The Little Book of Calm:
The Little Book of Calm:
The Little Book of Calm:
Tame Your Anxieties, Face Your Fears, and Live Free
Calmness is possible, and The Little Book of Calm has the magic formula. This essential guide offers techniques, advice, and inspiration on the most effective ways to manage anxiety. From exercises to help put your worries into perspective, to techniques to relax when anxiety strikes, clinical psychotherapist Aaron Balick shows you how to feel more at ease and achieve a sense of calm.
The Psychodynamics
of Social Networking:
connected-up instantaneous culture and the self
Over the past decade, the very nature of the way we relate to each other has been utterly transformed by online social networking and the mobile technologies that enable unfettered access to it. Our very selves have been extended into the digital world in ways previously unimagined, offering us instantaneous relating to others over a variety of platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Drawing on his experience as a psychotherapist and cultural theorist, Dr. Balick interrogates the unconscious motivations behind our online social networking use, powerfully arguing that social media is not just a technology but is essentially human and deeply meaningful.
Keep Your Cool
How to deal with life’s worries and stress
(For 11 – 15 year olds)
Does life keep making you stressed, worried and unable to achieve what you want? Then this book is for you! Deal with issues such as bullying, family strife, exam panic and what it means to be you in your life.
Filled with lots of practical activities providing support and guidance, this book will keep you cool, calm and collected in the modern world.
CONTRIBUTED TO:
Quitting: The Myth of Perseverance and How the New Science of Giving Up Can Set You Free
Author - Julia Keller
In Quitting, Pulitzer prize-winning writer Julia Keller dives deep into 'the neuroscience of nope,' as well as the social phenomena that drive our reluctance to throw in the towel, to dismantle the myth of perseverance once and for all. Combining reportage from the front lines of neuroscience, pop culture and concrete practical advice for not just why but when and how to quit, Keller gives readers permission to pull the plug, live with intention and shape their own lives without fear and pressure - at work, at home, in our relationships, and beyond. She has spoken to more than 150 experts for this book, from scientists to sociologists to business psychologists.
Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual
Author - Tamsin Embleton
This comprehensive manual will help musicians and those working in live music to identify and cope with the various physical and psychological difficulties that can occur during, or as a result of, touring. It covers topics including mental health, peak performance and performance anxiety, addiction, group dynamics, relationship problems, dealing with the media, physical health, diversity and inclusion, crisis management and post-tour recovery.
Clicks - How to Be Your Best Self Online
Author - Natasha Devon
There are three billion people online. Each of those people has their own biases, agendas and issues. It’s little wonder when young people step into the digital world and are bombarded with ‘hot takes’, calls to cancel ‘problematic’ individuals, trolls, fake news and celebrity sales pitches they’re likely to find it overwhelming and confusing. This book wants to change that.
The Book of Hope: 101 Voices on Overcoming Adversity
Edited by Jonny Benjamin and Britt Pflüger
Aaron Balick: Chapter Contributor
101 brilliant contributors to The Book of Hope will help you to find hope whenever you need it most. Award-winning mental health campaigner Jonny Benjamin, MBE, and co-editor Britt Pflüger bring together people from all walks of life – actors, musicians, athletes, psychologists and activists – to share what gives them hope.
These 101 key voices in the field of mental health, from the likes of Aaron Balick, Lemn Sissay, Dame Kelly Holmes, Frank Turner and Zoe Sugg, to Joe Tracini, Elizabeth Day, Hussain Manawer and Joe Wicks, share not only their experiences with anxiety, psychosis, panic attacks and more, but also what helps them when they are feeling low. This joyful collection is a supportive hand to anyone looking to find light on a dark day and shows that, no matter what you may be going through, you are not alone.
The Routledge International Handbook of Jungian Film Studies
Edited by Luke Hockley
Aaron Balick: Chapter Contributor
The Routledge International Handbook of Jungian Film Studies weaves together the various strands of Jungian film theory, revealing a coherent theoretical position underpinning this exciting recent area of research, while also exploring and suggesting new directions for further study.The book maps the current state of debates within Jungian orientated film studies and sets them within a more expansive academic landscape. Taken as a whole, the collection shows how different Jungian approaches can inform and interact with a broad range of disciplines, including literature, digital media studies, clinical debates and concerns.The book also explores the life of film outside cinema - what is sometimes termed 'post-cinema' - offering a series of articles exploring Jungian approaches to cinema and social media, computer games, mobile screens, and on-line communities.
The Routledge International Handbook of Jungian Film Studies represents an essential resource for students and researchers interested in Jungian approaches to film. It will also appeal to those interested in film theory more widely, and in the application of Jung's ideas to contemporary and popular culture.
