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"Life Coaching"

Started by Shaky, January 07, 2021, 11:05:44 AM

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Shaky

Quote from: Chedney Honks on January 08, 2021, 06:13:02 AM
Got a kind of mate/acquaintance, used to be a city boy cunt, pissing it up, coke, probably beasting behind his wife's back. Massively depressed but mask of joviality and a good heart, just brought up to believe corporate status cuntery was the measure of success. His and wife family drilled it into him, always felt like a loser on £200k. Sacked it all off to become a marathon runner, exercise freak. Felt happy for him, albeit it was an obsession to fill the gaping chasm. Then healthfood wanker. Hmm, he's a probably right but defo feel like he's masking something. Then a life coach. Can't really have a conversation with him any more. Quite sad. Pyramid scheme shit.

That's a shame. When you lay it all out, though, you can sort of see the logic. It's the endgame for some when other paths haven't worked. If you utterly believe success to be only one thing you've always worked towards it but then it falls apart...

I've known a few people over the years who are massively into taro, reiki and all that. Visiting or even running yer identikit "healing" shops etc. Lovely and kind to a fault, hence the friendships, but accidental prodding can reveal a mass of fragility, delusion and control freakery. All have experienced extreme trauma of some kind. Possibly papering over the cracks, innit. In some ways I envy it.

Twit 2

Anyone into Reiki deserves pity: unremitting, skin-scorching, sob-shaking pity. Scum-shaming, goat-shrieking, sewage-gargling pity. Finger-wagging, hag-scowling, scag-howling pity.

They are gone wayward, tumbled into the cataract, adrift, and in need of hauling onto firm sands, wrenching from the wrack of the maelstrom to be laid out to dry under the ancient sun, flayed by the light until their marrow bubbles and the poison is expunged.

Lungpuddle

Member of my extended family is an alcoholic who occasionally steals treasured family photos from us while we asleep. Her argument in favour of Brexit was the "we need to get our sovereignty back!" one. She actually hates the NHS, claiming that some of her clients are NHS workers and that they are cunts. She has found enormous success in her career as a life coach.

Blue Jam

#33
Quote"Neurological Repatterning"

As a researcher whose background is in brain patterning I can tell you that if you tried to repattern your brain it would stop working.

Did he perhaps mean "rewiring the brain", otherwise known as "learning"?

Quote
I've known a few people over the years who are massively into taro, reiki and all that. Visiting or even running yer identikit "healing" shops etc. Lovely and kind to a fault, hence the friendships, but accidental prodding can reveal a mass of fragility, delusion and control freakery. All have experienced extreme trauma of some kind. Possibly papering over the cracks, innit. In some ways I envy it.

Back in my Skeptics In The Pub days I used to be very against alternative medicine but these days I've softened a bit. Sure, there are dishonest people who do dodgy things like selling homoeopathic malaria tablets and advising people to see alternative medicine not as complementary but as a replacement for conventional treatments, but a lot of people genuinely do mean well.

Many people try alternative medicine for the first time because they have a chronic condition and have tried every conventional treatment first and it's done them no good. Then they find an alternative treatment finally gives them some relief and they become evangelical about it and eager to help others.

Sure, it was probably down to the placebo effect or regression to the mean or maybe some other lifestyle change they made around the same time, but it seems harsh to judge desperate people for eulogising about the thing which finally alleviated their symptoms.

I don't know about the "extreme trauma" thing, I'm talking more about people who have experienced chronic pain, chronic gastrointestinal issues etc. I know several people who are very into alternative medicine and the one thing they have in common is that they live in Brighton. There certainly is an awful lot of Mystic Woo Woo Crap For Tie-Dye Hippy Idiots in that part of the world.

Jockice

Quote from: Blue Jam on January 10, 2021, 12:57:29 PM
As a researcher whose background is in brain patterning I can tell you that if you tried to repattern your brain it would stop working.

Did he perhaps mean "rewiring the brain", otherwise known as "learning"?

Back in my Skeptics In The Pub days I used to be very against alternative medicine but these days I've softened a bit. Sure, there are dishonest people who do dodgy things like selling homoeopathic malaria tablets and advising people to see alternative medicine not as complementary but as a replacement for conventional treatments, but a lot of people genuinely do mean well.

