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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

When it comes to therapy, there is often a stereotype of a patient reclining on a sofa and the therapist asking about their childhood. So why do we spend time exploring the past in therapy?

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.