Practical Psychology for Everyday Life
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Welcome to Roslyn Snyder's Website

I am a a registered psychologist who believes our emotional and mental health is critical to life. I imagine a world without emotional and mental health issues, one in which life flows, this doesn't mean eradicating sadness or traumas, which is impossible if we are talking about life. I mean allowing each and every person to live their life as real as possible, not perfect, but real. The first step to this is showing people how to connect to themselves, because within each of us we have the 'blueprint' to make ourselves happy and we need a way to uncover this. Everything I do in my books, my private practice and the groups we (I have others that help out now) run allow people to connect to themselves and find the truth within them. This may be different for different people, yet when we find the truth within us, we do no harm to ourselves or others.

One of the ways I achieve this is transform complex psychological information into easily read and understood bits (mostly in picture form) so anyone can become emotionally mentally robust or maintain their mental health. If you have a mental health issue such as depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, conduct disorder or borderline personality disorder or whether you only have a couple of issues that you think one day you should do something about or perhaps you work with people, then this website is for you. This website has many things to help you improve your mental health or those around you. The site has two main areas; the first area for you which is for:

  • anyone who wants to improve their mental health
  • anyone who seeks a way through life
  • anyone who suffers silently or not so silently
  • anyone who other people rely on, eg. parents, teachers, managers,
  • families and communities who want to thrive
  • workplaces who need team building from the inside out
  • or...

There are six main options for improving your mental health:

or you can do nothing and still be in the same situation in 1 year, 5 years or 10 years, the choice is yours.


The second area for therapists is for professional psychotherapists which includes independent published evaluation.

I have also included for leisure that has some stories, poems and articles written for other publications. Of course, I want to sell my books and other stuff so have included an order form if you want to order anything or register. Enjoy exploring the site.



A quiet word from Roslyn

June July August 2008
June to August 2008
For regular readers you will know that I missed a couple of months. I have been very busy and have had to prioritise my workload which meant this quiet word had to be put on hold as well as a great deal of housework, garden and report writing. The exciting news is that I am presenting my new model the triple world triple realm model of life at an international psychology conference in Berlin in July 2008 and have had a great deal of preparations for that, as well as travel arrangements. As soon as I am able I will be putting a copy of this on my website with a new menu heading. Plus, I have enrolled in a PHd which is to document all the evidence for my new model, the triple world triple realm model of life. Yet another picture model, this one has wider applications that just psychology, it is about life. More on this later.

It amazes me everyday the ability of people to survive the most horrifying ordeals, many people I see in my private practice have lived through torture. What makes one person survive and desire a better life, and another person give up. The short answer needs to be a desire to live, and the longer answer a belief that life can be better. I need to believe that life can be better and that maybe I can show people that their life can be better and how they can do this. You see that it is up to the person, I cannot give people a better life. Sometimes people are shocked when I tell them that it is up to them, I don't have a magic wand. The bottom line is there is no quick fix for any chronic health complaint, mental or physical (they are intimately linked) with any pill, lotion, healer. Yet people are often not prepared to make "life style" changes, whether this is diet, exercise or challenging their beliefs. However, many of these so called "life style" are actually a "death style". We know smoking, poor diet, damaging thoughts about ourselves, stress will kill, yet we cling onto them as our 'lifestyles'. Life is easy, we just need to choose life everyday not death. The people that come to see me are choosing life everyday.

Bye for now

Roslyn

February - March 2008
February - March 2008
This month's word is a little bit late, you see we had a health crisis in my home. My son ended up in hospital for 5 days with some serious concerns, our life became a bit of a rollercoaster. Briefly, we were told he had a stroke, two days later we were told it probably wasn't a stroke but there are abnormalities on his brain scans that could possibly be brain tumours, then we met with the consultant who wasn't convinced but didn't know, finally another few days later he has been given the all clear, he had actually suffered a severe migraine and the 'abnormalities' are his normal. While this was a stressful time for the entire family and especially my son, it highlighted several things for me. Firstly, we can not control life, things happen and we need to deal with them. How you deal with them is up to you but having knowledge skills and abilities to deal with the unexpected is essential. Secondly, from the very beginning I believed he had had a severe migraine and that nothing serious was wrong, however, I doubted myself in the face of external experts, except in this case I do have expertise, I also experience migraine with similar features and I knew my son and have excellent intuition. Thirdly, that the interpretation of tests is dependent on the experience and abilities of the people analysing. The tests didn't change yet the interpretation was very different as they were examined by more and more experienced people.

