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The Importance of Stillness in a Busy World

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The Importance of Stillness in a Busy World

When was the last time you recall being still in your life? The last time you had a moment to yourself where you could pause without rushing into the next task or place you needed to be?

It's all too easy to get caught in rushing from one activity to another, juggling responsibilities, meetings, and social commitments. Stillness on the other hand is stepping outside of our usual 'doing' to tap into a greater awareness about ourselves. More than just a lack of activity, stillness is the deliberate and conscious decision to pause from all the doing in order to allow ourselves a moment to reflect and reconnect to ourselves. Put another way, stillness invites us to stop and check if we are going in the right direction.

7 Fascinating Facts about Trauma and Our Nervous System

7 Fascinating Facts about Trauma and Our Nervous System

Trauma is often thought of solely as a psychological issue, but recent research, particularly through the lens of Polyvagal Theory, has illuminated the connection between experiences of trauma and our nervous system's functioning. Here are 7 facts to better understand this connection in order to enhance our ability to cope with past trauma as well as our approach to healing and mental health.

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Healing from Trauma: A Matter of Mind and Body

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Healing from Trauma: A Matter of Mind and Body

How we respond to and recover from the challenges of life is an indicator of our wellbeing and ability to learn and grow. It begs the question of how one faces the trials, tribulations, and traumas of life. Understanding the connection between our mind and body can play a crucial role in this process.

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Feeling feelings: A practical guide

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Feeling feelings: A practical guide

“Feel your feelings.”-it's a phrase you hear in the world of self-help and therapy but it can be an especially difficult concept to grasp when the demanding and fast-paced world we live often forces us to put our emotions aside and prioritise thinking and doing. The tendency to ‘think our way through life’ means that it can be difficult to tune into and fully feel our feelings, making it easy to lose touch with our inner emotional landscape. However, understanding how to properly ‘feeling your feelings’ can be a powerful skill to make our selves more at easy and our lives more satisfying.

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10 questions to reflect on for the year end

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10 questions to reflect on for the year end

As the year draws to an end, it’s a natural moment in time to pause and reflect on where we’ve been in the last 12 months and where we hope to move towards in the next. Whether this year felt long or short to you, here are 10 questions to reflect on as we wind down the last week of the year.

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Considering EMDR therapy? Here’s what to expect

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Considering EMDR therapy? Here’s what to expect

Traumatic events that are not fully or properly processed can cause post-traumatic stress and symptoms. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a type of structured somatic therapy that has been shown to be effective in healing our brains from trauma as well as a range of mental health issues including anxiety, depression and OCD. Read more about what EMDR is and what to expect if you are considering this therapy approach.

Is it working? How to tell if therapy is helping you

Is it working? How to tell if therapy is helping you

Therapy can seem shrouded in mystery, a process done behind closed doors with noone else to witness it apart from you and your therapist. Knowing what to look out for when determining the effectiveness of your therapy sessions can help you reflect for yourself whether therapy is going in the right direction for you. Here are some things to consider throughout your therapy process.

How to find the right therapist for you

How to find the right therapist for you

A major part of what makes therapy effective is the relationship between you and your therapist. Finding the ‘right’ therapist is all about finding a therapist who is a good fit for you and what you need. There are several things to consider both before and after the first session that will help determine whether a therapist is a good fit for you.

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The mind-body connection: The wisdom of your body

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The mind-body connection: The wisdom of your body

Our skin crawls when we are disgusted and our heart feels like it is about to burst when we are full of joy. We are left breathless in the face of beauty and our stomach drops when we receive a fright or shock. These expressions are not a coincidence. What do they tell us about about the link between our mind and our bodies?

Food for thought: The relationship we have with food

Food for thought: The relationship we have with food

Many of us have a complicated relationship with food. Most of us have at some point been on a form of diet and for many more of us, the relationship we have with our bodies is a constant struggle between dissatisfaction, ignoring it, and paying a lot of (self-conscious and/or self-critical) attention to it. What might patterns of overeating or restrictive diets be reflecting about our emotional health?


Getting unstuck in unhappy relationships: Part 3

Getting unstuck in unhappy relationships: Part 3

Even though our attachment style can be traced back to our earliest relationships, it isn’t set in stone and it isn’t the case that it cannot be changed. The extent to which we are able to become securely attached later in life is fortunately determined less by our early relationships and more by a combination of how aware we are of ourselves and strengthening the skills for healthy, secure attachments.