For me, yoga is an important part of self-care, so it’s no surprise that I have integrated mindfulness into my counselling practice. When my yoga teacher told me about a series of trauma-informed yoga workshops being held over the summer, I signed up straight away – and I’m glad I did. Not only did […]
When anger is ignored
Anger. It has a bad reputation doesn’t it? For me it was such a no-go emotion that I don’t think I really recognized it (or let myself really feel it) until I was well into adulthood. And I know I’m not alone – quite often I meet people who verbally express what to me sounds […]
Beating isolation
Experiencing sexual violence or abuse is difficult enough in itself, but the feelings of loneliness and isolation that can accompany this often make it even worse. There are many reasons why we might become isolated, whether it’s feelings of shame, fear of being with other people or social anxiety, and often after periods of […]
Game plan
It’s got a label I believe. Positive psychology. I was coached in tennis as a boy. I wasn’t much for it. My coach, also young, used to put a tennis ball box on the other side of the court in a position where a serve should bounce. He told me to throw the ball up […]
Self CPR and pitons
My breakdown, when I hit the wall, was about 3 years ago; since then I have been in recovery. The ‘wall’ was the realization I had been abused as a child. When I say ‘realisation’ I mean … I mean an all-consuming melt down (I could attempt to re-iterate this last sentence too but I […]