When anxiety arrives, our instinct is often to want it gone. We want the racing thoughts to settle, the tension in our bodies to ease and the uncertainty to stop occupying so much space in our minds. If you've ever lain awake going over tomorrow's possibilities, avoided a difficult conversation because you can't face how it might go, or found yourself checking and rechecking something you are worried you've missed, that desire for relief probably feels very understandable. Bu

Talking about suicide or thoughts of hurting yourself can be difficult. You might worry about what will happen if you tell someone. Will they panic? Will they call someone? Will you lose control over what happens next? These are understandable concerns, and they can sometimes make it harder to say what is actually happening. So what might happen if you tell your therapist? Photo of woman looking out over balcony by Nguyen Dan Hoang on Unsplash The first thing we do is talk ab

If you've spent any time on social media, you'll probably have noticed how often difficult experiences come with a positive message attached. A breakup becomes an opportunity for growth, a setback becomes a lesson and a difficult period becomes a chance to become a stronger version of yourself. Sometimes those things are true. Finding meaning in difficult experiences can be helpful and there can be something valuable in recognising what we have learned or how we have changed.

If you've been looking into counselling, you may have come across the term integrative counselling. It sounds professional enough, but it doesn't necessarily tell you much about what actually happens in the therapy room. Put simply, integrative counselling means drawing on different therapeutic approaches rather than following one model rigidly. For me, this means having different ways of understanding your experience and being able to move between different points of view de

Finding a therapist can feel overwhelming. When you start searching online, you might see endless profiles, qualifications and therapy styles. This can make it hard to know where to begin or who to choose. The truth is, you don’t need to find the perfect therapist. Instead, you want to find someone who feels like a good fit for you. One way to make this process less stressful is to think of it like window shopping. You don’t have to rush into the first option or visit every s

Many people think about therapy long before they actually reach out. Perhaps you’ve found yourself searching online, wondering whether counselling might help. Maybe you’ve had a difficult few weeks, months or even years. Or perhaps there isn’t one particular thing that feels wrong — you just have a sense that something could be different. One of the most common questions people ask is: “How do I know when it’s the right time to start therapy?” The truth is that there is no si

Stress often gets a bad reputation. We tend to think of it as something to avoid, a force that wears us down and causes harm. But what if some stress is actually good for us?