Entry for 31 March 2007:
The spring equinox has passed, and April is upon us, along with the Paschal Full Moon, just a few days away. (The Easter Moon is the first full moon on or after 21 March, which is treated by the church as the first day of spring; Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon.) Spring has come to Glasgow; many flowers are in bloom, the daffodils are just past their peak. Diane returned from California this past Tuesday, and Mikio Shimizu and his son Hocuto came from Japan the same day. Here are some of the things that have been going on since my last entry, 10 days ago:
The three diploma courses have completed their terms for now, and are on a 4 week break, leaving things somewhat quieter in the Counselling Unit, at least for the time. To fill up the vacuum, the Staff Base and office are switching places, providing Tracey with an office in the process. This has caused a certain amount of chaos, not to mention dust, and computer equipment has been piling up in the Research Base next to my office.
I went to the British Psychological Society meeting in York, where I gave a paper on my generic framework of qualitative research activities as part of a panel put on by the new qualitative research division of the BPS. The best part of this was hanging out with David Rennie and talking to him about philosophy of science and especially his emerging philosophical system for qualitative research.
The EFT-2 training workshop met on Wednesday for a session on Motivational Interviewing and Self-harm splits (risky behavior splits would probably be a better name for them, since self-cutting and suicidal behavior are excluded). This was a very interesting session focusing on EFT approaches to substance abuse related behaviors that involved doing things that one knows are potentially harmful or dangerous. Every time I do this workshop, I come away thinking that the topic deserves much more attention, since it presents fairly different issues than depressive self-criticism splits, for example.
This past Thursday, a lot of students turned up for the MSc course meeting, more than we’ve had in several months. It took all evening just to go around and provide research consultation for all of them! We got good feedback for the more structured format that we have been moving toward, and a request for even more feedback, in the form of announced topics.
This was followed by another great meal at the Sisters Restaurant, a welcome dinner for Mikio and his son.
This is so much happening; it’s difficult to keep up with it all: The Social Anxiety Study Group is making good progress with the analyses of the qualitative descriptions provided by group members, and also with the research protocol for the study. I hope to provide more information on this in the coming days.
The Counselling Psychology doctorate course being created in collaboration with Glasgow Caledonian University is also on track for its September initiation, if Ewan Gillan, who has been doing most of the work on it, can keep from melting down.
ScotCon, and Scottish SPR are also progressing nicely, with plans for its September kick-off also coming along.
In short, progress on many fronts, so much happen that it has been difficult to find time to write about it. During the next week, I plan to write the ethics proposal the Social Anxiety and Research Clinic protocols and to work on my applications for Chartering in the British Psychological Society. I also hope to catch up on some of my writing obligations…. We will have to see!
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