• Log in / Register
  • FOR THERAPISTS
  • Find a therapist

    • Articles by Claudine Levy

    Claudine Levy

    Claudine Levy

    Claudine Levy works in digital marketing and communications at the Institute of Art and Ideas, and is food editor at About Time Magazine. She was previously editorial assistant at welldoing.org @claudine_levy

    Categories

    iAi Debate: Madness Incorporated
    07Nov

    iAi Debate: Madness Incorporated
    Claudine Levy
    society
    Mind
    In our post today, Welldoing brings you a video from the Institute of Arts and Ideas. In this video, President Elect of the World Psychiatric Association Dinesh Bhugra debates the nature of mental illness with psychiatrist David Healy and clinical psychologist Richard Bentall. While we commonly think that psychiatric diagnoses like depression and bipolar disorder are real, many now argue that they have little basis in reality. Should we abandon psychiatry and its classifications? Would this usher in a new era of effective health care or cause widespread...
    » Read More
    Don't Judge Me For Not Getting Drunk With Work Mates
    10Jul

    Don't Judge Me For Not Getting Drunk With Work Mates
    Claudine Levy
    career, friendship, self, society, university
    Work
    I realised that binge drinking wasn’t for me during my Fresher’s Week at university. This is the infamous time in every young adult’s life which consists of masochistically getting bladdered repeatedly, in the hope of forming some lasting bonds of friendship with a group of petrified fellow students. All so that we could LOL about our collective hangovers and embarrassing hook-ups of the morning after the night before. Of course the natural antidote to our terror about being alone was to glug as much poison as humanly possible. Away from home, and far from the...
    » Read More
    Culture Tip: The Book of Mormon
    14Mar

    Culture Tip: The Book of Mormon
    Claudine Levy
    culture
    Soul
    The next morning my cheeks are aching. A solid two and a half hours of smiling is hard to beat, and that’s exactly what The Book of Mormon induced in me. From the makers of South Park, the musical charts the progress of Elder Cunningham and Elder Price, two Mormon missionaries sent to Uganda on a divine quest to baptise as many people as possible. It simply feels gloriously unacceptable.  This musical is camper than a Carry On film, and so self-aware it almost hurts. It would be easy to piously reject jokes about rape, racism and Aids, but once you embrace the...
    » Read More
    Tantric Trance
    28Feb

    Tantric Trance
    Claudine Levy
    meditation, sex
    Body
    Think of the word ‘trance’ and you think of music, drug-fuelled dance and trippy raves off the M25 in the 80s. Think of the word tantric and you think of sex. Now put the two together and you have yourself a very alternative way to spend your time. It was with this in mind that I blindly followed my friend into a church in Vauxhall on Saturday night. The space was lit with flickering candle-light and the smell of incense was overwhelming.  Various free-spirits festooned the pews, stretching and deep breathing, as if preparing to embark on a marathon of mind, body and...
    » Read More
    Veganism: Obsessive or Principled?
    31Jan

    Veganism: Obsessive or Principled?
    Claudine Levy
    nutrition
    Body
    With stars like Beyoncé and Jay Z doing couples’ cleanses, and Gwyneth Paltrow being papped  every other day with the diet deity that is cold-pressed green juice, veganism seems to be this year’s must-have accessory. Could it be that this fashion for deprivation, veiled as nutrition, is doing something damaging for our already body-conscious society? A vegan diet was once an ethical life-choice, the preserve of so-called hemp-loving hippies concerned with the moral dilemma of eating produce from sentient, living...
    » Read More
    A Jewish Family Christmas
    24Dec

    A Jewish Family Christmas
    Claudine Levy
    Christmas, family
    Relationships
    Going away to a secluded part of the Norfolk countryside for a week, with 12 members of your family, ranging from in age from nine to 90, may strike fear into the hearts of most normal folk. And yet, my family has insisted on making this a sadistic tradition for the past three years. I’m currently writing this amidst a storm of testosterone over a heated game of Risk. Family reputation is on the line here. And I find myself reluctantly pulled into conversations about football, as the only younger woman in a family of men: 3 male cousins, 2  brothers, and me. In the...
    » Read More
    Why We Fall in Love with Pets
    05Dec

    Why We Fall in Love with Pets
    Claudine Levy
    wellbeing
    Soul
    I have recently launched a Cat Campaign in my household. It is my firm belief that owning a cat will make both me and my single mother exponentially happier. Pet therapy has widely been used to treat a variety of issues ranging from depression, Asperger’s, ADHD and Empty Nest Syndrome. When her children left home for university, a family friend of mine reluctantly bought a dog to keep her company. Charlie the King Charles Cavalier proved to be this woman’s saviour. During a period of intense loneliness and isolation, she was able to channel her need to...
    » Read More