Integrating Focusing and Differentiation: A Therapeutic Path for Couples in Intimate Relationships

Author(s):  
Evi Zohar

Continuing the workshop I've given in the WPC Paris (2017), this article elaborates my discussion of the way I interlace Focusing with Differentiation Based Couples Therapy (Megged, 2017) under the systemic view, in order to facilitate processes of change and healing in working with intimate couples. This article presents the theory and rationale of integrating Differentiation (Bowen, 1978; Schnarch, 2009; Megged, 2017) and Focusing (Gendlin, 1981) approaches, and its therapeutic potential in couple's therapy. It is written from the point of view of a practicing professional in order to illustrate the experiential nature and dynamics of the suggested therapeutic path. Differentiation is a key to mutuality. It offers a solution to the central struggle of any long term intimate relationship: balancing two basic life forces - the drive for individuality and the drive for togetherness (Schnarch, 2009). Focusing is a body-oriented process of self-awareness and emotional healing, in which one learns to pay attention to the body and the ‘Felt Sense’, in order to unfold the implicit, keep it in motion at the precise pace it needs for carrying the next step forward (Gendlin, 1996). Combining Focusing and Differentiation perspectives can cultivate the kind of relationship where a conflict can be constructively and successfully held in the inner world of each partner, while taking into consideration the others' well-being. This creates the possibility for two people to build a mutual emotional field, open to changes, permeable and resilient.

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-108
Author(s):  
A.F. Jităreanu ◽  
Elena Leonte ◽  
A. Chiran ◽  
Benedicta Drobotă

Abstract Advertising helps to establish a set of assumptions that the consumer will bring to all other aspects of their engagement with a given brand. Advertising provides tangible evidence of the financial credibility and competitive presence of an organization. Persuasion is becoming more important in advertising. In marketing, persuasive advertising acts to establish wants/motivations and beliefs/attitudes by helping to formulate a conception of the brand as being one which people like those in the target audience would or should prefer. Considering the changes in lifestyle and eating habits of a significant part of the population in urban areas in Romania, the paper aims to analyse how brands manage to differentiate themselves from competitors, to reposition themselves on the market and influence consumers, meeting their increasingly varied needs. Food brands on the Romanian market are trying, lately, to identify new methods of differentiation and new benefits for their buyers. Given that more and more consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about what they eat and the products’ health effects, brands struggle to highlight the fact that their products offer real benefits for the body. The advertisements have become more diversified and underline the positive effects, from the health and well - being point of view, that those foods offer (no additives and preservatives, use of natural ingredients, various vitamins and minerals or the fact that they are dietary). Advertising messages’ diversification is obvious on the Romanian market, in the context of an increasing concern of the population for the growing level of information of some major consumer segments.


2021 ◽  
pp. 108602662110316
Author(s):  
Tiziana Russo-Spena ◽  
Nadia Di Paola ◽  
Aidan O’Driscoll

An effective climate change action involves the critical role that companies must play in assuring the long-term human and social well-being of future generations. In our study, we offer a more holistic, inclusive, both–and approach to the challenge of environmental innovation (EI) that uses a novel methodology to identify relevant configurations for firms engaging in a superior EI strategy. A conceptual framework is proposed that identifies six sets of driving characteristics of EI and two sets of beneficial outcomes, all inherently tensional. Our analysis utilizes a complementary rather than an oppositional point of view. A data set of 65 companies in the ICT value chain is analyzed via fuzzy-set comparative analysis (fsQCA) and a post-QCA procedure. The results reveal that achieving a superior EI strategy is possible in several scenarios. Specifically, after close examination, two main configuration groups emerge, referred to as technological environmental innovators and organizational environmental innovators.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radu-Ioan Popa

Abstract The present article follows an in-depth analysis of several relevant articles and major findings concerning the return to work of cancer patients, in various situations, from a manager and patient point of view, putting into discussion the effects and consequences of different factors that may influence the well-being of the patient at work and impact the organizational life. The concepts of returning to work and integration are scarcely analysed throughout the scholarly literature in the case of employees diagnosed with cancer, due to several reasons presented in the paper: from the complex topic of investigation that many studies fail to approach in terms of confidentiality, technical, ethical and moral grounds to the specific and difficult apparatus for research in the case of an even more complex, multiple instances and personalized manifestation long-term illness. In conclusion, the general framework solicits for a more integrated model of research and future multi-facet schemes for interventions, considering that there is a general consensus focusing on the need for connecting the health services with the employee and employer level, alongside stakeholders’ active participation.


