Gudrun Frerichs, PhD

Overindulgence and Impulse Control

It is no secret that a lot of what people do is motivated by their need for being happier. There are those who indulge in excessive eating, drinking, using drugs, shopping, exercising, or ranting and raving at every other person around them, to name just some examples. All in the service of making good feelings stay longer and/or bad feelings to go away.

They overindulge in a 'pet-activity' not for the activity's sake, but in a vain attempt to regulate their emotions, to feel better - often to the detriment of one's health, financial situation, or relationships.

Client Survey About the New ACC Pathway

Almost three weeks have past since ACC has implemented the new clinical pathway and the concerns are already mounting. Inspite of a widespread protest by survivors, counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, doctors, and social workers ACC has, supported by the Minister for ACC, Nick Smith, been enabled to ignore the concerns and push through with their new pathway. Upon demand from the Minister, this new pathway will be reviewed by ACC in 6 months time.

To make sure that the review will reflect actual data and not wishful thinking, we have designed a client survey about the impact on the new pathway for survivors. The survey is suited for existing, returning, and new clients. Make your voice count by taking a few moments to fill out the online survey. Please, forward the link to the survey or to this blog post to other survivors. Here is the link:

NZ Psychotherapist Association challenges ACC

Excerpts from NZAP feedback to ACC:

We continue to have serious concerns about the proposed pathway. 

 We urge ACC to stop commencement of the proposed pathway.  Further consultation and integration of discussion with providers needs to happen and there cannot be adequate consultation with ACC’s deadline looming.

To reiterate the main points of disagreement:

Open Letter to Nick Smith, Minister for ACC

Please let me share with you a document that we have worked on for the last two weeks and that will be presented today to the Minister for ACC.

If you want to to make your voice count as well, write to your member of parliament.You can find the contact emails here! Or you write to the Dr. Peter Jansen, one of the chief medical advisers for ACC, [email protected]. Tell them how your counselling experience was, how long it took for you, and how it has impacted on your life!

Here is the open letter the NZAP has sent to the Minister for ACC:

Mental Health Diagnosis Causes Poor Medical Care

A recent research has caught my attention, because it reflects experiences that I have made in my clinical practice many, many times about the discrimination clients experience when they need medical care.  The University of Leister was involved in a research programme that investigated the quality of care. They found out that

The study by a team of researchers led by Dr Alex Mitchell from the University of Leicester Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine, warns that medical care delivered across most branches of medicine to those with a mental health or substance abuse diagnosis is of inferior quality to the usual standard of care. This important systematic review showed widespread inequalities of care in those with mental health problems.

If this is your experience as well, how about sending a note/email/letter to your health ombudsman or even Minister of Health with the link of this research attached?
People With Mental Health Problems Receive Inadequate Medical Care, Study Suggests

The Importance of Reflective Practice

In the context of client work the reflective practitioner has to ask him/herself continuously: “Who is the person behind the professional label and what does he/she bring to the table”? Such self-reflections are necessary to assure that practitioners do not get caught up in their own past experiences when approaching those they are working with.

To do so practitioners have to thoroughly question what their contribution to a certain incident is. This ability to step back and into the ‘observer’ position is also known as becoming the observing ego. It allows practitioners to closely examine the interactions between themselves and the client. How are your affective, behavioural, and cognitive experiences contributing to a problem situation?

Love, Loss, Trauma and Community

One characteristic of human societies is that people come together and seek closeness with others in the face of traumatic experiences. “Emotional attachment is probably the primary protection against feelings of helplessness and meaninglessness; it is essential for biological survival in children, and without it, existential meaning is unthinkable in adults”.

The Quick Fix for Panic and Anxiety

If you suffer from severe anxiety or panic attacks, the likelihood is that your doctor reaches for the prescription pad and prescribes a psychotropic drug (psychotropic drug = a drug capable of altering one’s mind, emotions, and behaviours). Only in very few instances will you be referred for psychotherapeutic treatment. Drug treatment seems to be the treatment of choice.

EMDR: A Magic Wand or a Waste of Your Time?

Eye Movement  Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) has for the last 17 years tickled clinician’s – and client’s - hopes that finally a technique has been found that will help those unfortunate people who suffer from the debilitating symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

 How does it work? In principle, you remember a particularly painful or disturbing incident, make a mental picture of it, and pin this picture on the therapist’s index finger. The therapist then moves his/her finger in front of your face. You follow this movement with your eyes (head remains still) for a certain amount of repetitions. The idea is that after the treatment you have no longer the distressing emotions attached to your memories.

The Truth about Drugs and Mental Health

Today I am talking about fixing depression quickly through medication, the years old fairy tale of  the “Chemical imbalance” in the brain that causes depression and a whole array of other mental illnesses. Whereas in past decades people have blamed mothers for peoples’ mental health problems, nowadays theories favour the defective brain as the cause for issues people struggle with.