Mind Gymnasium FREE ebook library

In these free ebooks I make a gift of some of what I learned in my 24 years as a humanistic psychology practitioner.

During this time hundreds of people have trusted me to accompany them on sections of their life journeys.

We all learned a lot on these travels and these ebooks contain some of the working methods, knowhow and recipes for action that seem consistently valuable for the people I work with, and for me personally.

Dip in, taste, try out, and if any of it seems useful, take it into your life.
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Becoming a Person .PDF 1,052KB
This ebook explores the proposal that we learn to be who and how we are, and by implication can unlearn problematic patterns of belief and behaviour. It provides a cross-disciplinary way of linking the personal with the political and eventually the transpersonal aspects of life.

Bringing About Change .PDF 2,465KB
Find out about the Kirton Adaption/Innovation spectrum of creative styles that we employ when bringing about, or responding to change.

Client Guide .PDF 470Kb 18pp
What to look out for and what are reasonable expectations from a working relationship with a practitioner who offers psychological help.

Communication Styles .PDF 504KB
Based on a very practical analysis of interpersonal behaviour - this take on how we relate to each other identifies six basic ways of responding or intervening in situations with other people.

Conflict .PDF 3,183KB
A pictorial map of how conflicts often unfold and some of the options for navigating through them

Cultures of Cooperation .PDF 644KB
The recipe for cooperative inquiry outlined in these screens is very adaptable - in lighter, deeper, longer, or shorter forms it can be used to inquire into any topic, or task for which people have need and energy.

Antonio Damasio: the biology of consciousness .PDF 271KB
Antonio Damasio gathers recent research in neuroscience into a scheme that shows how consciousness arises from, and is conditioned by, the ‘landscape of the body’.

Emotional Competence .PDF 1,305KB
More grounded in experience and capability than emotional intelligence or emotional literacy - emotional competence offers an extremely practical yardstick for personal and professional development.

Exercises Complete .PDF 10Mb 136pp
If you are curious about how to conduct explorations of your mind, this ebook provides a series of recipes that will give you a variety of helpful starting points. All rely on you having sufficient attention for such inquiries. If you are experiencing deep or prolonged distress, see them as pointing to a working relationship with a capable practitioner.

Exercises Taster .PDF 1.5Mb 16pp
A selection of recipes for exploring some of your mind’s contents and processes. All rely on you having sufficient attention for such inquiries. If you are experiencing deep or prolonged distress, see them as a pointer to what may help you in a working relationship with a capable practitioner.

Facilitation .PDF 393KB
Facilitation marks the shift from a domination-driven approach to leadership to one where a range of styles that honour participation, co-operation and necessary hierarchy become an everyday culture.

Going into the Mind .PDF 9Mb 100pp
Knowing about the mind is one thing, exploring it is something else; this ebook offers some guidelines for beginning this exploration. It will help you become familiar with the roots of some of the mind’s contents that may not have come to light before, such as attention, emotionality and self-defense. These are enquiries that can help us take more charge of what we get from, and give to life.

NB Includes School's Subtle Lesson and Psychosocial field

John Heron: Psyche and Personhood .PDF 1,013KB
Heron sees mind, or psyche, as a property of persons grounded in feeling. In his formulation this is not a description of the components of mind but rather a catalogue of recipes through which we may, if we choose, bake ourselves afresh.

Introduction to Letting the Heart Sing - The Mind Gymnasium: ebook edition .PDF 1.3Mb 16p
Letting the Heart Sing started life as a paperback book called The Mind Gymnasium and then became a hugely expanded CD-ROM digital edition. This introduction gives an essential perspective on the value and intentions of the digital edition, much of which is now available in these ebooks.

Lakoff and Johnson: Embodied Metaphor .PDF 486KB
Lakoff and Johnson convincingly show that the mind is inherently embodied, that most thought is unconscious, and that the abstract notions that we use in daily life are usually metaphorical - that metaphor is a fundamental quality of the mind.

Learning How to Learn .PDF 510 Kb
In a world where, whether or not we favour it, an ultra-rapid rate of technological change affects us and how we earn a living and build relationships, learning how to learn appears to be one of the core aspects of mind that shapes intelligence.

Living Together .PDF 928KB
Recipes and notions about coupledom that will help your partnership flourish.

The Making of the Mind .PDF 11Mb 78pp
A rich tapestry of the events and influence that contribute to the formation of minds; from birth through the early years, a child’s needs, school’s subtle lessons, the media, the 'good enough' parent, and parenting styles. This ebook includes several others in the collection here.

Mindscapes .PDF 5Mb 58pp
Minds tend to take on the qualities of their surroundings, the spaces and places and ideas we grow up with. Discover some of the mindscapes that shape our preferences and expectations.

New Paradigm .PDF 3Mb 28pp
This ebook is a companion to Shifting Paradigms, introducing some new paradigms of mind. The new paradigms of mind help us move towards being more aware of how present choices are shaped by formative and social influences, plus being able to reflect on the value of feelings, intentions and actions. It features picture and text essays on what this means and why this is important, plus some practical sections on ‘Bringing About Change’ and ‘Living Together’.

Personal Development .PDF 3.3Mb 57pp
This ebook helps you look at caring for your mind: the potential for change in our lives, and the limits to transformation. Discover pointers to where to start, and how to find help. Included are some guidelines for assessing the value of any help that might be on offer.

Personal History .PDF 10Mb
If you are unsure about whether self-assessment would serve your needs at the moment, try this selection of items from the complete self assessment ebook.

Power - Hidden Presence .PDF 17Mb 74pp
One of the most important inhabitants of the mind, often hidden in its deepest recesses, is power: who holds power? Who gives it away? Who suffers from the abuse of power? This copiously illustrated ebook seeks to open your mind to power as a potent formative influence on how we live our lives.

The Psycho-Social Field .PDF 504KB 12pp
A short but potent ebook presentation of the subtle but powerful ways in which the early experience we have of love, understanding and choice shape adult social preferences and capacities.

Schools Subtle lessons .PDF 117KB 6pp
Aside from home-schooling, most of us spend 10-15 years in school, and the experience shapes our ideas about ourselves and the world. Discover some of the less obvious ways in which school builds minds.

Shared Assessment .PDF 605KB
Assessment typically re-iterates and reinforces hierarchical dominance. But how else to do it? This new paradigm approach to assessment sees the other people with whom we learn and work as responsible, with a capacity for self-direction and self-appraisal.

We all know that we are good at some tasks and activities and not so good at others. How do we validate the accuracy of our self-assessment? This ebook provides a recipe for getting feedback from peers that can be used in sport, education, art, music and work.

Allan Schore: Attachment .PDF 219KB
Schore’s perspective on mind seeks to root the unfolding of human development, especially early development, in the biology of the body and in particular in the process of ‘attachment’.

Self-Assessment .PDF 25Mb
We are so used to being assessed by other people that the notion of self-assessment may seem strange or unrealistic. This ebook contains a series of sections that will enable you to scan some of the qualities and contents of your mind. Drop any idea that this is a test, it is more a way of taking a series of human condition snapshots, with some pointers in the selections on offer, to what might be relevant in the choices you make. They may or may not reveal something you didn’t know, or confirm something you suspected. It’s for you to decide.
NB Includes Emotional Competence

Shifting Paradigms .PDF 876KB 14pp
Historically, mind has been out of focus, something that ran our lives without much choice; it was not so much that we had minds, so much as minds had us. That’s the old paradigm. This introductory ebook gives some poisnters to the old paradigm of mind and introduces some ways of contradicting it.