I am pleased as punch to welcome South Africa-based clinical psychologist Pat Orner Oliver to the CounsellingResource.com team — both as our new Assistant Editor and as the latest member of our International Advisory Board. (And speaking of site news, we’re still looking for a new clinical psychologist contributor to our Ask the Psychologist column, so if that could be you, drop us a line!)

Hot on the heels of our expansion into mental health-related and health-related Facebook apps, the CR Health Net team is now leading the way in delivering practically up-to-the-minute medication information for consumers and health professionals, straight from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Life certainly isn’t as predictable as we’d sometimes like it to be. Sudden or unexpected changes of plan — even small ones — can have unforeseen knock-on effects.

True psychopaths are neither as common nor as easy to identify as the popular media would have you believe. But many do go unnoticed or are totally misperceived. Avoid victimization by those devoid of empathy, remorse, and conscience by understanding more about this personality type.

In my work as a therapist, I find that lying — to oneself and to loved ones — is a major obstacle to change. For many, the advice “just tell the truth” misses the myriad causes of lying and the skill set necessary to tell the truth even when the stakes are high.

When faced with a challenge or when deciding on a goal you want to achieve, do you tackle it with a sense of confidence and the anticipation of eventual success? Or do you feel a sense of dread and impending failure? If it’s the latter, then it may be that your personal sense of self-efficacy needs some attention.

I started writing a few months ago about our five senses, and I’m ending with the sense of sight; it may be last but it’s very far from least. In fact, the sense of sight is so powerful and all-encompassing that it can actually detract from the subtle messages of our other senses. It permeates our language and has a particular hold on our imagination.