Depth Psychology and the Digital Age
Edited by Bonnie Bright
Aaron Balick: Chapter Contributor
Google "the digital age" and you’ll discover it is rather broadly defined as "the present time"—when most information is available in digital form, as compared to the era before the rise of computers in the 1970s. Depth psychology is the study of the soul, first and foremost associated with uncovering and exploring the unconscious. This diverse and compelling collection of depth psychological insights reveals the archetypal aspects at work on all of us in the depths of the digital age. For one of the founders of modern depth psychology, Carl Gustav Jung, who was born in 1875 and died in 1961, the "digital age" remained in potentia, but even more than half a century ago, he had significant concerns about the challenges of a growing mind/matter split and the excessive focus of western cultures in particular on science, technology, and rational thinking at the expense of more soulful, reflective way of being. Jung warned that this trend toward "modernity" could be detrimental unless modernity could be adequately acknowledged and dealt with from a psychological view. What is asked for is that we re-boot our understanding of the psychological and soulful aspects of technology in order to adopt a new way of being in a digital world. The contents of this volume are profoundly archetypal, proffering a chance to re-invent our relationship to the digital age and re-infuse it with meaning and soul.
On! The Future of Now: making sense of our always on,
always connected world
Edited by Caroline McCarthy
Aaron Balick: Chapter Contributor
We’re living in an age of unprecedented human connectivity. Technology unites and interrupts us; it relays news, depicts worldwide photos, and shrinks the distances between our relationships. We tune into events elsewhere, witnessing the experiences of others unfolding in real time. Our communications paradigm has shifted and, with it, the interactions of our immediate environments have evolved. Published in partnership with Social Media Week and Nokia, On! The Futre of Now is a collection of essays and personal stories from leading thinkers in tech, media and entrepreneurship that provides insight into how social media and technology have impacted their lives and their work.
Psychotherapy 2.0: where psychotherapy and technology meet
Edited by Philippa Weitz
Aaron Balick: Series Consultant and Chapter Contributor
The digital age is both exciting and challenging for psychotherapy, opening the door to clients groups previously not able to access psychological help, whilst also providing the challenges caused by social media and internet abuse and how these impact on the consulting room. Psychotherapy 2.0 blows open the consulting room doors and shows successful pathways for attracting new clients to gain access to psychological help, as well as demonstrating that despite initial scepticism, working online as a psychotherapist or counsellor can be as effective as 'face2face' work: the therapeutic relationship may be different but it remains the centrally important feature for successful psychotherapy. It follows therefore that all psychotherapists and counsellors need to be fully informed about the impact of the digital age on their clinical practice. Psychotherapy 2.0 covers the key issues for psychotherapists and counsellors who are, or are thinking of, working online, include thinking about psychotherapy in the digital age, the requirements to modify training both for working online and also the digital issues as they arise within the face2face consulting room.
“This book explores the implications of the digital world for talking therapists. It covers both the theoretical and the practical, from the way the Internet might challenge and change current practice, to thinking about the legalities an training required to se t up as an online practitioner. The book also covers the exciting way in which digital technology is extending our concept of therapy to include new communities, new ways of working, and delivering support. It’s written with a broad audience in mind, so whether you’re just starting to learn about digital technologies or are a fully immersed “digital naïve”, this book will have something for you.” – Jen Hyatt, CEO, Big White Wall Ltd.
Media and the Inner World: psycho-cultural approaches
to emotion,media and popular culture
Edited by Caroline Bainbridge and Candida Yates
Aaron Balick: Chapter Contributor
This anthology offers unique, psycho-cultural perspectives on media, popular culture and emotion, as develop thought the AHRC research network, Media and the Inner World. Applying insights form the spheres of academic scholarship and clinical experience, the psychocultural approach of this book demonstrates the usefulness of psychoanalysis for nuanced approaches to media and cultural analysis. The chapters in this volume explores the relationship between media and the inner world by focusing on the inter-relationships between particular emotional themes and media contexts, ranging from fantasies of sporting ritual to the emotional work of cinema, the dynamics of digital narcissism and the relationships between paranoia and television. The book will be useful for students in Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Psychoanalytic Studies, and Psychosocial Studies. It will also be of interest to people in professional training and practice in psychotherapeutic organisations and to professionals involved in the culture and media industries.
