Latest articles on counselling and therapy

We wouldn’t hesitate to talk to kids about their physical health. In our day-to-day lives, we teach kids more about living a healthier, more active lifestyle through food choices, picking up hobbies and clubs that focus on physical activity, and explaining how our actions and choices can impact our bodies physically. Why should it be any different when it comes to talking and teaching kids about mental health?

It’s easy to say that we should feel just as comfortable talking to children...

As January runs its course and many new year resolutions began to fall away, you might start to feel guilty that you’ve failed. Guilt may then turn into feelings of anxiety. Why couldn’t I stick to my resolution? Are people seeing me as a weak and pathetic failure? What if I can’t do my job properly either? Resolutions and anxiety Anxiety can creep up and affect many areas of life; it can cause you to feel miserable, inadequate and scared. These feelings of helplessness...

The restorative power of nature and the development of our connection to it is the most powerful natural healing we can access. It is safe, free, easy and extremely effective with no unwanted side effects. One of the techniques I teach is how to use the senses to bring ourselves out of our heads and into our bodies. When we are stressed and anxious we tend to be stuck in our heads; we overthink, over analyse and cannot switch off, and it can leave us feeling exhausted yet unable to...

When someone tells you negative things that other people have said about you, it's hard to think beyond the stinging words of what has been said. This can happen in every type of relationship, but for this article, I have used romantic relationships of any gender. Unhealthy relationships and isolation At the start of the relationship, these will generally be positive; “my friends think you are great” or “my mum thinks you are amazing”. This can come across as...

Now is the time of year many people are reassessing their partnerships or marriages. It may be that you have been together for some time and the same issues keep replaying, the same arguments keep breaking out. “What is happening? Why are we stuck in this loop? Why are we suddenly feeling such strong feelings and the other one is not hearing what I am saying? Or understanding what I am feeling?”. You as a couple may not want to break up - you may want a better understanding of what...

Do you struggle with maintaining a positive body image after using social media apps? Do you find yourself extremely preoccupied with a perceived flaw in appearance that to others may not be noticed or appears to be minor? If the answers are 'yes', then it may be that using apps such as Snapchat and Instagram are exacerbating your anxiety about how you look, or it could be that you are suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). BDD, occasionally still called dysmorphophobia, is a mental...

We all feel anxious from time to time. It’s when that anxiety starts impacting our actions and day-to-day life that it can become a cause for concern. For many of us, feelings of stress and anxiety can come hand-in-hand. According to the Mental Health Foundation, nearly 8.2 million of us experience anxiety in the UK, with an astonishing 74% of us feeling ‘overwhelmed or unable to cope’ due to stress over the past year.

With so many of us struggling with our anxiety and stress, it’s...