This applies equally to diagnosis in the mental health area. Many people get various diagnosis depending on the experience and skills of the person either doing the diagnosing or the testing. Yet the effect this can have on a person is profound. The way in which I work doesn't rely on a diagnosis, my focus is to help this person uncover their true self. Once people connect to themselves then the symptoms or behaviours they may have been exhibiting disappear. Then the diagnosis is irrelevant. The only difference with people with severe mental health diagnosis is the time it takes to find a way through for them.

Bye for now

Roslyn

December 2007 - January 2008
December 2007 - January 2008
Last week I travelled to Busselton to run a training workshop and the night before I sat on the beach and these words came to me, I offer this to you for the end of this year and the beginning of the next. May you all gain:

Freedom Stillness Peace

Freedom...Stillness...Peace
One moment in time,
where we are at one.
At one with yourself,
at one with the earth,
at one with the sky,
at one with the universe
until
you disappear into the nothing.
And when you return to the everyday reality,
you bring back with you a little bit of
freedom,
stillness
and peace
until
the next time
you have a moment in time.

This is the reality of life,
it is up to us
each of us
to have a moment in time,
in every moment
to remember.
To remember we are at the centre of our life,
our universe
and when everyone is at the centre of their life,
everyone is in their place
And there will be
freedom,
stillness
and peace
for all
everything else is a distraction to us.

Remembering
Remembering who we are,
remembering why we are here,
remembering our destiny in our life,
all in a moment of time
that we create for ourselves in every moment.
Take a moment now.


Bye for now

Roslyn

October - November 2007
October - November 2007
Are you happy? Are you happy with your work? Are you happy in your relationships? How many people can answer Yes! Yes! Yes! to these questions. When I meet people and look into their faces, into their eyes I mostly see despair, sadness and fear, although more often now anger will cover up the fear and sadness. Is there this many people in our country who are not happy with their life. I challenge anyone who reads this to look at the people around you and ask yourself how many people around you are happy. If you look into the faces of 100 people (shop assistants, people walking by, work colleagues, family members) how many do you believe are truly happy? I would think it would be about 5 to 10 in every 100 are happy, about 20 to 30 are neither happy or in despair they are simply going through the motions and the rest, up to 60 in every 100 are in despair. I would like to hear from you about your observations.

Why is this happening in our country, Australia? Is it happening in other countries? Reports in our papers say we have one of the best lifestyles in the world. So, it would seem that external things that can be measured in terms of wealth, possessions, beaches, activities, food etc. are not making us happy. What then does make us happy? The short answer is connections, connections to our self, our souls, our hearts, our family and friends. Take a moment to ask your inner self what would make it happy?, ask your soul what would make it happy, ask your heart what would make it happy. Sometimes the answer is time, or space or to create something. I remember asking a young girl aged about 9 what is the best time in the week for her, she replied "you'll think this is silly, but the time I enjoy is on Tuesday afternoon between 4pm and 4.30pm because this is the time I get to spend with Mum on my own. We just sit together, I do my homework and she is getting stuff ready for work." The rest of this young girl's life was so scheduled and busy, this was her one moment of stillness and peace. The truth of all of these is that we could develop happiness but we do not see it as a priority to make the time to give us space to answer these questions and then follow through on them. We are too busy chasing something outside of us on the false belief that this will make us happy. All that seems to happen when you have more stuff, or a higher paid job is that we start to fear losing it. And we end up developing more fear about how to hang onto something that doesn't even make us happy. When we listen to our inner self, our hearts or our souls we come closer to life

Start with life, end with life, the closer you are too life the more joy you have. Even if others see you close to death. I have learned this from the people around me who are dying or have died. I thank each and everyone of them for teaching me how to live life and be happy.

