Porn therapies – symptom management or root cause resolution? 22 January 2019 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Pornography , 1 Comment When it comes to porn therapies, there are two ways you can go. The first is the way that most of us unconsciously drift into—symptom management. We try to stop watching porn, first […]
Why do we always eat too much at Christmas? 21 December 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Patriarchy , No Comments Amid all the jollity of Christmas—much of it genuine, some of it forced—it’s an awkward question to ask. It disturbs the glossy patina of pre-Christmas rituals. Putting up the tree and decorating it, […]
To make change happen, you must be uncompromising 16 December 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Emotional principles , No Comments We all struggle with change. At the same time we often want change, or at least recognise the need for it. Things have become stale. Or a situation that we have long tolerated […]
Sex in patriarchy – how the past shapes sex today 15 December 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Patriarchy , Sexuality , 1 Comment In A brief history of shame, I wrote how patriarchy arose some 6,000 years ago, giving rise to male dominant, anti-female, anti-sexual societies. Here I’m going to examine the way […]
Bad Will Hunting – your shame is not your fault 13 December 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , Shame , No Comments “It’s not your fault.” In the Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting, much-loved actor Robin Williams plays a psychologist who treats an angry, uncommunicative South Boston janitor (played by Matt Damon) […]
Porn is a gauge of our sexual health 6 December 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Pornography , No Comments A lady friend recently recounted to me that she had been sitting on a train next to a man who was openly watching porn on his mobile. My friend felt very uncomfortable and found […]
Do you listen to hear or listen to respond? 18 November 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Emotional principles , How-to & step-by-step , 1 Comment Listening. Like breathing, it’s one of those things that we tend to take for granted—in other words, to assume that we do it well. I recently wrote the […]
The birds, the bees, and the fear of sex 8 November 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Sexuality , No Comments I can still vividly remember the place where my father took me aside, some time in 1976, for the obligatory ‘birds and bees’ talk that all teenagers faced back then. It was a […]
Hessa – my first experience of porn 6 November 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Pornography , 2 Comments I can see the place now, the place I had my first experience of porn. A terraced hillside in southern Switzerland, right down in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino. The hillside once grew grapes, which […]
How to develop your ‘inner observer’ 28 October 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: How-to & step-by-step , 1 Comment By definition, unconscious shame is invisible. The first step towards releasing it is developing the capacity to observe it—awakening our inner Observer, sometimes also known as our inner Witness. What, or who, is our […]