One of the most common reasons people come to counselling is to find an answer to the question: “Why do I feel so emotional?” They may look for help around a wide range of emotions - managing anger, controlling anxiety and panic, guilt and shame, loneliness or overwhelming sadness. So…
This is my third blog on the power of focusing - first developed by Eugene Gendlin and then expanded by Anne Weiser Cornell (photo above) and Barbara McGavin into what they call Inner Relationship Focusing. I have personally found this process extremely helpful and have taught it to many of…
This is my second blog looking at the process of focusing, first developed by Eugene Gendlin and then expanded by Anne Weiser Cornell and Barbara McGavin into what they call Inner Relationship Focusing. I have personally found this process extremely helpful and have taught it to many of my clients: …
Making sense of how we feel Feelings can be confusing. This article looks at how we can access what is known as our felt sense to enable us to make sense of this confusion and perhaps begin to see a way through. What is meant by our felt sense? More…
This is the first in a series of blogs about managing emotions and is an introductory look at how we all experience a whole spectrum of emotions - and rather than instantly labelling then “good” or “bad”, we could simply see them as messengers, sources of information that can be…
The phrase "Tune into your Supersense" comes from the work of Steve Biddulph. Closely linked to my previous blog about the work of Lisa Feldman Barrett are powerful tools to manage our emotions, suggested by Biddulph and also by Eugene Gendlin. I really love Steve Biddulph’s ideas in his book…
Talking about fifty shades of crappy always brings a smile to people’s faces! This is the fourth in a series of blogs about managing stress. Stress is part and parcel of every day life, and can affect how we feel emotionally, mentally and physically and also how we behave. We…
This blog focuses a bit more on stress and the body. My previous blog looked at how as humans, we tend to spend so much time caught up in our thoughts, we can forget that we even have a body! Also that during the pandemic options to exercise were very…
This blog looks at ideas around stress and connecting to our bodies. It sounds simple but as humans, we tend to spend so much time caught up in our thoughts, we can forget that we even have a body! James Joyce’s story of Mr Duffy illustrates this very well. Joyce…
This is the third in a series of blogs about stress and looks at effective ways of managing stress. If you search online for stress management tools, you will come across a huge variety of suggestions. These include progressive muscle relaxation, biofeedback, emotional freedom technique (sometimes called tapping), guided imagery,…
Stressful experiences are a normal part of life, and the human stress response is a survival mechanism that primes us to respond to threats. Is all stress bad? And do we all respond in exactly the same way to stress? Good stress and bad stress Research shows that good stress…
This blog on the physical effects of stress, is the first in a series that will focus on stress and how to manage it. Stressful experiences are a normal part of life, and the human stress response is a survival mechanism that primes us to respond to threats. What can be…