Relational Ethics in Practice:
Narratives from Counselling and Psychotherapy
Edited by Lynne Gabriel and Roger Casemore
Aaron Balick: Chapter Contributor
Relational Ethics in Practice presents a new collection of narratives on ethics in day-to-day therapeutic practice. Highly experienced professionals form a range of roles in the therapeutic professions explore ways of developing ethical and effective relationships. The contributors proofed the reader with engaging and informative narratives that indicate how ethics can inform and influenced practice in a variety of clinical contexts across the helping professions. These personal and professional narratives will encourage people to think more proactively about ethics and the impact that they have on both therapeutic practice and life in general.
Anti-discriminatory Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy:
Second Edition - Edited by Colin Lago and Barbara Smith
Aaron Balick: Chapter Contributor
Anti-discriminatory Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy is a ground-breaking text which identifies the ease with which individuals can be disadvantaged merely on the basis of their gender, race, culture, age, sexuality or ability. Examining these and other areas of discrimination, leading experts highlight how vital it is for counsellors, psychotherapists, and others in the helping professions – to be aware of and engage with their own social, political and cultural attitudes, and how they must develop their skills as culturally sensitive, reflective practitioners if counselling is to be truly accessible to all members of society.
The Agentic Role of Psychotherapy in Retaining Human Connection in the Age of Technology: A Response
European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling
In this short response paper psychotherapist and author Aaron Balick draws on the variety of themes that have arisen within the contributed papers to reflect on the wider issue of computer mediated human relations. In it he makes a distinction between the papers that focus on the therapeutic process mediated by technology and those that look more broadly at the paradigm of therapy practice in this context. Framing technology as a tool, the author pulls together both strands to explore what psychotherapy research may say about the broader issues of societies mediated by technology and how therapeutic research may contribute to these larger social issues.
Social Media, Identity, and Careful Culture: How Online Social Networks Limit Identity,
Amplify Difference, and Diminish Social Cohesion
Psychoanalytic Inquiry Special Edition - Edited by Michael Shulman
Aaron Balick: Author
Almost a decade after the publication of The Psychodynamics of Social Networking, this article develops its thesis further by addressing the socio-cultural frame in which social media is embedded. The ways in which identity is expressed online are deeply tied to powerful undercurrents of culture change and development. The architecture of social media serves to limit the expression of identity by fragmenting users into disparate online identity-based communities that enforce in-group norms, amplify differences between groups, and inhibit productive dialogue, empathy, and understanding. This creates a “careful culture” where certainty is amplified at the expense of ambivalence, uncertainty, and open exploration and dialogue. Real life examples from social media are utilized to illustrate the underlying dynamics that activate them.
TMI in the Transference LOL: Psychoanalytic reflections on Google, social networking, and 'virtual
impingement.'
Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society
Within the past decade, engagement with the Internet has expanded in
ways previously unimagined; Internet use is virtually ubiquitous. While a great deal of
research has gone into the psychological nature of this use (internet addiction,
adolescent engagement, and the like), little of it has taken a psychoanalytic angle or
sought to address perspectives on the human motivation to relate and the meanings
made from early and contemporary relations within the context of ‘Web 2.0’. This
article suggests that the arguably arcane setting of the consultation room provides a
unique space in which questions about online engagement can be explored. The
contemporary state of affairs with regard to social networking and Google is examined
in relation to a clinical example that serves as a reference point from which to open
broader questions about our culture’s relationship to the internet. A relational
psychoanalytic approach is utilised to theorise online relations with reference to the
‘analytic third’ and the developing concept of ‘virtual impingement’.
Mental Health in the Digital Age: Mana
Aaron Balick Interview by Muath Alomaireen
Available in Arabic
What can you tell us about the desire to be recognized by others online?
I would go further than this and say that recognition is not just a desire but a necessity. It’s important to make the distinction between validation, which is superficial, and recognition, which is a more complex and profound and is therefore more relationally nourishing than validation. I like to think of validation as a donut, something that tastes good but has no real value as a food, whereas authentic recognition is more like a nourishing meal. There’s nothing wrong with donuts, but you can’t sustain yourself on donuts alone. To stretch the metaphor, if you mostly eat nourishing food, and have donuts as occasional treats, and you’ll be fine, but not the other way around.
How Business Was My Therapist
BACP Private Practice Magazine (Dec. 2022)
Aaron Balick: Feature
When one pursues a direction that feels contrary to one’s character, there’s an opportunity for individuation that wouldn’t otherwise arise, writes Aaron Balick
The publication of my book, The Psychodynamics of Social Networking, gave me the opportunity to
enjoy my more extraverted side through public speaking and the provision of workshops on psychoanalysis and technology. It was through these activities that I became involved with the Stillpoint
community, then based in Berlin, and within a year of that, I had impulsively agreed to open up Stillpoint Spaces in London – a psychology hub with consulting rooms, and a co-working and events space.