Welcome to the AIPC Online Article Library. The library includes over 300 articles focusing on counselling, life effectiveness skills and mental health. We invite you to explore our range of articles by clicking the category links above, or using the drop-down menu on your right. To learn more about AIPC, visit www.aipc.net.au

Latest Articles

Treating Anxiety with CBT: The Evidence

AIPC October 1, 2014 Anxiety / Depression, Counselling Theory & Practice, Mental Health Issues, Therapies & Approaches

Generally considered a short-term therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) often consists of about 8 to 12 sessions in which client and therapist work collaboratively to identify problem thoughts and behaviours (click here to learn more about CBT’s principles and practices). CBT is considered the gold standard in the psychotherapeutic treatment of anxiety disorders and several meta-analyses (i.e., studies reviewing the results of multiple studies) have been published in recent years regarding the efficacy and effectiveness of CBT for anxiety (Stewart & Chambless, 2009; Hoffman & Smits, 2008; Norton & Price, 2007). »

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What is CBT? Principles and Practices

AIPC September 11, 2014 Counselling Theory & Practice, Therapies & Approaches

If you are a mental health helper of almost any stripe: social worker, counsellor, psychologist, psychotherapist, or even psychiatrist, it would be surprising for you not to have heard of CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy), such is its fame in the mental health professions. We can broadly define it as a combination of cognitive and behavioural therapeutic approaches used to help clients modify limiting, maladaptive thoughts and behaviours, ones that are often inconsistent with consensual reality (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). The basic premise of CBT is that emotions are difficult to change directly, so CBT targets emotions by changing the thoughts and behaviours that are contributing to the distressing emotions. »

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Motivational interviewing: Definitions, Spirit, and What It Is Not

AIPC August 27, 2014 Counselling Theory & Practice, Therapies & Approaches

The initial description of motivational interviewing (MI), provided by William Miller in 1983, has evolved through both clinical experience and empirical research into the evidence-based practice it is known as today. Differing from more “coercive” methods for motivating change, motivational interviewing does not impose change, but supports it in a way which is congruent with the person’s own values. The most current definition (among a set which has shown continuous evolution) is that MI is: “... a collaborative, person-centred form of guiding to elicit and strengthen motivation for change” (motivationalinterview.org, n.d.) »

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Suicide: Supporting People with Special Needs in Grieving

AIPC August 14, 2014 Mental Health Issues, Self-Harming / Suicide

How can you best offer support to someone who is bereaved by suicide? What attitudes, translated into caring actions, can best facilitate the bereaved person’s coping in the immediate and short term, and their healing in the longer term? In a previous article we provided you with a guide to clarify what you can do to help the suicide-bereaved. In this article we explore special issues and unique grieving needs for a number of groups of people, including parents, children and young people, older people, people with disabilities and minority groups (lesbian, gay, and bisexual people). »

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Case Studies

A Case Using Brief Psychodynamic Therapy

AIPC November 27, 2014

Wendy is a 54 year old woman who has two adult children and has been married for twenty-nine years. Her husband, Steve, has recently and unexpectedly informed her that he no longer loves her and that he wants a divorce. Wendy was shocked to hear this...

A Case of Lost Direction

AIPC November 25, 2014

Jenny has come to counselling due to strong feelings of dissatisfaction with her life. She is 48 years old, un...

Case Study: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

AIPC June 7, 2013

Marian, a psychologist who specialised in anxiety disorders, closed the file and put it into the filing cabine...

Communication

The Fine Art of Compassion

AIPC May 15, 2019

Imagine this scenario: you are keen to get a particular job and an opportunity for it comes up. You prepare meticulously for the interview, but somehow, it doesn’t go well. The interviewers don’t seem to warm to you, and you know in your heart that y...

Building Shame Resilience in Clients

AIPC June 1, 2018

Jungian analysts have called it the “swampland of the soul”. Other psychotherapy writers have observed how it ...

Strategies for Helping Families to Enhance Resilience

AIPC July 19, 2017

If you are supporting a family in transition, you may perceive huge differences between them and the character...

Counselling Theory & Practice

Men and Emotions: From Repression to Expression

AIPC August 19, 2019

In our previous article (read it here), we asked why men do not seem to express emotion as easily as women do. Was there some pathology, or should we just put the differences down to male-female tendencies? We identified Dr Ron Levant’s notion of “no...

Men, Emotions and Alexithymia

AIPC July 30, 2019

She sends him little “I love you” texts during the day, and wonders why he doesn’t even whisper the three magi...

The Fine Art of Compassion

AIPC May 15, 2019

Imagine this scenario: you are keen to get a particular job and an opportunity for it comes up. You prepare me...

Life Coping Skills

The Fine Art of Compassion

AIPC May 15, 2019

Imagine this scenario: you are keen to get a particular job and an opportunity for it comes up. You prepare meticulously for the interview, but somehow, it doesn’t go well. The interviewers don’t seem to warm to you, and you know in your heart that y...

The Benefits of Intentional Daydreaming

AIPC January 23, 2019

Your fitness tracker reminds you to walk away from your computer every hour to get needed movement – and then ...

Procrastination: What Your Client Needs to Know

AIPC October 24, 2018

95% of us procrastinate (Steel, 2010) – accruing negative consequences – despite having recognised for 500 yea...