mental health

13/03/2023
Author: David Clark on 13/03/2023
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Helping People Overcome Emotional Distress: The Power Threat Meaning Framework

After nearly twenty years working as a neuroscientist, I closed down my university research laboratory at the beginning of the millennium. I no longer believe in the biomedical approach to helping people overcome addiction and mental health problems. I believe that long-term use of psychiatric drugs causes more […]
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28/02/2023
Author: David Clark on 28/02/2023
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‘What Happened? What Mental Health is Really About’: Bill Saunders

Here is the Forward of a book written by Perth Clinical Psychologist Bill Saunders, What Happened? What Mental Health is Really About. This is a really important book, essential reading for anyone interested in mental health or psychological wellbeing. I agree with all of Bill’s statements below about […]
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09/02/2023
Author: David Clark on 09/02/2023
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Three Things to Know About Mental Health and Trauma

I just love the film clip below from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health that involves Dr. Bruce Perry talking about mental health and trauma. Here are the three major things that Bruce points out: Trauma sharing is a way for storytellers, not experts, to lead the conversation. Storytellers […]
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27/12/2022
Author: David Clark on 27/12/2022
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‘Healing is in Our Stories’ by Deron Drumm RIP

Here’s an excellent article by the late Deron Drumm about the importance of Stories in helping people recover and change the mental health system which appeared on Mad in America in 2014. ‘”It’s important that we share our experiences with other people. Your story will heal you and your […]
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21/11/2022
Author: David Clark on 21/11/2022
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The Politics of Personal Distress

A couple of months ago I came across an excellent article in the Guardian newspaper by UK clinical psychologist Sanah Ahsan entitled ‘I’m a psychologist – and I believe we’ve been told devastating lies about mental health’. The article is well worth reading. It is important to note […]
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17/01/2022
Author: David Clark on 17/01/2022
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Why I Train Grandmothers to Treat Depression: Dixon Chibanda

‘Dixon Chibanda is one of 12 psychiatrists in Zimbabwe—for a population of more than 16 million. Realizing that his country would never be able to scale traditional methods of treating those with mental health issues, Chibanda helped to develop a beautiful solution powered by a limitless resource: grandmothers. […]
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09/11/2021
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2021
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‘What Happened?: What mental health is really about’ by Bill Saunders

Some of you will will know that I believe that the biomedical approach to mental health—using drugs to treat what are considered to be biochemical disorders—causes more harm than good. I have previously recommended the book What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. […]
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30/09/2021
Author: David Clark on 30/09/2021
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Factors Facilitating Addiction Recovery: A Summary

Some of you will know that I run two other websites, one of which, Recovery Stories, focuses on addiction and mental health recovery. Over the period from March to August I posted about 100 articles on my blog, but had to stop for a time while I was […]
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22/09/2021
Author: David Clark on 22/09/2021
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On Relationships and Connectedness: Bruce Perry

In two previous blogs, which you can find here and here, I have described the book What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, written by Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey. It’s one of the most important books I have read in the many years I’ve […]
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12/01/2021
Author: David Clark on 12/01/2021
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How I Came to Write About Carrolup, Part 2

Yesterday, I posted the first part of the Preface to my book Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe, which told the story of how I came to be involved with Carrolup. Here is the continuation of the Preface, which describes my background and how it has influenced my decision […]
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14/09/2020
Author: David Clark on 14/09/2020
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Life-saving Optimism

Here is an by intriguing article by Chigozie Obioma entitled Life-saving optimism: what the west can learn from Africa from the Guardian online in 2018.  ‘Nigeria, like most African nations, has been taught and dictated to since its independence, largely seen by the rest of the world as a receptacle for […]
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22/10/2019
Author: David Clark on 22/10/2019
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Why I Do What I Do: My 100th Blog

This is the 100th blog I personally have written and posted on The Carrolup Story. You can peruse the Story and Healing blogs I have written since John and I launched the website in November 2018. I thought I’d celebrate my ‘100’ by describing how I came to […]
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13/09/2019
Author: David Clark on 13/09/2019
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The Four Stages of Recovery

I was looking through one of my other websites, Recovery Stories, yesterday. I came across a blog I posted in 2014 about an article on recovery from mental health problems by Mark Ragins. That blog is as pertinent today, so here it is: Mark is a leading recovery figure […]
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09/05/2019
Author: David Clark on 09/05/2019
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Community Building

Here’s an article on asset-based community development (ABCD) which I wrote some time ago for the Kinship Connections WA website. This approach can facilitate healing in a community. “Mental health is not a product of pharmacology or a service that can be singularly provided by an institution: it is […]
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26/03/2019
Bessel van der Kolk, M.D, author of The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Author: David Clark on 26/03/2019
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The importance of safety and reciprocity in mental health

In my last Healing Blog, I recommended highly a book by Bruce Perry and Maia Szalavitz entitled The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And other Stories From a Child Psychiatrists Notebook. Another seminal book about the healing of trauma is The Body Keep the Score: Brain, Mind, and […]
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09/01/2019
Eilean Donan Castle at the entrance of Loch Duich in Scotland.
Author: David Clark on 09/01/2019
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A Journey Toward Recovery: From the Inside Out

Some of you will know that I have worked in the addiction and mental health field for over 40 years, spending the first 25 years as a neuroscientist working on the brain neurotransmitter dopamine. I eventually closed my laboratory because I: (1) stopped believing in disease models of […]
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