Katina is the author of the soon to be published book – Neurocounselling: Using Modern Counselling Skills and Neuroplasticity to Achieve Life Changing Results. The book is written for practitioners in the wellness industry.
Katina has been teaching the Diploma of Counselling for the past 10 years and is also a mental health accredited social worker and clinical hypnotherapist in private practice at Vive.
The following is an excerpt from Katina’s upcoming book release:
Have you noticed your two different ways of thinking? We have one system of thinking that is fast, intuitive, emotional and at a “gut reaction” level, and another system of thinking that is slower, logical and involves an attentive deliberation.
These different thought processes can also be understood in terms of conscious and unconscious processes.
The following incidents are examples of the different speeds of thought and the resulting mostly automatic behaviours.
A friend told me about a time when a snake slithered over his foot and he felt his body freeze. He vividly remembers the experience of not being able to move during this snake encounter.
A woman once told me about being in a situation where someone said something that she found so outrageous and offensive that she felt herself freeze and having no ability to speak and no idea of how to respond.
I was with another friend swimming in a small shallow rock pool when she suddenly jumped up feeling panicked and started to flee from the water. She later told me she thought she had felt a blue whale brush her leg.
I was with a group of friends when we heard a loud noise. I noticed how we all turned toward each other looking for reassurance and safety from people we each felt a positive connection with. With the realisation that it was a heavy object that had fallen and that everything was okay, we were all able to again relax and enjoy our friendships.
On a trip to America I remember how deliberate I had to be when paying at restaurants. I had to calculate and add the appropriate tip to the bill.
With the exception of the last scenario, you can see how the thinking and behaviours are fast, automatic and outside of conscious awareness and control. The last situation is an example of slow and conscious thinking.
Our fast thinking – our habits – often serves us well. I like I can tie my shoe laces, drive the car and read without conscious effort. What about though when our fast thinking does not serve us well?
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