Many people try alternative medicine for the first time because they have a chronic condition and have tried every conventional treatment first and it's done them no good. Then they find an alternative treatment finally gives them some relief and they become evangelical about it and eager to help others.

Sure, it was probably down to the placebo effect or regression to the mean or maybe some other lifestyle change they made around the same time, but it seems harsh to judge desperate people for eulogising about the thing which finally alleviated their symptoms.

I don't know about the "extreme trauma" thing. I know several people who are very into alternative medicine and the one thing they have in common is that they live in Brighton. There certainly is an awful lot of Mystic Woo Woo Crap For Tie-Dye Hippy Idiots in that part of the world.

(Cough) B12.

Blue Jam

Quote from: Jockice on January 10, 2021, 01:13:24 PM
(Cough) B12.

??? You mean vitamin B12? I'm not sure what that's got to do with Mystic Woo-Woo crap, I just know that's the one vegans are often low on. One of the Brighton peeps was a raw foodist (or at least he was) so maybe he was on it. The guy was big on "clean eating" and had cut out meat, dairy, eggs and gluten. Still smoked like a chimney though.

Jockice

#36
Quote from: Blue Jam on January 10, 2021, 01:21:18 PM
??? You mean vitamin B12? I'm not sure what that's got to do with Mystic Woo-Woo crap, I just know that's the one vegans are often low on. One of the Brighton peeps was a raw foodist (or at least he was) so maybe he was on it. The guy was big on "clean eating" and had cut out meat, dairy, eggs and gluten. Still smoked like a chimney though.

Ah right, you either haven't seen or have forgotten my previous posts on the subject. Well to cut a very long story short, a member of my family got treated for a deficiency of it. Which is fair enough. But then this person read a book that basically claimed that B12 deficiency was the cause of most illnesses in the world and the only way to cure these illnesses was by injecting B12. It became their sole topic of conversation and was genuinely like dealing with someone in a religious cult. It caused huge rifts in the family, one of which is still ongoing.

The reasons that B12 deficiency isn't more widely-known, this person claims, are because.
1) Doctors don't know about it. Even highly-trained specialists in neurology and the like aren't aware of it. They get half an hour training  on it during their degrees, then it's totally forgotten about. And
2) Even if they do find out about it they don't tell patients because big pharma won't let them. As if it was generally known that it was a miracle cure they wouldn't make such huge profits.

This person has learned not to mention it in front of me but I know they are convinced to this day that all my medical problems are caused by B12 deficiency and I'm just scared to ask doctors. Apart from the half dozen or so I've asked about it, all of whom have categorically told me I do not have a B12 deficiency, one adding "We do check these things you know." And I've even tried injecting the bloody stuff to shut this person up (the only thing I've ever injected into myself) and it had no effect on me at all. But of course that's because I'm doing something else that counteracts its miracle cureness.

And take it from me that is the very short version of events.

TrenterPercenter

Quote from: Shaky on January 07, 2021, 11:05:44 AM
I've just attended a free zoom meeting with some doink who runs a "Life Coaching and Neurological Repatterning" company. I'm a broadminded sort. I try to meditate. Affirmations and that do no harm. So why not, eh? Weirdly, though, he kept the inner secrets of the human brain to himself; they can be ours - they are within reach! -  but the small catch is you have to stump up the oddly random prices he kept banding around for the final half hour of the meeting. Everything was half price... then he offered a further discount if we agreed right on the spot! Incredible!

Anyone else tried this sort of bollocks for laughs? Call me cynical, but I can't help but think it's primarily designed to appeal to people at a low ebb who happen to have some spare cash and it's depressed me further.

Stay away from this stuff - I've known a few people go down this route as a career and it is often more about work crafting for themselves rather than anything else.  Serious people will have qualifications in psychotherapy or counselling look for these standards otherwise you are at very hi risk of woo

Blue Jam

Quote from: Jockice on January 10, 2021, 01:40:56 PM
Ah right, you either haven't seen or have forgotten my previous posts on the subject. Well to cut a very long story short, a member of my family got treated for a deficiency of it. Which is fair enough. But then this person read a book that basically claimed that B12 deficiency was the cause of most illnesses in the world and the only way to cure these illnesses was by injecting B12. It became their sole topic of conversation and was genuinely like dealing with someone in a religious cult. It caused huge rifts in the family, one of which is still ongoing.

