Category Archives: self-esteem

Falling out of the trap

  It’s been a while since I posted something here. That’s partly because I’ve fallen into a trap. Not a big snappy metal thing with teeth or cheese, or a hole in the ground covered by leaves and netting. This is a trap I’ve made for myself and exists only in my head. Writing short […]

Making the grade: how to cope with the aftermath of results day

Do you remember results day? Most of us have experienced at least one day where our exam scores were made public. The current cohort of Year 11s and Years 13s have also had SATs results at age 7 and 11 and those  coming through high school now will have passed or failed a phonics test […]

‘On Wednesdays we wear pink’: being and belonging

Having a sense that you don’t belong is profoundly isolating. For many of us, our childhood and particularly our teenage years may have been dominated by a need to fit in, to work out and conform to the rules of whichever group we were trying to belong to. The cost of not doing so was […]

‘Listen without prejudice’: What’s different about the counselling conversation?

  Counselling is referred to by the medical profession as ‘talking therapy’, harking back to the Freudian ‘talking cure’ and, presumably, to distinguish it from drug-based therapies or more directive, technique-based approaches like CBT. Certainly, having the space to talk is part of the therapeutic benefit of counselling. Counsellors, however, while far from silent partners […]

Are you sitting comfortably? Bodily distress and its meanings

  Are you happy with your body? Happy with your body as it is now, with how it functions, how it looks, how it feels? If the answer is yes, that’s brilliant, read no further. If you answered with a resounding ‘no’ or had to have a think about it, you are far from unusual. […]

A picture paints a thousand words: using photographs in counselling

Like many people, I have a peculiar relationship with cameras and photographs. I recoil when a lens is pointed in my direction and tend to avert my eyes when I’m confronted with the resulting images of myself. There are large gaps in my ‘photo history’, when I simply didn’t have a camera, or when I […]

cultivating app-iness: why your phone could be good for you

Picking up a phone may not often lead to making a phone call. It is now possible to check emails, browse social media, watch a film or listen to music with a flick of the thumb. Sometimes, our phones may communicate with us first, reminding us of events in our calendar, or, as the number […]