Family Bereavement
Grief can be overpowering It can stop us in our tracks. Try to remember it is entirely natural to feel like this, you feel like this because you are in mourning. You will recover, you will adapt, it may take … Read More
Pregnancy And The Development Of Personality Disorders
A study carried out in Finland, of more than 3000 women living close to Helsinki has suggested a link between pregnant mothers who experienced anxiety states during their pregnancies, and the subsequent development of personality disorders in their children. The … Read More
Internal Working Model
What do we mean by an internal working model? In this blog I write about psychoanalysis and psychodynamic counselling and why it is such a useful therapeutic model. Here I am looking in particular at John Bowlby’s (1907-90) internal working … Read More
Crying For No Reason
Do you find yourself crying for no reason? Is there anything wrong with crying? Is crying for no reason a sign of clinical depression? Is it a sign of anxiety disorder? Or are you crying about a deeply sad, perhaps … Read More
Is your adult mental health affected by childhood trauma?
What does childhood trauma mean? Childhood trauma refers to events in which a child is psychologically and emotionally overwhelmed by what they experience. If the child is exposed to multiple traumatic events, this is referred to as complex trauma. … Read More
Conditions of Worth
Do you know what your conditions of worth are? Conditions of worth are the moral and behavioural codes that you live by. Often we are not entirely clear about what our conditions of worth are. Are you attached to conditions … Read More
Nervous breakdown
We don’t tend to talk about nerves so much these days. Now we talk more of stress, anxiety and of problems with our brain chemistry and neurotransmitters, we talk of mental illness and mental health. But, I think we retain … Read More
Unrequited Love
Unrequited love, a one-sided affair Unrequited love, also referred to as one-sided love, is when one person loves, and the other person is unaware of it. Unrequited love is where the person who loves suffers the pain of not having … Read More
Abandonment Issues
Abandonment issues and relationships Abandoned, lost property, All of the lost unclaimed things. Do you fear that you might be discarded, lost and left behind? Abandoned children and animals are very vulnerable. Abandonment threatens our security. As adults we may … Read More
Psychodynamic Counselling
What is Psychodynamic Counselling? Psychodynamic counselling considers the mind or psyche as dynamic, one force working upon another which in turn produces different forces. These psychological dynamics shape our thoughts, our views about the world, which in turn shape the … Read More
Patient Confidentiality
Patient confidentiality is a fundamental part of psychotherapy and counselling When you go to psychotherapy or counselling you need to have the peace of mind that what you say in your sessions remains private. What you say here stays here, … Read More
Alcohol and anxiety
“I used to say to myself that a drink would settle my anxiety and help me relax, would settle my nerves. Maybe it used to. But in the long run it just made me more anxious.” Anonymous It is a … Read More
Disorganised Attachment
What is disorganised attachment? At the heart of someone who suffers from disorganised attachment is unacknowledged trauma and traumatic experience. There has never been a chance for the trauma to be processed, so it has remained within the person, continually … Read More