I had not read your posts on this, thanks for the summary. Went a bit Glinner did they?

Quote1) Doctors don't know about it.

One of my friends was a big fan of the What Doctors Don't Tell You site. She went to train as a naturopathic nutritionist (ie, someone who can cure anything with dietary changes, because all illness is ultimately caused by diet, apparently) and got really annoying for a while, spouting her new-found knowledge with delight. You can't really blame someone for being enthusiastic about their new passion, but being lectured on this stuff when you have a couple of proper degrees in biology is annoying. Then after a few months on the course she decided it was all bullshit and packed it in. Hurrah!

When I think of vitamin B12 injections I'm put in mind of ageing 1960's celebrities having them to improve their sexual performance. iirc it was a fashionable health fad among dirty old goats of the time.

bgmnts

Its all a scam really isn't it?

Blue Jam

My friend gave me some unsolicited advice after I sustained some nerve damage in my finger following my inattentive use of a bread knife. She gave me some tips for foods to eat to encourage nerve regrowth.

I would love to have seen her telling Christopher Reeve he could have just sorted out his predicament with a nice bit of kale.

Jockice

Quote from: Blue Jam on January 10, 2021, 03:34:47 PM
I had not read your posts on this, thanks for the summary. Went a bit Glinner did they?

One of my friends was a big fan of the What Doctors Don't Tell You site. She went to train as a naturopathic nutritionist (ie, someone who can cure anything with dietary changes, because all illness is ultimately caused by diet, apparently) and got really annoying for a while, spouting her new-found knowledge with delight. You can't really blame someone for being enthusiastic about their new passion, but being lectured on this stuff when you have a couple of proper degrees in biology is annoying. Then after a few months on the course she decided it was all bullshit and packed it in. Hurrah!

When I think of vitamin B12 injections I'm put in mind of ageing 1960's celebrities having them to improve their sexual performance. I think it was a fashionable health fad among dirty old goats of the time.

Very much so. It went on for years too. Oh there are lots of stories I could tell you about this person's obsessive behaviour. But you don't know them so it's not really fair. On you that is.

I'm not denying that B12 deficiency exists or that doctors sometimes don't know everything and sometimes cock things up but it was this person's complete insistence that they were in the right and everyone else was wrong that drove a wedge between them and other family members. I sympathise with Linehan's family and friends. If he has any left that is.

And it did absolutely fuck all for my sexual performance either.

TrenterPercenter

The problem is that causation or maintence of problems could be psychosomatic.  Lots of people think psychosomatic is synonymous with making it up and it is anything but.  You can absolutely think yourself sick and lots of physical illnesses can be caused by and exacerbated by stress.  There are limits of course but because it is complex, very new and hard to research there is lots of room for bullshitters to sell vulnerable people things that superficially seem to work for them.

Guy that I worked with in once was a qualified homeopathic practitioner, he'd never done it himself, he just paid some money to an organisation and downloaded a certificate.  He used to use it as a teaching aid to med students on how easy it is get fake qualifications and indulge in quackery if you were that way inclined.

Blue Jam

Quote from: TrenterPercenter on January 10, 2021, 04:14:29 PMGuy that I worked with in once was a qualified homeopathic practitioner, he'd never done it himself, he just paid some money to an organisation and downloaded a certificate.  He used to use it as a teaching aid to med students on how easy it is get fake qualifications and indulge in quackery if you were that way inclined.

Ben Goldacre registered his dead cat as a qualified nutritionist:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_with_fraudulent_diplomas

TrenterPercenter

Quote from: Blue Jam on January 10, 2021, 04:19:09 PM
Ben Goldacre registered his dead cat as a qualified nutritionist:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_with_fraudulent_diplomas

I'd forgotten about Goldacre he was/is a bit of an arse I seem to remember.  Anyway on that wiki page I've just found out that a black and white cat is referred to as tuxedo cat.  Eh? when did this happen?

Blue Jam

Not all black and white cats, just the ones that look like they're wearing a... well, you know.

