Latest articles on counselling and therapy

When relationships end, it can be difficult, particularly if you did not want things to change. It may be that a romantic relationship is over, or that a friendship has drifted away despite your best efforts, or even that someone has died. In all of these situations, the relationship between you and the other person is over. However, we construct our reality, and despite this change outside of ourselves, it is not always the case that the relationship is over for us internally. Sometimes you...

Do you sometimes, as a parent, worry about your child? Is he/she ok? Have you noticed that your child has become more withdrawn? Do you know their friends? As parents in the last decade or so, we have more concerns about our child’s wellbeing than ever before. They are exposed to so many different platforms of social media, such as Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube etc. There is a greater need for young people to be well liked, popular or be socially accepted. Young people turn to...

Suicide! That's right, suicide! I invite you to allow that word to sit with you for a moment. Now say it... and again... such a powerful word, such a taboo word, but the more we say it, the more we talk about it, the more aware people will become and the more people will feel they can talk about it. Let's drop the stigma and reduce the statistics. So what is suicide? In short, suicide is the act of one taking their own life in order to end their pain and suffering. Suicide is a subject that...

Conversations around mental health are becoming more visible now, particularly with social media and high profile people (including royalty) talking about their struggles with mental health. Yet there is much to learn, and there are a lot of misconceptions about what mental health is. There was a powerful episode of Holby City on BBC 1 recently where two doctors (Sacha and Rick) were talking about the stress that they were under. Rick was initially very dismissive, telling his colleague that...

Grounding techniques Practising regular grounding exercises can help you feel more secure, stable and connected to yourself, especially after a period of anxiety or dissociation. These exercises can also be used to overcome panic attacks and feelings of detachment in depression. They include learning to keep your feet anchored to the floor, finding your centre of gravity, adopting an upright posture and standing still with your legs apart. As well as practising how to move with a fluid, steady...

The dictionary describes procrastination as “the action of delaying or postponing something”. Often procrastination is the cause of fear; there could be many factors associated with this including: Fear of failure - starting things and often not completing them because you believe you will fail, so you do not complete the task to avoid defeat. Fear of success - you want to be successful, but you are afraid of your inability to handle fame or fortune, perhaps you are scared of...

Without “hope” it can be very difficult to “kick-start” yourself on a day when you wake up feeling miserable and hopeless. Yet it seems these days are common to all people at some point in their life, with many different ways of responding. Some people say they simply refuse to acknowledge low mood, and instead throw themselves into a hive of activity through work or exercise, as if drowning out any negative feelings that are threatening to emerge. Others say they feel...

There are many reasons why some of us put on weight more easily than others. If you are reading this because you are miserable about your own weight and perhaps envious or frustrated by others who seem to get away with eating what they want, then hopefully this article will explain some of the possible influences on weight. Let's look at our environment first: Our culture tends to communicate with food - we use it to celebrate, comfort ourselves, for enjoyment, to treat ourselves on holiday...