recent problems
  • Feeling lost, uncertain with the future
  • Hoping to release some emotions
  • Hoping hypnosis is the solution to their problems that couldn’t be solved otherwise
  • Wanting to achieve something great
  • Wanting to increase motivation to… (e.g. work, study, lose weight, workout)
  • Wanting to focus better
  • Wanting to change a bad habit (e.g. smoking, not exercising, nail-biting)
  • Wanting to improve general wellbeing and sense of happiness
“… And on the way out, you won’t notice my car parked in a no parking zone.”

Disease, Disorder, Syndrome, Disability, Dysfunction

Basic & General

A disease is a pathological condition that negatively affects the structure and/or the function of all or part of an organism, and it is not due to any immediate external injury.
Examples of diseases: Huntington disease, heart disease, cancer.

A disorder is a disruption to regular and normal bodily function and structure. The mind and body is in a state of confusion.
Examples of disorders: mental disorder (and almost all the subtypes like anxiety disorders, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, mood disorders), chromosome disorder.

A syndrome is a collection of signs and symptoms associated with a specific health-related cause. This group of symptoms quite consistently occur together. A syndrome is directly defined by the set of symptoms.
Examples of syndromes: irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Down Syndrome.

A disability is any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or interact with the world around them. These conditions, or impairments, may be physical, sensory, mental, cognitive, developmental, intellectual, social, or a combination of those.
Examples of disabilities: vision impairment, physical disability, intellectual disability, specific learning disability. (Many diseases and disorders mentioned above can lead to disability)

A dysfunction is an abnormality or impairment in the operation of a specified bodily organ or system, it can also be a deviation from an accepted social behaviour.
Examples of dysfunctions: sexual dysfunction, cognitive dysfunction, kidney dysfunction.

An illness is an unhealthy condition of the body or the mind that lasts for a period of time. It appears to be a broader term that can include most of the above mentioned (?).
Examples of illnesses: flu, diarrhoea.

Image from Madison.com

Notice that the definitions are not clear cut, especially in Psychopathology.

Mindfulness Recordings （正念錄音）

Basic & General, Treatment Approaches

Quick Update: I have been fairly occupied after starting my lecture role in May, plus my other therapy and supervision work. So some of you might notice that I haven’t been updating my blog as regular as I used to. I’ll be writing more regularly again as I slowly adapt.

Today I’m starting this page to share some mindfulness recordings by me, I intend to update this list from time to time.

Brief Mindfulness (8.5 minutes)

簡短正念 （8分鐘）

生活教练

Basic & General, Treatment Approaches, , , , ,

这年轻的女生于去年7月左右与我联系，告诉我说她不认为自己有严重的心理问题，但需要帮助。当我第一次见到她时，她说她想重考SPM考试，但一直缺乏动力。而且已经拖了2-3年还没去考。

我不太习惯接受相对“健康”的来访者／患者。通常，我的大部分患者的任何抑郁/焦虑或情绪困扰量表上的得分都很高。但是那时我想接收一些不同类型的来访者，所以我和她开始合作解决她的问题，例如拖延症，处理愤怒和恐惧等负面情绪，处理忧虑和负面思想，建立常规和练习好的生活习惯，还有一些冲动行为的问题。

我们并没有花费很长时间或很多次咨询，大多数治疗目标均已实现。我最近与她联系，她说她目前在等待SPM的成绩的同时正在做咖啡师的工作。

我意识到这原本就像我常在治疗快结束时（当病情稳定得多时）或当他们正在服药并由精神专科医生转介给我时（他们第一次见我时，症状已相对缓解），常做的事情。我还认为，这其实是很多人需要的，尤其在他们积累了很多无法解决的问题之前，对自己的感觉越来越糟之前，开始陷入沮丧或其他心理问题之前，就该得到的帮助。

因此，我决定写这篇关于“生活教练”（或生活指导, life coach）的文章，给予一些不见得患有心理问题，但需要一些生活上的帮助、引导的人。一般上，可以使用催眠、基于正念的CBT（认知行为疗法）和ACT（接受和承诺疗法）来得到帮助。

如果您希望达到以下目标，请在下方评论或与我联系（电子邮件hello@huibee.com或whatsapp 0172757813）：

  • 变得更自信
  • 对特定领域/情况更有信心
  • 学习/工作更有动力
  • 厘清您的人生/职业/未来目标
  • 解决拖延症！
  • 解决生活中的特定问题
  • 成为更好的问题解决者
  • 厘清您的人生价值/方向
  • 开始为实现目标而采取行动
  • 变得更具情感弹性
  • 处理负面情绪，思想和忧虑
  • 更加集中注意力并更好地控制注意力（提高集中力与专注时长）
  • 更好的沟通
  • 更好地表达情感和感觉
  • 执行您的健身和饮食计划，以保持或减轻体重
  • 应对各种恐惧（例如与上司/权威人物谈话，黑暗，身高，约会等）
  • 畅所欲言并捍卫自己的权利
  • …和更多

The Intention/Belief behind a Behaviour

Basic & General, Treatment Approaches, , , ,

I talked about letting go of thought VS chucking it away in a 2016 post: Let it go OR Chuck it away. Now, let’s look at this:

Winnie the Pooh & Piglet

The behaviour that Pooh and Piglet do are the same, i.e. they both don’t think about the scary dream. But what Pooh is doing, is “letting go”, whereas piglet? He’s trying hard to chuck it away.

Quite often people overlook this key distinction, they think they copy the same behaviour, and will then achieve the same results. But the beliefs and intention behind the behaviour are important too. Are you worrying about the dream so you don’t think about it? Or do you not care about it so you don’t think about it?

Similarly, on anxiety, are you practicing relaxation because you think anxiety is bad and you can’t tolerate it? Or are you practicing relaxation because it helps you perform better when you’re less anxious? It’s the beliefs and intention behind that differ, the behaviour done or presented is the same.

It’s like on “acceptance” (a word I tend not to use with clients). Do you accept the pain because it doesn’t really matter anymore, or do you accept it because you have no choice (is it still acceptance?)?