Ben Goldacre has done some good work but he could be a bit sleazy. Think he's happily married with kids these days though.

TrenterPercenter

Quote from: Blue Jam on January 10, 2021, 04:41:24 PM
Not all black and white cats, just the ones that look like they're wearing a... well, you know.

Ben Goldacre has done some good work but he could be a bit sleazy. Think he's happily married with kids these days though.

Ah was it sleaze, I just thought he had a bit of new atheistist-arseholietis.

Not buying this tuxedo cat thing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicolor_cat there seems to be different names now for different face markings, why do people have to start mucking around with things.  I had a cat once with these markings and it would be turning in it's grave at the thought of people saying he was wearing a tuxedo. Stop doing cats wrong.

The Bumlord

Someone I know recently quit her job of 20-odd years as a stenographer to become a holistic astrology-based life coach.

Got quite a few sign ups already. Can't think she'll be making much from it but I would imagine she's absolutely loaded after doing that job freelance for so long.

Fair play to these loonies, I say.

Zetetic

Quote from: Blue Jam on January 10, 2021, 04:41:24 PM
Ben Goldacre has done some good work but he could be a bit sleazy. Think he's happily married with kids these days though.
He has a very strong emphasis on self-promotion and, these days, never doing anything for free[nb]There's a rant here I could go on about OpenPrescribing, but in fairness that's probably less about Goldacre and his ilk and more about the failure of Welsh civil society.[/nb]. Which isn't awful and it the only way you end up with something the Oxford EBM Data Lab.

Also part of the broad consensus that of course everyone should hand over all their health records to the universities and that pseudonymisation answers all ethical issues with that. But then I've never come across anyone in academia who wasn't.


TrenterPercenter

Quote from: Zetetic on January 10, 2021, 06:22:44 PM
He has a very strong emphasis on self-promotion and, these days, never doing anything for free[nb]There's a rant here I could go on about OpenPrescribing, but in fairness that's probably less about Goldacre and his ilk and more about the failure of Welsh civil society.[/nb]. Which isn't awful and it the only way you end up with something the Oxford EBM Data Lab.

Also part of the broad consensus that of course everyone should hand over all their health records to the universities and that pseudonymisation answers all ethical issues with that. But then I've never come across anyone in academia who wasn't.

I'm sure he was recently involved with some group that was being touted on TalkRadio as their go to anti-lockdown scientists.  I don't think he specifically went on the TV but he was definitely involved with the work.  Also he just seems like a arsehole if you ask me (which nobody did but here we all are receiving my demented thoughts).

Blue Jam

Quote from: TrenterPercenter on January 10, 2021, 04:58:24 PM
Ah was it sleaze, I just thought he had a bit of new atheistist-arseholietis.

I don't think he was ever big on the whole atheism/religion side of the Skeptic movement, he was more about evidence-based medicine and the research/science side of things.

Maybe forget what I said- I used to chat to him quite a bit and never had any issues with him myself. He used to have a lot of female hangers-on and I think he might have been a bit of a "player" but tbf I can't really blame him- us nerds don't usually attract groupies. Anyway, I think he's settled down now. He's mostly a great bunch of lads, probably.

Prof. Brian Cox annoys me more, for sneering at life science for not being "proper" science like physics and then presenting The Wonders Of Life for the BBC. And being married to a massive TERF.

Icehaven

Quote from: TrenterPercenter on January 10, 2021, 04:30:32 PM
I'd forgotten about Goldacre he was/is a bit of an arse I seem to remember.  Anyway on that wiki page I've just found out that a black and white cat is referred to as tuxedo cat.  Eh? when did this happen?

Tuxies have been so named for ages! As has been said it's not all b&w cats, just the ones that are mostly black with white fronts (and often white lower faces and paws too). Have a squiz in the Fucking Love Cats thread, there's some gorgeous examples (none mine sadly).

Blue Jam

I first heard the name "tuxedo cats" years ago, it's nothing new.

"tuxedo" however is a fucking stupid word. A fucking daft thing to call a suit.

