2 people = 1x2 = 2 possible conversations
	3 people = 1x2x3 = 6 possible conversations
	4 people = 1x2x3x4 = 24 possible conversations
	5 people = 1x2x3x4x5 = 120 possible conversations
	etc.

At JHCA, we find that is not uncommon for our clients to be struggling within one or more of their relationships. We can assist you to discover more useful ways of communicating within the myriad of relationships you may be involved in.

Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation and Mindfulness are 2 (of many) human coping strategies that have been profoundly important to John, the Principal psychologist at JHCA. He began to meditate in the mid 1980’s and was taught by Robert Meredith, an Englishman then resident in Sydney, who as a younger man headed up the Transcendental Meditation organisation in the United Kingdom and Europe for a number of years. Over the years John experimented with a number of ways to meditate, including the use of crystals, music, and creative visualisation, but often returned to the method in which he received the most formal training.

In recent years, the practice of Mindfulness has emerged as a powerful, evidence-based tool that enhances psychological health. John was introduced to Mindfulness through his reading and by training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) undertaken with Dr Russell Harris during 2006. Many of John’s clients find that the practice of Mindfulness provides a gentle and easy way for them to cope more usefully with their lives. For a more complete description visit Mindfulness.

Meditation and Mindfulness are coping strategies that have assisted many people to mange their lives better as it helps them to lower their level of stress as well as promote feelings of well being and relaxation. Some people are surprised to find for the first time in their lives that they are able to bring some control to their mind. They have discovered that they are able to be free their minds from the ‘continual talking’, whilst others report how useful it is to not have to listen to their previously never ending negative self talk.

Meditation and Mindfulness are powerful strategies available for us to use our minds more constructively and more fully, and thus, are strategies that open a way for us to experience our lives more positively and facilitates a state of mind from which to create optimistic possibilities.

Bhutan

In May 2007 I was fortunate enough to undertake an 11 day study tour to Bhutan where the focus was ‘Mindfulness, Meditation and Happiness, and how Eastern approaches have influenced Western thinking’.

Amongst many highlights of the trip was the time spent in the presence of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche at a teaching he presented in Paro on our first day in Bhutan. I was riveted as he offered locals more useful ways to cope with their distressing circumstances, ways based on 2500 years of a Buddhist approach on how their (our) thinking influences their (our) view and feelings of the situation. His audience were gently assisted to consider the usefulness of changing their thinking as a way of reducing their stress and frustration at life’s events and thus, learning how to experience their life more usefully. A number of times I thought, as I was observing and listening to Guru Rinpoche’s teachings, that I could have been attending a Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) workshop, but without some of the more direct challenges used by Dr Albert Ellis, one of the founders of CBT.

This first day in Bhutan was also memorable for a 15 minute experience of flying past Mount Everest, and our first glimpse of ‘Tigers Nest Monastery’, a magnificent series of buildings constructed on a narrow ledge some 900 meters up a sheer cliff face that was visited in the 8th Century by Guru Rinpoche, the Tibetan monk who introduced Buddhism to Bhutan.

The study tour to Bhutan was organised and lead by George Burns, a Clinical Psychologist from Perth, WA. George was undertaking his sixth trip to Bhutan in recent years. He is the author of 6 books and is the Director of the Milton Erickson Institute of Western Australia.

I first meet George Burns at the 2004 ASOCHA Conference where he presented a keynoted address on ‘Happiness’. During his address he stated that the King of Bhutan had decreed that his country would pursue a policy of ‘Gross National Happiness’. As an approach this fascinated and excited me.

I am not a Buddhist, but I declare as a Western Psychologist that there is much in the emerging field of evidence based Mindfulness, anchored in its Eastern origins, that offers me another psychological tool to help my clients to cope and manage their lives more usefully.

Selected photos from my memorable trip to the Kingdom of Bhutan during May 2007.