Hey everyone! A trainee trying to hone my CBT skills…I’m trying to use Theory A/B at the level of rules and assumptions rather than the typical anxiety/OCD presentations most literature describes it for, and struggling with a few things.
As an example (not based on anything real, just hypothetical)…let’s say someone might have a rule/assumption “If I’m not successful, I don’t deserve to be loved.” Theory A might be this rule. How might you construct theory B - especially after evaluating it (i.e. where this rule/assumption comes from, rationality of it, pros/cons).
Any clinical experience or text recommendations beyond the standard anxiety literature welcome!! Looking to see how to expand use of theory a/b because it seems so helpful and non confrontational!
With the use of group texts/ group messaging apps, social media, etc, is this possible to create? Would doxxing and the frenzy caused by it possibly be linked to either types of illnesses?
Guys I'm considering amity Bangalore for bsc clinical psychology is it a good University ? How is the faculty , syllabus and patient flow ? Also how is their support for research in hons. Is it's a good choice for bsc clinical psychology hons overall??
A while ago, my therapist told me (M26) something that genuinely changed the way I see my life. She told me “You cannot fully heal in complete emotional isolation.”
We’re doing Schema Therapy, and for the first time I’m beginning to understand how much damage chronic emotional suppression can do to a person.
I’m Iranian and I grew up in an environment where self expression was always reciprocated with harsh punishment. By the way, to add insult to injury, I’m gay. my homosexuality has only worsened my situation; as you know, Iran is one of the (if not the most) deadliest countries for gays.
So for me, humor, spontaneity, softness, vulnerability and basically happiness felt dangerous very early on. Over time, I became extremely hyper-vigilant and emotionally self-censoring. I learned how to appear composed, serious, untouchable. People often perceive me as calm or intimidating, but internally I’ve spent years operating like someone constantly waiting for emotional danger. If you’ve watched the series “Desperate Housewives”, Bree’s character basically sums me up.
The strange thing is that therapy IS helping.
A lot, actually.
I no longer hate myself the way I used to. I’m less internally violent toward myself. I understand now that many of my behaviors were survival mechanisms, not personality flaws.
But we recently hit a wall in therapy:
I genuinely do not have a safe person in my life.
No one I can consistently trust emotionally.
No one I can fully unmask around.
No one whose presence makes my nervous system feel calm instead of alert.
And apparently at some point, healing stops being purely internal work. Human beings need emotionally safe connection. The nervous system needs evidence that not every relationship will eventually become humiliating, controlling, invasive, or unsafe.
So now I’m in this very strange position where I’m trying to learn safe connection almost from zero as an adult.
I’m Iranian, and being gay in a small town makes me stand out in ways that have often made social environments feel psychologically exhausting. I think years of feeling misunderstood, watched, stereotyped, or emotionally “othered” made me retreat deeply into myself. I became hyper independent, private, and self-contained… which protected me, but also isolated me.
I used to work as a freelancer English tutor until the government shut down the internet and now internet is being sold for astronomical prices, and my being here just goes to show how urgent my situation is.
I’m not posting this for pity or attention; I’m just asking:
Has anyone here ever had to build the concept of “safe connection” completely from scratch as an adult?
And if you did, how did you find your people without losing yourself in the process?
Has anyone gone through the recent May 2026 judgment related to psychology training and qualifications? Could someone clarify whether the M.Phil. in Psychology is still valid? I am currently in the 4th year of my bachelor’s in Psychology
should I continue on this path, or are there changes I should be aware of? Like at this point I really don't know
Hiee! I recently finished my Bachelor’s in applied psychology from amity university noida. My cgpa isn’t good enough (6.34) I want to drop psychology and transition into HR or digital marketing. Should i go for a masters in these fields? Which volleges are offering these courses and is it 1/2 ywars courses? And is it okay to no pursue maaters, will it land me a decent paying job?
