Psychology of us

Skype therapy just means that the client and therapist connect via the online communication app, Skype. Skype accounts are free and easy to use. Sign up takes about five minutes. Communication requires a webcam and stable Internet connection.   Though the client and therapist are not in the same room, they can see and hear […]

Inner Critic

In Western societies, confidence is valued. High self-esteem is considered a personal strength. In order to build confidence levels, we tell our children they are special.

 The world’s most sensible person and the biggest idiot both stay within us. The worst part is, you can’t even tell who is who.        -Chetan Bhagat

 The problem is that stress is the result of caring about something; it is human and it is inevitable. – Donald Meichenbaum

I am a person who feels guilty for crimes I have not committed.. The police search the train station for a criminal at large* and I cover my face with a newspaper, wondering if maybe I did it in my sleep. The last thing I stole was an eight-track tape, but to this day I’m […]

To illustrate how horrible it was .. I would rather be in jail in a wheelchair with a body that doesn’t work than experience a severe episode of depression. -Rob Delaney

Though guilt and shame are similar and often used interchangeably, recent neuroscience research suggests that they are very different emotional processes. They both underpin self-correction but they are made up of different brain chemistry, are based on different beliefs, and motivate different reactions (1).   Guilt arises when we think that we have done damage […]

Inner Critic critics

Our inner critics can be erosive, exhausting, and even damaging to us. But they can be very effective at motivating us too. (Read more about this here). The following post will provide suggestions on how to add a more compassionate and constructive voice to your mix of inner critical voices.   Visualise your inner critic. […]

Guilt feelings are common, healthy, and useful in short durations. However, when guilt lingers passed its usefulness, it can cause emotional distress and lead to more serious psychological issues. These steps suggest ways to effectively repair relationships when it is possible and ways to let go of useless and destructive guilt when it is not. […]

Because stress is an inevitable part of life, these steps help us to live with it better. Click the link to access a worksheet that you can use with the following steps: Get Better at Stress Worksheet.   Name it to Tame it. Stress is an umbrella term (both broad and vague). Lack of clarity […]

I worked my way through graduate school as a waiter. Before I earned a Chartership and could earn money working with clients, I worked 16 hours most days for about five years. This included taking classes, training, seeing clients, and doing research, then waiting tables nights and weekends. Sometimes I would work two 8-hour restaurant […]

Stress is the way that our mind and body react to demands or threats. Whereas anxiety is worry about what might happen in the future, stress is the response to what is happening now.   Why We Experience Stress   Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio has been studying emotions for over 30 years. Damasio suggests that all […]

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) provides the basic structure for my practice. One of the best things about CBT is that it is unashamedly thieving. CBT allows its practitioners to use what works for clients from other theories and therapy models. So I draw skills, techniques, and concepts from CBT, Compassion-Focused Therapy, Affective Neuroscience, and Transactional […]

First, make sure that there is not a physical reason for your depression. Depression can be a side-effect of any number of physical sources: nutritional deficiencies, bacterial imbalances in your gut, hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, fibromyalgia, hormonal disorders, food allergies, infections, and medications. Get a thorough checkup from your doctor.   Pay attention to your health. […]

There’s an extraordinary new type of brain scan called an fMRI that allows us to witness creative thinking while it’s happening. For the first time, we can see that creative thinking is not a mystical or divine force that shines down on us from the heavens (sorry, Elizabeth Gilbert!).

You should stay away from your potential.  You don’t want to find out that the most you could possibly achieve if you gave it your all and devoted yourself to improving yourself … would be maybe eating less cheesy snacks. – Dylan Moran

    Perhaps you’ve heard of the amygdala. It is the lightning-fast brain section responsible for detecting potential threats and prompting fear responses, such as fight-or-flight. The amygdala sends signals to the hypothalamus to release bursts of stress hormones (such as cortisol and adrenaline), which promote arousal and prompt us to enact safety strategies.   […]

If you hide your trauma from yourself, you are likely to react like an animal in a thunderstorm, having a full body response to the hormones that signal danger. Without language or context, your awareness may be limited to ‘I am scared’. Yet, determined to stay in control, you are likely to avoid anybody or […]

Fear is the physical, mental, and emotional reaction to a threat that is present or imminent. Anxiety is caused by imagining threats or possible future danger. Our threat perception can be rational and reasonable or wildly disproportionate and unrealistic. However, our brains have difficulty telling the difference between real and imagined threats.

What is creativity? There’s an extraordinary new type of brain scan called an fMRI that allows us to witness creative thinking while it’s happening. For the first time, we can see that creative thinking is not a mystical or divine force that shines down on us from the heavens (sorry, Elizabeth Gilbert!).

Monkey Therapy

In ancient Chinese 心猿 literally translates to monkey mind. These symbols suggest that our minds are full of drunken monkeys who chatter incessantly and swing wildly between thoughts.

I offer single sessions and ten-session packages. Clients who choose ten-session packages usually attend sessions once a week or once every two weeks. If you want to continue after ten sessions, you can book another ten-session package or pay as you go. Have as many sessions as you need.   Single-sessions are 90 minutes and […]

Depression Head

Most of our emotional brain function happens in the Limbic system where neurotransmitters such as serotonin (which stabilises mood), dopamine (makes us feel pleasure) and GABA (calms anxiety) all play a role in our emotional wellbeing. Sometimes our complex emotional system falters and we receive either excessive or insufficient amounts of these neurotransmitters and depression […]

 In the simplest terms, all stuckness, hesitation, resistance, or inability to change can be traced back to the emotion of fear. Sometimes this fear is well founded and easy to name, but sometimes it is outside of our awareness. To understand how fear underlies our stuckness, let´s look at how all emotions work together.

These four steps address common ways of thinking that may be causing your stuckness. Changing them will help you to move forward in the present and, over time, will positively change your way of thinking.