Bye for now

Roslyn

August - September 2007
August - September 2007
For a number of months now I have been waking up in joyous excitment! Why? You may ask. The answer is quite simple I have a purpose for life and I am working towards my destiny. I didn't just wake up one day, while I was going through the motions, and have a purpose and a destiny it has taken about 20 years of working on myself on my own, in relation to my family, the community, understanding chaos that I have uncovered this truth. The truth is within all of us and we need to scrape away the layers. I now help others find this, although often when they see me they are in great distress, severely depressed, anxious, panic attacks, histories of abuse, trauma often far worse than you would read in any novel and yet many, not all, start their journey and even after they no longer see me regularly they continue on their own. I often get messages telling me where they are in their life. Often people will come back to see me a couple years after they initially saw me and we work on the next layer. This uncovering takes many years, although reduction of the immediate distress can be quite simple and quick, the hardest part is for people to trust in the process, this may take several years.

My purpose and my destiny is to share what I know with people. This is what I know. I know who I am, the meaning of life and the secrets of the universe and how to live in harmony with life. I know that I have knowledge, skills and abilities, coming from natural abilities coupled with 20 years of intense reflection and learning that make me unique. I am able to see chaotic life paths and patterns, probably as easy as you can see the computer in front of you. I have developed a model for life that is broken down into small steps and stages so anyone at any stage of their life can follow. (This model will be published in 2008). First you need the path to you, second you need the path to wisdom, third, you need the path to humanity, fourth, you need the path to infinity. By following these paths, one day you will also know who you are, the meaning of life, and the secrets of the universe in your life allowing your purpose and destiny to unfold. You can choose to see/hear/feel or you can choose not to.

The first path to you is available now in the form of the self repair tool kit. However, these paths can be found in many other ways, I am simply making it easy in a step by step, stage by stage form. Many other people have written, talked about and teach these paths, the way I do it is in simple visual format requiring little or no education. You need no minimum standards to follow these paths. This works from any level you are at in life, whether you are in the depths of despair or already healthy or anywhere in between. The paths are not rigid, a bit like climbing a mountain. You can make your own path or you can follow one of mine. I am a guide, but you need to do the climbing.

Bye for now

Roslyn

June - July 2007
June - July 2007
Today I was reflecting how important it is to take the time to actually prioritize what we do. Too often we 'wake up' and find out we are not doing what we set out to do. A case in point, is that when I started a private practice in psychology, I only wanted to work one afternoon and see 3 -4 people. Yet last week I 'woke up' and realized I was working 5 days a week in private practice and seeing 65 people with 26 people waiting to see me. While this feels really good because I am very successful, as most people who see me are very appreciative of my work with them, and the Doctors who refer to me are very happy and tell more people how good I am. This feels so good to me, yet this was not what I want to be doing. Don't get me wrong I love working with all the people I see and I love seeing them getting better. I once described it like seeing a person who starts out grey and colourless become a vibrant colourful human being before my eyes (okay over about 3- 6 months). This is an amazing experience and I really do love doing what I have been doing. However, I realized how limited this is and I have always dreamt of living more limitless. With this type of private practice I work in one location and see a maximum of 26 people in a week and that is all I get to share my work and myself with. I realized I could touch so many more people's lives by working differently. For example, if I trained more therapists around the world to work in this way, [using an holistic and integrated framework that works simultaneously with people at unconscious and conscious levels, accessing the right and left hemisphere and connecting with them at a soul level utilizing simple words and pictures so anyone can understand], how many more people's lives could be touched.

You see I have a vision of everyone living in perfect harmony with the universe, not living contracted with fear. I see myself scattering seeds and when the conditions are right they will grow within each person who believes there is more to life than going through the motions, or being stuck in a life they don't need or isolated and lonely. One possibility is small groups of people meeting regularly using my self repair tool kit like book clubs but preparing, learning and living together. There are many other possibilities to scatter seeds. I realized that I could reach so many more people by taking a step back and re-access what I do and how I do it. If I stay the same it is good for the 120 people I may see individually in a year yet I could reach many many more by changing how I go about my business. This is starting now. I have made it my priority to complete the book I am currently working on Yes! We are one of one and individuals. An insight into the paradox of the chaotic system of life in simple words and pictures , which describes the triple world, triple realm model of life and share my other work so far with more people. Although, realistically I will be need to work 3 days a week until December 2007 in my clinical practice.

So I ask you to take 5 - 10 minutes to reflect on what you spend your time doing and is this what you imagined yourself doing 1 year ago, 5 years ago or 10 years ago. Then imagine what you want to be doing this time next year. I challenge you to draw a picture of what you want in your life over the next year, two years of ten years.

Bye for now

Roslyn


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