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Anger can often get a bad rep; it’s commonly thought of as a ‘bad’ or useless emotion. But it isn’t. Like all emotions, it gives us important insight.

Problems come, however, when we’re feeling angry too much of the time or we don’t deal with these feelings properly. It’s common to try to suppress anger or to let it all out in the heat of the moment. But these aren’t healthy ways of dealing with anger – for body or mind.

The key is to calm down enough to listen to what our anger is trying to tell us, and find healthy ways to process it.

Here are our tips to help you do just...

When a celebrity death is highly publicised, it may seem inevitable that children will hear about it, be it in passing or more detail. While children and teens may not have known about the celebrity beforehand, it can be virtually impossible to avoid hearing the speculation on social media and in the news.

Even if you are used to having frank conversations with your children, introducing them to mental health as a whole may seem tricky, let alone knowing how to bring up sensitive topics like suicide. It’s important to take the time to talk about suicide, to see how much children understand, to answer any questions they may have and, importantly, to reassure them.

Talking about suicide may be difficult, but it doesn’t give people the idea to do it

Counsellor Lorna Slade has extensive experience in working with adult children of narcissist parents. We asked her to explain what impact narcissism has for these children and also what a parent can do if they suspect their child is showing signs of narcissism.

‘I was a good girl but I used to lie awake at night listening to her running me down to my father, who said nothing. I concluded that I wasn’t safe and might one day be homeless.’ Not a sign of a happy child – now a client of mine – but certainly a sign of how the child of a narcissist’s mind works.

In the media any egotist holding a selfie stick is labelled a ‘narcissist’. There is also a focus on grandiose narcissists with overtly entitled, manipulative and competitive behaviours – in short, larger than...

Losing someone we love can turn our world upside-down. It feels as if nothing will be OK again and the idea of returning to our everyday life seems impossible. Taking the time you need to grieve is so important and knowing that while things may never be the same again, you will adjust to life without them and learn how to carry them in your heart.

Everyone responds to loss differently and there is no right or wrong way to feel. Different people will also find different things helpful, but giving yourself space, care and attention is essential.

Here are some things to keep in mind during bereavement:

Listen to yourself

Remember, no one knows...

In a recent report, Sky News investigated the impact Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is having on young people in the UK. They found that hundreds of children are missing years of school, for fears that they are ugly.

BDD, commonly referred to as body dysmorphia, is an obsession with flaws in your own appearance. But, the important thing to remember is, a person with BDD is not vain or self-obsessed. The condition is incredibly upsetting and can severely impact daily life. For some, even leaving the house can be a difficult task.

The condition can even lead young people to make dangerous choices, dramatically impacting their physical and mental health.

Each year when exam season rolls around or a new term begins, we see new statistics and articles highlighting how stressed children and teens across the country are. With increased pressure from homework, exams, social media, peer and parental expectations, young people are arguably feeling more stressed than ever before.

As part of our mission to create a happier, healthier society, we have been working on a new range of free, easy to use resources to help parents, teachers, primary and secondary school-aged children. Our aim? To help young people (and the adults that support them) learn how to recognise the signs of stress, discover what they can do to tackle these feelings, and develop healthy coping strategies that will work for them.

Together with Happiful Magazine, we have created a number of free resources to help families and schools learn more...

Counselling Directory member, Paula Coles, provides five tips to prevent us passing stress onto our kids.

The impact of parental stress on children is a topic that is well-researched by academics. But, when it comes to the practicalities and the impacts, do we, as parents, know the effects our stress is having on our children?

As parents, we can often face the burden of expected happiness. Many parents feel obliged to showcase social media showreels of their ‘joyous’ parenting, but it’s not always the truth of what’s going on behind closed doors. In fact, many parents will be ‘managing’ the stress of parenting with unhealthy...

We have all heard about the importance of self-care and how it helps us stay both physically and mentally well. Yet for many of us, it continues to be a struggle. Interestingly perhaps, those who work in a helping capacity can quickly forget about their own self-care.

We speak to counsellor Teresa Sinani about the importance of self-care when you care for others at work.

The term self-care is often spoken about, but what does it mean for those who work in the helping professions?

I understand self-care to be a practise that counsellors, therapists, anyone working in the helping professions need to...

If you travel by tube, you may well have seen the ‘baby on board’ badges pregnant women are able to wear, encouraging others to give up their seat if none are available. Many of us know to give up our seat if someone is pregnant, injured or using a walking aid – but what about disabilities and health problems we can’t see?

Last year TFL created the ‘please offer me a seat’ badge for those with hidden illnesses to wear when travelling by tube. Earlier this week to mark the first year anniversary of the badges (and to reinforce their important message), TFL launched ‘Priority Seating Week’.

Pictures and stories of people with hidden illnesses have been shared to raise awareness of the badges and how they help those who wear them. People with health problems like epilepsy and vision impairment were included in the campaign, along with