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The mind at work; explore the ins and outs of mental health in the workplace and how to optimize employee psyche and, by extension, your organization's bottom line.
When Validation Replaces Maturity
(Credit for Inspiration: Emily W. King) --- Validation Is Not the Same as Truth Validation has a proper place. People need to know they are heard. A person who is overwhelmed, hurt, afraid, ashamed, confused, or emotionally flooded often cannot immediately process correction, logic, or accountability. In those moments, validation can slow the room down. It can communicate presence. It can say, “Your pain is being noticed,” without requiring the person to defend every emotion before the conversation can continue. Used rightly, validation is not weakness. It is a relational tool that helps people stay connected long enough to face what is real.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast5 months ago in Psyche
The Difference Between Cruelty and Correction
Credit for Inspiration: Emily W. King) --- Pain Is Not Always Proof of Wrongdoing One of the most damaging confusions in modern relationships is the confusion between cruelty and correction. Cruelty is an act of contempt. Correction is an act of truth. Cruelty aims to belittle, punish, control, shame, or wound. Correction aims to bring reality back into view. The problem is that both can hurt. A cruel statement can hurt because it is vicious. A true correction can hurt because it exposes something that pride, comfort, denial, or fear would rather leave untouched. If the only standard is whether someone felt pain, then cruelty and correction become almost impossible to separate.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast5 months ago in Psyche
Men Are Not Afraid of Communication, Though They Are Tired of Punished Honesty
(Credit for inspiration: Emily W King) --- The Silence Is Not Always the Starting Point A common accusation in relationships is that men do not communicate. The complaint is familiar enough that it has become almost automatic. Men shut down. Men avoid hard conversations. Men refuse to open up. Men need to learn how to express themselves. There is truth inside that accusation when a man is careless, passive, immature, or emotionally absent. But the accusation often skips the more important question. What happened the last time he did communicate? What happened the last time he answered honestly, named the real issue, corrected the false assumption, admitted the painful truth, or said plainly what he had been trying not to say?
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast5 months ago in Psyche
When Truth Has to Protect Her Feelings
(Credit for Inspiration: Emily W. King) --- The Unequal Permission to Be Right There is a quiet double standard inside many modern conversations about relationships. Women are increasingly encouraged to stand on what they know, trust their discernment, speak their truth, hold their boundary, and stop shrinking themselves to keep peace. Men, however, are often given a different command. A man may also be right, but he is expected to find a way to be right that does not make the woman feel hurt, exposed, corrected, dismissed, insecure, embarrassed, or emotionally unsafe. The result is not equality. It is a conditional form of honesty where one person’s truth is allowed to stand directly, while the other person’s truth must first pass through the emotional response of the person receiving it.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast5 months ago in Psyche
Created Risk, Inherited Risk, and the Moral Line We Keep Erasing (A Society That Tells the Truth: Chapter 3)
The Distinction Modern Rules Refuse to Make One of the quiet failures of modern rule making is the refusal to clearly distinguish between risk created by choice and risk inherited by existence. When this distinction collapses, responsibility becomes confused, guilt spreads outward indiscriminately, and ordinary behavior is treated as morally suspect. This is not a minor philosophical oversight. It is the foundation beneath many of the injustices people now experience in public life, from transportation and health policy to everyday regulation and enforcement. When systems fail to differentiate between what someone causes and what simply exists, moral clarity erodes at every level.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast5 months ago in Psyche
The Mental Health Cost of The Cost Of Living Crisis
If only some piggy banks were this pretty. Some may not exist, while others would be smashed open into a difficult puzzle that cannot be put back together again. Sentimentality smashed like a Pinata by a bunch of sugar loaded little munchkins at a kids Birthday party. Beyond things being expensive (more so than ever, not sugarcoating this); the mental health ramifications of this prolonged cost of living crisis where sh!t is ever so real - where relief from such feels far fetched for some souls having to embrace this experience or adventure has to be talked about. Not swept under the rug. Even if your finances are not taking a back seat and you are doing just fine, that is amazing; yet in some way, shape or form it is fair to purport that the prolonged cost of living crisis and inflationary pressures are affecting the psyche and mental spirit of each and every pers0n.
By Justine Crowley5 months ago in Psyche
The Shape of a Better Life: How Doughnut Economics Reimagines Wellbeing
It is normal to be curious as to what Doughnut Economics is, and what it has to do with the mental health of people, both individually and collectively. Absolutely everything. Interest in this topic came about picking up an old, shrivelled up copy of Wellbeing Magazine at a random cafe. That article would have certainly been written prior to the pandemic, where a prolonged period of inflation and the rising cost of living followed suit.
By Justine Crowley5 months ago in Psyche
Reflection on My Group Counseling Course for My Clinical and Mental Health Master's Degree Program
The idea of submitting my story to the scrutiny of others is both exciting and terrifying. The easy part of my story to share with others is about my childhood experiences. My parents and siblings were all kind and respectful. I never went hungry, and for the most part I feel as if most of my emotional needs were met appropriately. From an early age, I was always helping in the local church. I learned the value for serving God and others from day one in my family unit. I enjoy sharing my testimony of salvation, which occurred when I was six years of age. What I remember more distinctively, is my water baptism experience. My dad baptized me and the symbolism of it truly resonated deeply in my young soul. I was eight years old when I got water baptized. I remember getting a new Bible at this time. Another thing that is easy for me to talk about is my experience being a father to my daughter. Everything I do in life is centered around the welfare and benefit of my daughter, who is growing up far too fast!
By Rowan Finley 5 months ago in Psyche
The Helper's Dilemma In Today's Professional World
Written by a human, for humans, always. --- So many people in today's world need help… And there are many different types of organizations that have come into existence to provide that help.
By H.E. Dr. Cody Dakota Wooten, COIE, DFM, DHM6 months ago in Psyche






