“How to find a good therapist?” – Friends ask me this question quite often, and I remember being quite worried about this myself: how do I even start looking for a good therapist? How do I choose one suitable for my needs? How do I know they are professional enough to keep me safe and sound?
Fear is one of the root causes of many mental health difficulties. From the fear of making a fool of yourself in front of others to fearing a relationship ending. There’s the fear of losing your income or having poor physical health and pain, fearing spiders in your bath, or the fear of getting lost and being attacked in a new city. In today’s world, there’s an almost endless list of potential causes of fear. When you don’t feel safe, you’ll worry and experience a range of uncomfortable physical sensations, all of which make it tough to enjoy life.
Welcome to our June Newsletter. I hope this email finds you well.
However, if you are not feeling well, I do hope you are able to seek and receive support. I am reflecting on the notion of asking, receiving and accepting help a lot this month. As helping practitioners, we need to ensure that our bucket is full enough to support others. Traditionally, it was assumed that a therapist is a blank page and should switch off all emotion, not to take it in. These days, with theories of co-regulation (like, for example, polyvagal framework) validating the ancient, collective, relational methods of healing, we have the Western scientific evidence that blank page is simply a myth. When we listen to another person, we do feel with them: our entire nervous system reacts to the story of pain or joy, and thus, our body resonates with it. We carry each other’s stories.
Anzac biscuits, also known simply as Anzacs, have a historical connection to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), and this is where they got their name from. Originally, they were made during WWI to be sent to the Anzac army serving in Gallipoli.
Being a Geek is now more desirable (and less of an insult!). The term Geek describes an expert or enthusiast obsessed with a hobby or intellectual pursuit. It has been reclaimed as an identity to be proud of by many people, and the use of the word is becoming more widespread than it was previously.
How are you doing? Spring arrived late this year, so people in my tribes report feeling tired of the dark and rainy days. We need rest. We need to check in with each other and ourselves. Summer is here, too, with roses finally taking over from spring flowers. I am working outdoors, developing and co-facilitating a therapeutic group, so I can see the seasons shift from one working week to another. And sometimes I do wonder: how do we measure concepts such as seasonal thresholds, energy, time, and space in general…with the liberation psychologies filter on, I often find myself questioning and deconstructing concepts.
In this post, I am writing about shifting seasons, irregular changes in nature, and their impact on our health and wellbeing, and I look at how we can find our way forward with climate distress.
This month, I am asked a lot about taking up the space we deserve and protecting it with firm boundaries – advocating for ourselves and getting our voices noticed, especially when our energies are low. One of the exercises I offer is to imagine a circle around ourselves and invite the idea of lighting it on fire – a healthy, warm, protective fire. I want to share it today, a week after burning the last actual allotment fire to prepare for spring gardening.
Good morning! I hope this post finds you well. In this post I am writing about women’s rights and my personal commitments towards gender equality. I catch up with March in Nature and offer two visual reflections for your digital wellbeing.
Welcome to our February Newsletter. This month, I am asking myself, my friends and my clients: how do we celebrate our achievements in a healthy, balanced way? How much time do we spend sitting with positive feedback? How much space do we dedicate to asking for feedback in the first place? I work in a feedback-informed way in my counselling and coaching practice, yet in my private life, I still often notice moving fast away from positive feedback or even dismissing it with insignificant excuses.
Envy, one of the seven deadly sins, brings with it a sense of sadness, shame and resentment. It’s a deeply uncomfortable emotion to feel and can lead to destructive behaviours aimed at ruining someone else’s perceived good fortune and luck.
But if you can view envy as providing you with information, then it can be a motivating force that helps you achieve your goals. Before this can happen, you need to understand the roots of envy, how it manifests in your life, and how to use it for personal growth rather than fuel for personal failure.