Welcome to my Blogs & Podcast

Most of us want self-confidence because we want to feel good about ourselves. But self-confidence is also important for other things. The higher our self-confidence, the higher our motivation to act. Self-confidence is also a good thing as if we lack in it we are more likely to fail at the task we have set for ourselves. One of the most important aspects of self-confidence is self-worth. We are all worthy. Some of us however can feel worthless. Maybe we feel like we're dis

There’s no threshold of suffering you have to reach before therapy is ‘allowed’. If something keeps pulling at you — a pattern you can’t shift, a weight that won’t lift, a sense of not being quite yourself — that’s reason enough to talk to someone. Here’s how to tell whether therapy might help, and what taking the first step involves. Today we are going to ask the question “Is it time for me to seek help, and see a therapist?” The chances are if you are asking yourself that q

Stress isn’t only in your head — it speaks through the body, in tight shoulders, a churning stomach, headaches, broken sleep and a heart that races for no clear reason. Those signals aren’t imagined; they’re your nervous system under load. Here’s how chronic stress shows up physically and what it’s asking for. It’s Monday morning, you are running late and it’s taking the kids forever to get ready and get into the car. In your hurry to leave you knock over a cup filled with c

Mindfulness is simply paying attention to the present moment — your body, your breath, what you can see and hear — without rushing to judge it or fix it. If you live with anxiety or trauma, it isn’t about emptying your mind or forcing yourself to feel calm. It’s about slowly teaching an over-alert nervous system that this moment, right now, is safe enough. Done well, it turns the volume down on anxiety and gives you a steadier relationship with your own thoughts. What mindful

If you’re worried your child has been through something traumatic, that worry itself is a good sign — it means they have someone paying attention. Children don’t always show distress in obvious ways, and what helps most is often simpler than parents fear. Here’s what to look for and how to support them. Has your child had an experience that was either emotionally or physically traumatic? Is this still causing them stress, anxiety, and worrying you enough to seek help. Maybe y

Brain fog — the woolly, can’t-think-straight, word-on-the-tip-of-your-tongue feeling — is one of the most common and least talked-about effects of stress, anxiety and trauma. It isn’t a sign you’re failing or unwell in some mysterious way; it’s often an overloaded nervous system rationing its resources. Here’s why it happens and what helps. As we get older we all seem to get more forgetful. Walking into a room and not remembering why you went there in the first place, or try

A panic attack is a sudden surge of intense fear with real physical force behind it — pounding heart, tight chest, the sense you might be dying or losing control — even when you’re not in danger. It’s terrifying, and it’s also your body’s alarm system misfiring, not a sign of weakness. Here’s what’s happening and what helps. First of all, what is a panic attack? It’s an overwhelming feeling of anxiety that comes out of nowhere, with no warning, and quite often for no reason

The harshest voice most of us hear all day is our own. Negative self-talk — the running commentary that says you’re not enough, not coping, not allowed — is learned, which means it can be unlearned. Here’s a simple way to notice it, question it, and begin to change it. You wake up in the morning, brush your teeth and look in the mirror. What do you see? Do you like what you see? Or do you spend the next five minutes poking, prodding, and criticising what is looking back at y

Anger after trauma is rarely the problem it’s mistaken for. More often it’s a protector — the part of you that finally registers that something was wrong, and that you mattered enough to be angry about it. Here’s how to understand trauma-related anger and work with it rather than against it. Trauma and Anger Thankfully there has been a lot more research and general awareness about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in recent years. The once stereotyped image of a shaking war-vete

Anxiety during pregnancy is far more common than anyone tends to admit — worry about the baby, about birth, about whether you’ll be enough — and it deserves the same care as anxiety at any other time. It isn’t a sign you’ll be a bad parent; often it’s the opposite. Here’s what prenatal anxiety looks like and how to find support. Prenatal Anxiety Thinking back to my days when I was pregnant, I remember being struck by the reams of information readily available about postnatal

Covid and Social Anxiety For those of us who suffer from acute social anxiety, the rules inflicted on us during the initial lockdown from...

Movement is one of the most evidence-backed things that helps low mood — but ‘just exercise’ is useless advice when getting out of bed feels impossible. The relationship between depression and fitness is real, and it works best when it’s gentle, not punishing. Here’s how to think about it. Depression and Fitness One of the main aspects to depression that we struggle with is its inability to allow us to deal with our feelings – I am sure I am not alone in having heard others l

You do not have to forgive anyone to heal. Forgiveness can be part of some people’s recovery, but it’s never the price of admission, and being told you ‘should’ forgive can deepen the wound. Here’s a more honest look at forgiveness after trauma — what it is, what it isn’t, and why it’s yours to define. It doesn’t take too long after scrolling your way through Instagram to find a smug and characteristically vacuous quote about forgiveness. Usually, it will be thoughtfully s