Author(s):  
D G Baitubayev ◽  
M D Baitubayeva

The work shows the role of the vegetative nervous system (VNS) in the functioning of long-term memory, identity mechanisms of long-term memory in the human evolutionary adaptation and substance dependence. It is shown that, depending on the substance of the body are states like pro- gressive adaptation, that the bodycondition, depending on the chemical and psychogenic psychoactive- factors state of the same circle. It proposed the creation of a branch of medicine that combines study of the dependence of the organism, both on the chemical and psychoactive psychogenic factors. Given the classification of psychoactive factors.Onomastics formulated definitions of terminology changes and additions to be used in a new branch of medicine. Proposed allocation of the International Classifica- tion of diseases separate chapter for the classification of states like progressive adaptation of the body depending on psychoactive factors.


2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 159-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Clark ◽  
Tânia Lisboa

Success in the performing arts, like sports, is dependent upon the acquisition and consistent use of a diverse range of skills. In sports, an understanding of safe and effective use of the body is required to facilitate long-term involvement in that activity. In order to assist athletes to attain their performance goals, and ensure healthy and sustained involvement, long-term athlete development (LTAD) models have been devised and adapted by professional sporting bodies throughout the world. LTAD models emphasize the intellectual, emotional, and social development of the athlete, encourage long-term participation in physical activities, and enable participants to improve their overall health and well-being and increase their life-long participation in physical activity. At present there is no such long-term development model for musicians. Yet musicians must cope with a multitude of career-related physical and mental demands, and performance-related injuries and career burnout are rife within the profession. Despite this, musicians’ training rarely addresses such issues and musicians are left largely to learn about them through either chance or accrued experience. This paper discusses key concepts and recommendations in LTAD models, together with music-specific research highlighting the need for the development of a comprehensive long-term approach to musicians’ training. The results of a survey of existing music training programs are compared to recommendations and the different development stages in LTAD models. Finally, implementation science is introduced as a methodological option for identifying how best to communicate the body of evidence-based knowledge concerning healthy and effective music-making to young student musicians.


Author(s):  
Kim I. van Oorsouw ◽  
Malin V. Uthaug ◽  
Natasha L. Mason ◽  
Nick J. Broers ◽  
Johannes G. Ramaekers

Abstract Background and aims There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that the psychedelic plant tea, ayahuasca, holds therapeutic potential. Uthaug et al. (2018) demonstrated that a single dose of ayahuasca improved mental health sub-acutely and 4-weeks post-ceremony in healthy participants. The present study aimed to replicate and extend these findings. A first objective was to assess the sub-acute and long-term effects of ayahuasca on mental health and well-being in first-time and experienced users. A second aim was to extend the assessment of altered states of consciousness and how they relate to changes in mental health. Method Ayahuasca ceremony attendants (N = 73) were assessed before, the day after, and four weeks following the ceremony. Results We replicated the reduction in self-reported stress 4-weeks post ceremony, but, in contrast, found no reduction in depression. Also, increased satisfaction with life and awareness the day after the ceremony, and its return to baseline 4 weeks later, were replicated. New findings were: reduced ratings of anxiety and somatization, and increased levels of non-judging 4-weeks post-ceremony. We replicated the relation between altered states of consciousness (e.g., experienced ego dissolution during the ceremony) and mental health outcomes sub-acutely. The effects of ayahuasca did not differ between experienced and first-time users. Conclusion Partly in line with previous findings, ayahuasca produces long-term improvements in affect in non-clinical users. Furthermore, sub-acute mental health ratings are related to the intensity of the psychedelic experience. Although findings replicate and highlight the therapeutic potential of ayahuasca, this needs to be confirmed in placebo-controlled studies.


2003 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Krumer-Nevo

The capacity of women who live in deep and long-term economic and social deprivation to be helped has rarely been examined from the point of view of the women. This paper describes narrative research on the experience of receiving assistance as it is perceived by women who participated in the Yachdav program and were helped by it. Fourteen interviews were analyzed according to the narrative approach and grounded theory. Three patterns of help reception were revealed: (a) The Calming Pattern, in which help is perceived as the possibility to escape—to relax and calm down, (b) The Empowerment Pattern, in which help is perceived as enabling the women to learn, to receive, and strengthen, and (c) The Re-Biography Pattern, in which assistance is perceived as bringing about a new self-awareness. These findings suggest the desirability of reconsidering presuppositions concerning the needs of this population and its capacity to be helped. The results also point to implications for practice and further research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lise Verbruggen ◽  
Lindsay Sprimont ◽  
Eduard Bentea ◽  
Pauline Janssen ◽  
Azzedine Gharib ◽  
...  

