Latest articles on counselling and therapy

Are you a highly sensitive person (HSP)? Do you feel others’ and your own pain so deeply, that it almost seems unbearable? Do you often feel overwhelmed with crowds, loud noises or when you feel people are expecting too much from you? Do you find yourself feeling over stimulated and frazzled when you have to go to social events? Are you good at things like driving but as soon as you have a passenger with you, you find yourself feeling nervous and making mistakes? It may also be that you...

Why therapy works - know thy selves Very often people seek out therapy because they have a problem they want to fix. They believe they should know what to do about a specific person or situation or be able to ‘cure’ themselves of a particular affliction such as anxiety, depression or addiction.It is not long before they realise that they are much more complicated than they thought, as well as being a lot more fabulous!It is actually a relief to realise that we are not in fact a...

“True love heals and affects spiritual growth. If we do not grow because of someone else’s love, it’s generally because it is a counterfeit form of love.” John Bradshaw Emotionally abusive parents are manipulative, cunning and toxic. Brilliant impersonators these narcissistic fakes create a world of “alternative facts”. Abused children wear cloaks woven with invisible scars inflicted by the parents’ permanent smear campaigns. Myths follow into...

Do you sometimes feel that there are unconscious external forces driving your behaviour? Does hearing about feminism flick a switch that turns your anger on at a frightening rate moving from nought to sixty in a split second? Has anger towards women turned to rage, fury and hatred for all femininity? Perhaps your family relationships involving females felt divided, obligatory, oppressive or in other ways unloving? Do you find yourself feeling overwhelmingly anxious, empty, dissatisfied and...

The talented footballer, Andy Woodward, has courageously disclosed his ordeal at the hands of his football coach. Since then, Paul Stewart, David White and Steve Walters have also spoken publicly about their ordeals, waiving their right to anonymity as victims of child sex abuse. The NSPCC's hotline has now received hundreds of calls. People seem shocked that football is involved. The so-called 'beautiful game'. We struggle to make sense of such news. We cannot comprehend that the human...

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware.” Martin BuberEscapism is the opposite of mindfulness - that is living in the moment, of living mindfully. It may be that for you, facing reality is simply too terrifying. This is at the root of your anxiety, the fear of “doing the living”, becoming frightened of your own existence. Escapism is a way of attempting to make negative feelings dissipate, without working through the necessary steps...

Emotional intensity is a form of neurodiversity that is most often misunderstood by our culture.  It is characterised by heightened and intense feelings, a constant stream of both positive and negative feelings — pain, distress, despair, fear, excitement, love, sadness or happiness — sometimes a mixture of many at the same time. Sometimes, feelings can become so powerful and compelling that the person would feel out of control, losing the ability to think straight, or to...

Triangulating others is used to gain an advantage over a perceived rival by manipulating the rival into conflict with another. Family systems theorist, Dr. Murray Bowen, states: "A triangle is a three-person relationship system. It is considered the building block or "molecule" of larger emotional systems because a triangle is the smallest stable relationship system." Bowen indicates that the tension created for the odd person out created by a triangle is too difficult for an individual to...