I am often the first person with whom my patients share significant and intimate thoughts and memories; I never take that privileged position for granted nor the opportunity to help someone to feel better about themselves and discover a more fulfilling life. One of my colleagues once described me as a natural psychologist; I guess she was alluding to the fact that I feel at ease being a therapist, I can empathise with people’s distress and discomfort but don’t feel overwhelmed by it, I can understand their problem and know how to help, it has always just felt like what I should be doing.
Is Sober October a Bad Idea? Sober October might roll off the tongue better than Dry January but the principle is just as shaky. When I sat down to blog about it I realised that I didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. Instead I could re-post my Dry January blog, suggest that readers replace the word ‘Christmas’ with ‘Summer’ and remember that a little bit of what you fancy does you good! Click here to read the ‘Why Dry January is a Bad Idea’ article in full...
When we are faced with something new or unfamiliar our threat or fight/flight response kicks in. We have evolved to respond in this way, it’s a survival strategy, if we aren’t sure what awaits us, nature believes it is best to expect and prepare for the worst: In the days when we might have found ourselves foraging for food, if a nearby bush rustled it was best to assume there was a predator lying in wait and run, if we were wrong all that was lost was some foraging time. […]...
Self-Esteem is the cornerstone of mental health. Low self-esteem underlies most mental health problems, is very common and most of us could do with a boost in this area. So here are 5 tips to help you to do that: 1. Low Self-Esteem is maintained by a self-critical voice, sometimes known as the internal critic. If you can identify yours and begin to monitor it, over time you will create some distance between yourself and it which will reveal alternative ways of looking at things. 2. There is an opposite […]...
Don’t Be Put Off by First Impressions The new series of Love Island started last week and with it some quite strong opinions based on first impressions of the Islanders. People can be quick to judge and judge harshly those that put themselves out there. These young people with their bravado and bikinis, who are still working out who they are and how they want to be, can become easy targets for the anger and frustration that some of us hold on to for other things in our lives. I […]...
