Chris Mackey and Associates Newsletter

Psych Spiels Celebrates its 100th Episode

The practice podcast, Psych Spiels and Silver Linings released its 100th episode in March and shall continue releasing episodes every second Monday. Our goal is to provide high quality and original mental health information free to our clients and the general public. Since the podcast started, it has covered topics such as Depression, Anxiety, Changing Unwanted Behaviours, Avoidance, Dissociation, Burnout, Conflict Management, OCD, Stress Management, and many other related topics to psychology.

Thank you to everyone who has reached out with feedback or questions over the 101 episodes that have now been released. The podcast has been accessed so far in 99 different countries.

Those who have not heard the podcast yet can find it here, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you usually listen to podcasts.

Psychology Today Article on Synchronicity Refers to Work in our Practice

Dr Bernie Beitman, a psychiatrist from Virginia and founder of The Coincidence Project recently published an article on synchronicity in Psychology Today. The article, which described applications of meaningful coincidences in the psychology field, referred directly to Chris's psychotherapy work in our practice. It included a link to a research poster that Chris presented at the 2015 World Congress of the International Positive Psychology Association with case studies illustrating how therapists might draw on clients' experience of synchronicity to improve wellbeing.

See Psychology Today article here

Chris Presents Synchronicity Seminar with Lisa Buksbaum

Chris and Lisa Buksbaum, a fellow board member from The Coincidence Project and New York-based founder of the Soaring Words organization, presented the first one-hour seminar in our Monthly Speaker Series on the topic of "Synchronicity, Spirituality and Thriving". The presentation on Wednesday, March 15th. explored the idea that synchronistic experiences can help us relate to a spiritual dimension in life, with significant health benefits. Learning to cultivate and draw on synchronicity can enhance your well-being in meaningful and tangible ways.

The joint presentation was attended by people from all over the world including Australia and America and has helped garner support for The Coincidence Project, a recently established international organisation based on a collaboration of “Coincidence Ambassadors” – writers, researchers, therapists and other professionals with a deep background in the experience and study of coincidence, synchronicity and serendipity.

Click here for more information on The Coincidence Project, including future monthly presentations.

How to Thrive Documentary wins Best Spiritual Film Award

The How to Thrive film documentary, for which Chris was the production psychologist, received the Best Spiritual Film Award last month at the Toronto Documentary Feature and Short Film Festival. Further screenings are scheduled next month in Melbourne, Singapore and Belgium. Forthcoming screenings and an explanation of how to arrange a local screening are explained at the film's website. It's heartening to see the film getting the recognition in deserves for demonstrating how positive psychology can be successfully applied for those with significant mental health problems. The film has some challenging content in depicting such problems, but is ultimately hopeful and uplifting.

Click here to watch the trailer for How to Thrive

Chris and Nahanni Complete Training on Chair Work

Chris and Nahanni completed a training workshop with renowned psychologist Dr Scott Kellogg on chairwork.

Chairwork is a therapy approach that can help address internal conflicts and strengthen healthy parts of our personality. This approach is commonly associated with gestalt therapy and evolved out of psychodrama. It draws on gestalt therapy principles of helping people more fully express their emotions, including conflicting emotions, to develop a more holistic and integrated way of responding to challenging situations.

The training took place over three days, and both Nahanni and Chris are enjoying incorporating what they learned in the workshop in their therapy sessions.

Chris has written a blog, Enhancing the Power of Therapy with Chairwork, explaining what it is and how it's used. We have also released a recent podcast episode, Supporting Change with Chairwork, on a similar topic.

Ellie Earns Registration as a psychologist

You may have seen Ellie at the front desk or spoken to her on the phone in recent months since she returned from finishing her Honours degree in psychology. She is now studying for her Master's in Clinical Psychology degree at The Cairnmillar Institute and has been registered as a provisional psychologist with AHPRA, the body responsible for administrating the psychology profession. Ellie will continue to be on the administration team while she is studying.

Podcast - Psych Spiels and Silver Linings

The practice podcast Psych Spiels and Silver Linings released its 100th episode, The Significance of Taking the Next Step, about a fundamental aspect of psychological therapy, helping someone take the next step. It can seem simplistic on the surface, but the next step can often be difficult, uninteresting or uninspiring. In this episode, we discuss some ways of taking the next step, look at the benefits of mobilising ourselves in whatever way we can and talk about some situations where people have really benefitted from taking the next step.

In the most recent episode, Supporting Change with Chairwork, we discussed a therapy technique called chairwork that comes from Gestalt therapy and involves acting out different parts of ourselves.

We discuss some of the principles behind chair work and the benefits of acknowledging and expressing different parts of ourselves.

You can listen to the podcast on your favourite podcast player or at psychspiels.com.au

If you've enjoyed the podcast, we would love it if you could rate and review and share the podcast with a friend as this will extend the reach to others who may benefit.