Shaky

Quote from: TrenterPercenter on January 10, 2021, 03:22:36 PM
Stay away from this stuff - I've known a few people go down this route as a career and it is often more about work crafting for themselves rather than anything else.  Serious people will have qualifications in psychotherapy or counselling look for these standards otherwise you are at very hi risk of woo

Oh, definitely. My zoom guy badmouthed psychs a few times, including the staggering statement, "Psychologists want you to talk about your trauma but you shouldn't as it just makes you more upset, you should keep it to yourself and do my miracle course!"

Paraphrasing slightly but that was the meat of it.

Paul Calf

Quote from: Blue Jam on January 10, 2021, 12:57:29 PM
As a researcher whose background is in brain patterning I can tell you that if you tried to repattern your brain it would stop working.


QuoteThe ventral neural tube is patterned by sonic hedgehog (Shh) from the notochord, which acts as the inducing tissue. Notochord-derived Shh signals to the floor plate, and induces Shh expression in the floor plate. 

TalkToTransformer has let itself go.

TrenterPercenter

Quote from: Shaky on January 11, 2021, 09:12:30 AM
Oh, definitely. My zoom guy badmouthed psychs a few times, including the staggering statement, "Psychologists want you to talk about your trauma but you shouldn't as it just makes you more upset, you should keep it to yourself and do my miracle course!"

Paraphrasing slightly but that was the meat of it.

Sadly this doesn't surprise me.

Icehaven

Quote from: bgmnts on January 07, 2021, 02:07:18 PM
Obligatory mention of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.

My band has a song called Aurelius which started life as a bassline written by a previous band member called Marcus but they never got as far as writing any lyrics or naming it. When we resurrected it a few years later it was just "Marcus's one" at first, then we decided it needed an actual name and two of us at the same time said "Marcus Aurelius" despite not having a clue who he was or knowing anything about his meditations, we'd both just heard the name somewhere and made the Marcus connection. So I went away and looked him up and learned the trite reputation he's got. It's quite a fast, heavy song so I quite like the idea of setting some of his silly missives to it.

notjosh

Quote from: TrenterPercenter on January 10, 2021, 06:25:55 PM
I'm sure he was recently involved with some group that was being touted on TalkRadio as their go to anti-lockdown scientists.  I don't think he specifically went on the TV but he was definitely involved with the work.  Also he just seems like a arsehole if you ask me (which nobody did but here we all are receiving my demented thoughts).

Doesn't sound like him - a cursory check of his twitter feed suggests he fully supports lockdown measures.

Don't know about him as a person, but I used to read his stuff years ago and it always felt very measured and professional, to the point of being fairly dull. No reasons to suppose him an arsehole as far as I know.

Blue Jam

Quote from: Paul Calf on January 11, 2021, 09:47:54 AM
TalkToTransformer has let itself go.

My entire PhD reads like that. Lots of Sonic hedgehogs and notochords in there.

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) is a fascinating gene. It's a homologue of a Drosophila gene linked to a phenotype in which the fruit flies grow bristles on their backs, and because fly people are so very wacky they decided to name it hedgehog.

hedgehog has three mammalian homologues. The first two to be discovered were named after species of hedgehog- Indian hedgehog (Ihh) and Desert hedgehog (Dhh). The third was named by a Japanese scientist whose daughter visited Europe and brought back a Sonic The Hedgehog comic.

It was later discovered that Shh plays a role in the development of many different cancers and fatal foetal abnormalities, prompting scientists to have a little think about giving genes Top Bants names when there's a chance a grieving family could be told "sorry, it was the fault of Sonic hedgehog"

Shh activity is inhibited by a compound called Cyclopamine, which occurs naturally in the corn lily, and which is so-called because when pregnant animals eat it they give birth to cyclopic offspring. Do a Google image search for "cyclopic goats" if you want to see what they look like*.

*You really don't want to see what they look like

Twit 2

Quote from: icehaven on January 11, 2021, 02:43:35 PM
So I went away and looked him up and learned the trite reputation he's got. It's quite a fast, heavy song so I quite like the idea of setting some of his silly missives to it.

I'm guessing you're being facetious as:

a) far from being trite, it's regarded as being one of the greatest philosophical texts ever written;

b) its silly missives are the foundation of all CBT.

Don't be dissing my man Marcus!

Insert Limmy meme etc.