Despite ample evidence for the therapeutic potential of inhibition of the cystine/glutamate antiporter system xc− in neurological disorders and in cancer, none of the proposed inhibitors is selective. In this context, a lot of research has been performed using the EMA- and FDA-approved drug sulfasalazine (SAS). Even though this molecule is already on the market for decades as an anti-inflammatory drug, serious side effects due to its use have been reported. Whereas for the treatment of the main indications, SAS needs to be cleaved in the intestine into the anti-inflammatory compound mesalazine, it needs to reach the systemic circulation in its intact form to allow inhibition of system xc−. The higher plasma levels of intact SAS (or its metabolites) might induce adverse effects, independent of its action on system xc−. Some of these effects have however been attributed to system xc− inhibition, calling into question the safety of targeting system xc−. In this study we chronically treated system xc− - deficient mice and their wildtype littermates with two different doses of SAS (160 mg/kg twice daily or 320 mg/kg once daily, i.p.) and studied some of the adverse effects that were previously reported. SAS had a negative impact on the survival rate, the body weight, the thermoregulation and/or stress reaction of mice of both genotypes, and thus independent of its inhibitory action on system xc−. While SAS decreased the total distance travelled in the open-field test the first time the mice encountered the test, it did not influence this parameter on the long-term and it did not induce other behavioral changes such as anxiety- or depressive-like behavior. Finally, no major histological abnormalities were observed in the spinal cord. To conclude, we were unable to identify any undesirable system xc−-dependent effect of chronic administration of SAS.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  

The work shows the role of the autonomic nervous system in functioning of long-term memory, the identity of functioning of the mechanisms of long-term memory in the evolutionary adaptation of a man and dependence on psychoactive substances. It is shown that the dependences of the body on psychoactive substances are the states of progredient adaptation, that the states of dependence of the organism on psychoactive substances and on psychogenic psychoactive factors are the states of the same type. Classification of psychoactive factors is given. It is proposed to create a new branch of medicine combining study of the body’s dependence both on chemical and psychogenic psychoactive factors. Onomastic definitions to be used in this new branch of medicine are presented.


2020 ◽  
pp. 43-61
Author(s):  
Nataša Rizman Herga ◽  
Samo Fošnarič ◽  
Andreja Kolar

People are becoming increasingly sedentary, including students attending the upper level of primary education. Due to school, young people spend a lot of time sitting in class and at home, which has a negative effect on their health, especially if their work environment, including school furniture, does not meet all the criteria in terms of physiological, psychological, and sociological guidelines for healthy furniture design. Chairs, as school furniture, have been designed according to standards that take into account ergonomic compliance with the body height of pupils. Slovenian classrooms are equipped with standard conventional chairs. In our student-oriented research, we were interested in whether chairs designed according to the standard are suitable for adolescents and what, if any, additional criteria must be met from the users’ point of view. The study included 192 upper level pupils (56.3 % girls and 43.7 % boys), age of 12.4 ± 1.7 years. The research is based on quantitative and qualitative methodology. The descriptive causal non-experimental method was supported by the observation method. The results of the survey show that older students (81.6 %) are of the opinion that they spend more time at school than at home. Due to prolonged sitting, older students (55.3 %) report problems more often than younger ones (28.4 %). Nearly two-thirds of younger students (63.8 %) also believe they sit more in school than at home. The results show that prolonged sitting negatively affects their health or general well-being. Differences between the responses of older and younger pupils are statistically significant both in the opinion expressed regarding the location of sitting (p = 0.010) and in the reporting of problems due to prolonged sitting (p = 0.001). There are no statistically significant differences between the sexes in both groups of older and younger pupils. Pupils sit on hard, uncomfortable, conventional chairs that are not tailored to their needs. They want to use comfortable, soft, swivel chairs with backrests and armrests. The study has shown that, in addition to comfort, school chairs must provide dynamic or active sitting. The present study confirms that static and rigidly shaped school chairs do not offer support for active and restless youth. Therefore, chair design must change to meet the physical, ergonomic, cognitive, and social needs of their users.


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