Hi everyone! 😊
I’m a psychology student conducting a short survey for my diploma thesis on the relationship between cognitive science and artificial intelligence, particularly in the areas of learning, causal reasoning, and language understanding.
I’m looking for participants with an academic or research background in fields such as cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, or AI/computer science.
The survey is anonymous and takes approximately 5–7 minutes.
I would really appreciate your participation and/or sharing the survey with others who might be interested. Thank you very much!
I’m a psychiatry registrar (resident equiv) and this essay grew out of a question I keep encountering clinically: what do we do with forms of suffering that are real, profound, and clinically consequential, but not reducible to pathology?
The ideas behind this essay have come about from 8 years of being a doctor and over a decade of meditative practice and study of Buddhism.
I argue that medicine lacks a satisfying mechanism for this kind of suffering; that the Buddhist account of dukkha names something important here; and that the predictive processing account of mind, may offer a way to understand this suffering mechanistically, through a serious conversation with contemporary cognitive science, contemplative wisdom and clinical care.
I’d be particularly interested in critique of the core mechanistic claim and whether the bridge I’m making between dukkha and predictive processing holds.
This is really a follow up, to an essay I posted a couple of months ago here, that sparked some interesting discussion. This piece is much less metaphysical, and deeply grounded in human suffering and how we approach it in medicine in a practical sense. Whilst I relate it to medicine, I think the core idea here is relevant to all humans.
The full essay can be found here: https://open.substack.com/pub/liambaker677130/p/the-suffering-medicine-cannot-name?r=6tdtsz&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
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I am from Egypt living in the US. I was forced into handcuffs and put into a hospital for telling staff that I hear and feel spirits
I was held against my will by two hospital workers to get an injection in my arm
I feel deeply saddened because now I don't hear or feel my family in heaven speaking to me saying they love me as they wait for me to arrive.
I don't feel the lord guiding my hand and guiding me to safety telling me everything will be okay as I cast my worries to him
I don't feel the warmth of my wife's deceased mother's hand on my shoulder telling me thank you for loving my daughter snd she weeps tears of joy to see her daughter happy
I don't see visions of my ancestors, the pyramids or the Pharoah as they speak to me telling me my family history and how I'm connected to mother nature
I feel nothing. I don't have emotion anymore
I don't feel mother nature speaking to me telling me to take care of her children, the trees, the bushes, and grass
Usually I feed mother nature by watering her plants and leaving fruit near the roots for the animals to gather. Now I lay in bed wondering, where did my soul go?
I hold mother nature's hands from the leaves of trees or the leaves of bushes and I tell her to please speak to me, please let me hear your voice again and your emotions and now I feel and hear nothing
Why must I be punished for being connected to the realm of heavens?
I feel that I must hide my true self because I am in danger of being forced into a police car in handcuffs and given medicine that feels like chemicals in my body
What is psychosis? Why do these doctors say I'm ill and I must have a lawful act to stay in a facility where the workers are mean to me and treat me like I am an animal ?
I cry every night missing my family in heaven and missing the lord speaking to me. I miss the feeling of mother nature taking care of me
I don't think I'll ever feel their comfort and emotions again. I don't know if I'll ever feel their touch on my shoulder. I'm worried I won't ever hear the cries of mother nature again
I don't like this system in America. Why does everyone think i am a danger and I will harm them? The heavens tell me from right and wrong not to harm others.
I am a rising college junior working on my neuroscience bachelor’s degree. I truly love the subject, am passionate about it, and do well in school, but am not quite sure what I want to do with it.
I don’t think I want to go to med school, but I am open to other medical related career options. I am not sure how I feel about a career as an academic/professor, or researcher. I suppose I am just looking for other “non traditional” career options or specific careers within “research” that may be options. I am open to getting a masters/doctorate too if it opens up more options. Please share your niche careers or experience working in any of these jobs!
If metacognition is perceived as the highest level of intelligence (thinking about thinking), is there something higher? If so, what thoughts are there?