The Polyvagal Theory helps explain how our body reacts to stress, connection, and safety. Developed by neuroscientist Dr Stephen Porges in the 1990s, it’s now widely used in counselling and psychotherapy to understand why people sometimes feel anxious, disconnected, or overwhelmed — even when they… Read More »How Our Body and Mind Work Together: Understanding the Polyvagal Theory
Change is never just a moment; it’s a movement — often slow, often unclear — and always meaningful. Life transitions come in many forms: the birth of a child, the end of a relationship, a move across countries, retirement, loss, illness, graduation, career shifts, or… Read More »Life transitions: a gentle companion for the inbetween time
A carer is a person who provides unpaid support and care for someone who has an illness, disability, mental health problem or addiction. The carer might be caring for their parent, child, partner, grandparent, grandchild, other relative or friend. Caring may be short-term or long-term,… Read More »Life as a carer
We keep seeing in the media reports on the benefits of nature and being outdoors for us, for our physical and mental wellbeing. People often tell you to go for a walk if you have a problem or that they feel better when they are… Read More »The benefits of nature for our wellbeing
In this post we’re going to look at some issues related to being a woman in mid-life. A lot of women feel that they become gradually more invisible despite their being fundamental in our everyday lives. We’ll talk about the perimenopause, the menopause, empty nest… Read More »Being a woman in mid-life and how to get through it
In this blog post we’re going to talk about eating difficulties (also known as disorders), what they are, how they occur and how we can heal them. An eating difficulty is a mental health concern that is characterised by marked distress expressed in relation to… Read More »Eating difficulties, what they are, how they come about and how we heal them
In this blog post we’re going to talk about people who self-harm. It is becoming an epidemic and we need to understand how to support people who do it. We will look at what self-harm is, identify types of self-harm and the reasons for it,… Read More »Self-harm, why we do it and what we can do to heal it
In this blog entry we’ll be talking about anger, why it’s a secondary emotion, why it’s a useful emotion, and ways of dealing with anger. Sue Parker Hall wrote the book ‘Anger, Rage and Relationship an Emphatic Approach to Anger Management’ (2009), which has a… Read More »Anger, why it happens and how to manage it
In this blog post the focus is on grief and loss and how to deal with them. Grief is a deep or intense sorrow or distress, especially at the death of someone or something that causes suffering. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was a Swiss-American psychiatrist and a… Read More »Grief and loss and how to deal with them
