Category: Uncategorized

 There are two characteristics that identify social anxiety:

– the fear of doing or saying something foolish in public

– the fear of being judged negatively by others

The specifics can vary from person to person. Continue reading “Social Anxiety from a CBT Perspective”

Advantages of Denial
I always say that there’s a place for denial. It has its uses. Denial is a very powerful defence, it protects us from feeling painful emotions and from addressing difficult issues.

Many of us go through life blissfully unaware of our ‘issues’. Continue reading “Denial: Advantages and Disadvantages”

Anger is a normal healthy emotion, it is what we do with our anger that makes it an issue or not. It can energise us and enable us to be proactive and driven. It becomes an issue we need to manage if we allow our anger to control us or it becomes a destructive force in our lives. Continue reading “Managing Anger”

Many people who present for therapy cite wanting to ‘feel comfortable in their own skin’ as their main objective. Feeling ‘not good enough’ is another related and very common theme. I’m interested in the history of where these beliefs came from to help the client gain more awareness and choice in their current situation. At the same time it’s important to reality test current perceptions.

Image source: Monstrous Discrepancies

Continue reading “Social Anxiety and Shyness”

Recently I co-facilitated Post Natal Adjustment Groups, with a former midwife, in order to address the issue of Post Natal Depression. At least 20% of women experience post natal depression, which should not to be confused with the ‘baby blues’ that can appear in the first week after birth and typically last a few days. Factors increasing the likelihood of experiencing PND include isolation from support, a traumatic labour, a family history of PND, and/or a personal history of depression. Some women in the group cited other contributary factors such as finding it hard to reconcile the difference between their birth plan and the reality of their labour where they felt out of control, others were very disappointed to find that they were unable to breast feed. Continue reading “Post Natal Depression”