In this month’s blog I explore some of the ways we can deal with “pushback” from other people when we decide to set boundaries with them.

In this blog post I explore the subject of boundaries, what they are, the different types and how to set them with self and others.

Happy Holidays! War isn’t over. In this blog I offer a way of managing the potential Hellscape of the Festive Season, and Late Capitalism in general!

In this blog I discuss the importance of play and playing for adults and how this can help you cope with the damaging systems we live under.

In this blog I discuss EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy) and how it might help you overcome trauma, anxiety, depression and other issues.

In this blog I am going to explore the three components of self compassion and the many ways this can ripple out in our lives to help us navigate this disturbing, distressing world.

In this blog I explore the nature of emotional flashbacks, what they are, and how to reduce the way they can impact on your life.

In this blog post I explore a lesser known offshoot of CBT called Schema Therapy. This therapy works with our internal world or system of “parts” to help us solve some of the ways we sabotage ourselves without knowing why we do it.

In this blog post I explore the nature of unwanted intrusive thoughts, what they are, why they cause us so much trouble and what we can do about them.

In this blog post I explore the best ways to stop ourselves from spiralling when events or people trigger a trauma-based stress response. The Five Anchors come from Resmaa Menakem’s (highly recommended) book “My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialised Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies" and are themselves based on the work of Dr David Schnarch.

Content Warning – this blog contains references to racism, ableism, suicide, rape, misogyny, queer, fat and transphobia.

In this blog post I’ll explore Sonya Renee Taylor’s wonderful book “The Body Is Not An Apology” along with the ways that body terrorism shows up, and how we can resist it using radical self-love.

In this blog post I discuss death anxiety, what it is, and how therapy can help us to process the fact of death itself.

Trigger warning: contains discussions about death but no details of death as a process.

In this blog post I explore what Minority Stress is, why it’s important to be aware of it and how it might be impacting on your mental health.

In this blog article we delve into some of the ways the brain and nervous system are changed for the better via psychotherapy. We also explore what’s going on for us in the room when we work with a psychotherapist.

Trauma is a word that’s bandied around a lot in pop-culture and social justice circles. Usually, trauma is used to describe a disturbing, deeply distressing experience of overwhelm. In this blog I explore what trauma is, some of the unusual ways it can show up for us and how psychological therapies can help.

About 12% of older adults are estranged from their adult children so we are talking about a sizeable number of people – the same number of people who are left-handed – and there are many reasons why we might decide to separate from our family. In this blog article I am going to explore the theme of estrangement and how therapy can help us to heal from the experience of difficult family backgrounds.

Real men don’t need therapy. They just need to watch a game, hit the bottle, hit each other (or their loved ones) keep going, and push it all down into a tense, numb zone somewhere in the gut until the body falls apart. Am I right? Wrong. In this blog here are 5 things men need to know about therapy in order to lead a more enjoyable life and be better men.

Everyone gets angry including your therapist: “if you’re not pissed off you’re not paying attention” as the direct action news-sheet Schnews used to put it back in the day. And let’s face it, there’s a lot to be angry about, whether that’s on a global scale or just in the day-to-day annoyances of keeping the wheels on the trolley of life. In this blog article I’ll explore what anger is, what it might be telling you, and how to harness the power of anger so it becomes a friend not a foe.

“CBT is only a sticking plaster, it doesn’t go deep and doesn’t create long-lasting change. CBT is delivered by emotionless barely adult robots. CBT blames me as the client when I don’t feel any better. CBT feels mechanical and superficial, it doesn’t see me in all my complexity. CBT doesn’t do emotions or warmth. CBT isn’t interested in relationships it’s all tools and technique….”

In the second part of this two-part blog post, I’ll bust some of the common myths about CBT and explore where they might have come from and why.

“CBT is only a sticking plaster, it doesn’t go deep and doesn’t create long-lasting change. CBT is delivered by emotionless barely adult robots. CBT blames me as the client when I don’t feel any better. CBT feels mechanical and superficial, it doesn’t see me in all my complexity. CBT doesn’t do emotions or warmth. CBT isn’t interested in relationships it’s all tools and technique….”

These are some of the many myths that you’ll hear about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy if you do a quick Google on the subject. My favourites are the expletive littered Mumsnet ones. In this two-part blog post I’ll bust some of the common myths about CBT and explore where they might have come from and why.