In a lecture titled Against Self-Criticism, the British psychoanalyst Adam Phillips suggests that, if our self-critical voice were a person who followed us around, we’d find them boring and wouldn’t want them around for long. We’d soon find out that our self-critic was “impoverished and cliché”. In other words, it says the same things over […]
Have you ever found yourself in a spiral of silence? You might not recognise the term, and yet there’s a strong chance you’ve experienced it a few times. In many ways, silence is golden. When we’re sitting by the sea, quietly driving alongside someone we know well, or spending a few minutes in reflective stillness […]
When you hear the words “self-harm”, what comes to mind? For many, there’s a feeling of discomfort and a preference not to think about it. There might also be some misunderstanding about why some people choose to physically harm themselves. March is Self-harm Awarness month, and like any awareness month, it invites us to learn […]
Many of us reach a point in adulthood where time starts to feel like it’s moving faster than it once did. Weeks seem to disappear into months, months into years, and before we know it, we’re left with the sense that it all happened very quickly, even though plenty changed along the way. Psychologists often […]
At this time of year, many of us are in mindset of thinking about our plans, our hopes, and the kind of direction we want the next twelve months to take. January arrives with a sense of renewal, alongside the usual resolutions and how to be “better versions” of ourselves. It also marks Mental Wellness […]
When we think about therapy, we often focus on the client’s experience: how we can help them, how to support them effectively, and which evidence-based methods might work best. But it’s worth giving thought to our own experience of therapy, too. If we’ve been in therapy ourselves, we’ll know something of what it’s like to […]
