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

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

AIPC March 15, 2013 Career Issues, Counselling Theory & Practice, Workplace Issues

The MBTI is a forced-choice inventory based on Carl Jung's theory of Psychological Types. When people complete the instrument, they are given a four-letter code as their results which, when verified, indicates their personality preferences as one of 16 Types. The different type preferences describe different ways of working, taking in information, and making decisions. They distinguish different but equally effective learning styles and methods of managing, leading, coaching and teaching. Comparison of different types yields wide disparities in general communication style and capacity for – and ways of negotiating – teamwork, relationships, and counselling (Geyer, 2011). All of the results are stated in non-judgmental language, because the underlying assumption of the MBTI is that all pref... »

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Optimism Skills and Resilience

AIPC February 21, 2013 Life Coping Skills, Social Support

Do you tend to look on the bright side of things? More importantly for your clinical work (if you are a counsellor, psychologist or social worker): do your clients? It used to be deemed generally irrelevant whether someone tended to see the glass “half-full” or “half-empty”, but the work of Martin Seligman in recent decades has shown that optimists have an advantage in the game of surviving and thriving. »

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Signs and Symptoms of Compulsive Eating

AIPC December 20, 2012 Addictions, Mental Health Issues

Also referred to as “food addiction” and “binge-eating disorder” (BED), compulsive overeating is characterised by an obsessive-compulsive relationship to food. This condition is not only manifested by abnormal (amount of) food intake, but also by the intake and craving for foods that are, in themselves, harmful to the individual. People suffering from this disorder engage in frequent episodes of uncontrolled eating, or binge eating, during which they may feel out of control, often consuming food in frenzy, past the point of being comfortably full. The binge is usually followed by feelings of guilt, shame, and depression. In order to feel better about themselves, binge eaters will surrender to cravings with another binge, which they hope will numb out the bad feelings; thus, the cycle repea... »

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Helping Clients Deal with Narcissists

AIPC December 17, 2012 Mental Health Issues, Personality Disorders

This article focuses on how practitioners can assist clients in dealing with narcissists. You will be introduced to some of the “positive traits” that make narcissists attractive at first sight. You will also learn the criteria for Self-Defeating Personality Disorder (SDPD) and get a range of “survival tips” to help clients deal with narcissists in their life. »

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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...