Spring forward

Spring is here. After winter, seeing the green shoots appear on the trees and the flowers blooming can signal a glimmer of hope and renewal.

‘Mindfulness’ is about noticing and experiencing; using our senses to acknowledge what is all around us. At this time of year there is so much to notice… the visible signs of nature and growth; the smells of springtime; the sounds of birdsong and the touch of warm sunlight interspersed with cold breezes and spring rain showers. And it’s all out there for us.

Such simple experiences can provide glimmers of relief from low mood, grief, overwhelm and stress and help us to cope. Taking the time and getting out is the first (and most difficult step). Once out these small, short breaks from overwhelm can develop to become the start of a decision to become unstuck.

Ready to feel better? Start CBT this week

CBT appointments are available with Julie this week in the clinic at Therap-Ease at Morningside Road in Edinburgh.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach that can help you to cope and to feel better. I have successfully helped clients to deal with anxiety, disordered eating, self esteem and low mood. I’ve helped many clients who feel stuck or who are aware they want to make changes in their life.

Phone 0131 447 9990 to make an appointment or book online at Therap-Ease.

CBT without the queues

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is recommended by the NHS for anxiety, panic, low mood and depression, eating disorders and many other conditions. But NHS waiting lists can be extremely long with patients waiting months to start treatment.

I specialise in CBT and can arrange appointments at Therap-ease within days. This means that you can start to make important steps forward with your mental health straight away.

Many of my clients experience a benefit early in the treatment from using simple strategies and we get stuck straight in to making the manageable changes that help you feel better.

I work with adults and young people from my clinic at Therap-ease in Morningside Road, Edinburgh. Therap-ease is multi-therapy centre with comfortable rooms and reception area.

Appointments can be booked online and during February all new clients will receive a self-help book (worth £12.99).

Christmas and new year – appointments for CBT

After a short break for Christmas I’ll be opening the clinic again tomorrow (Thurs 27th Dec). You can book appointments for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy online at www.therap-ease.biz.

I have appointments available in the next week or so. If you would like to talk through any issues that have arisen over the festive period, or are looking for a bit of support at this time of year, why not book in. CBT is great for helping put things into perspective, for coping with anxiety and managing emotions and for intercepting unhelpful thinking patterns.

I am offering £5 off first sessions for new clients in December and January (normally £50; now £45).

Contact me if you have questions about CBT or would like to find out more about how CBT can help you.

Put pen to paper for Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival

Writing is a great way to help explore and express thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Journaling, letter writing and creative writing can all be really effective in providing catharsis and healing.

The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival is inviting submissions on the theme of ‘connected’ – the deadline is Friday 15th March 2019. You can submit short stories, poems, letters, articles or journal entries. What a great way to share work and to contribute to a broader understanding of mental health.

Link to submission guidelines and how to enter.

Funny you should say that…

Humour is one of the joys or being human. It is also incredibly valuable in helping us build mental resilience and well-being both inside and outside of the therapy room.

Have you ever witnessed something funny happening in a public place and then shared a knowing look or smile with a stranger? It feels good to connect like this and these small encounters lift us, albeit in a small and momentary way, reminding us that we are not alone.

How many dating profiles ask for a GSOH? (good sense of humour)? If we are going to commit to being with someone in sickness and health and until death do us part, many of us want some humour to help lighten the dark times, as well as to make the good times even more fun.

Those of you who work in helping and caring professions and medical fields…how would it be to perform the dangerous, risky and traumatic roles you do without the ‘gallows humour’ that goes with these jobs? Humour seems to help us process trauma, bond with others and protect ourselves from deeper hurt.

Contrary to what many people assume, a typical therapy session (if such a thing exists) is not all doom and gloom. Of course, clients come to therapy at times when they feel they want help with distressing times, difficult feelings and emotions and when they feel they are struggling to cope. And therapy is a space where you can unload your worries and fears and explore some of the darker aspects of your situation.  But there is often laughter in the therapy room too:

• while talking about difficult events or feelings, humour sometimes provides clients with a protective layer against more painful feelings and emotions, which might take a bit more time to explore;
• at moments of empathy between the client and the therapist – during moments of connection and understanding there can be some shared humour;
• when remembering loved ones or good times from the past the humorous moments often mean the most;
• Sometimes even at the most tragic times of our lives our resilience and playfulness gives us some humour as much-needed light relief.

Humour is so powerful to us as human beings – it helps us to understand and cope with being alive; to see lightness and hope in life; and to bring us closer to others – it also gives us a well-earned rest from work, commitment and duty. Live, love, laugh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Brief…encounter

I was unusually touched when I read about the death of Professor Stephen Hawking this morning and I surprised myself by shedding a few tears at the great man’s passing.

I briefly encountered Hawking in real life in the early 2000s when I saw the professor with his nurse in a Cambridge restaurant. I can’t say I ever met the man though. And I haven’t read his work – not even the best-seller. I saw the film ‘A Brief History of Time’ with Eddie Redmayne as Hawking and Felicity Jones as his first wife, Jane a few years ago…and I came out very much sympathising with Jane. So why the tears?

While many deaths remind us of our own mortality, the fact that Hawking outlived all medical predictions based on his diagnosis with MND gained him a status for being almost ‘immortal’. It sometimes felt as though his vast intellect defied nature and  the inevitability that none of us gets out of here alive.

He is also almost certainly one of the few individuals from our age to join a highly select group of great and famous mathematicians that includes Einstein, Newton, Pythagoras, Euclid and the likes. So we feel connected to him as he takes his place as our generation’s representative in history.

For me, Professor Stephen Hawking also represents a number of passions and beliefs that I hold dear on a more personal (and professional) level:

• life is valuable
• people achieve great things
• work and love are everything
• we are small in the universe
• things are not always as they seem
• a sense of humour and humility is essential
• the NHS is valuable and good

It is staggering and humbling to recognise how much one man can contribute to society, learning, understanding, science and debate.  While most of us never achieve at this level or so publicly, we all have our contributions and encounters during our brief lives that are valuable and important. We can take inspiration from those, like Stephen, who have done so much.

RIP Professor Hawking – you were truly one of the great people of our age.

[if you don’t know what I mean about sense of humour, watch this Funny interview with Stephen Hawking]

 

 

Standing up, standing out…and celebrating

Watching Frances McDormand’s Oscar acceptance speech I notice the reactions when she requests that all the women nominees stand up.  What strikes me is that these women who, even those the top of their games and operating at an International level, are reluctant to stand and be applauded for their achievements. This is show-biz people! These are the lucky ones…the powerful, successful and beautiful. When did pride become so difficult and unfashionable?

Is it real or faux- modesty is holding them back?  Social anxiety or social expectation? Is it just not the ‘done thing’ to blow ones own trumpet?

Most of us don’t achieve on an international level, or contribute to making block-busters. But we all make things happen, achieve and create…and I can’t help feeling that celebrating achievement and success would help us improve our self esteem, our self images and our sense of well-being. I wonder if even on a small level, we can we take a leaf from Frances McDormand’s book – stand up, stand out and celebrate our successes? And you know what would help…if when we see others celebrating, we can stand up and applaud them too!

Watch Frances McDormand’s speech here.

 

Spring forward 💐

I love spring…and I love spring bulbs. I love that you can plant a wrinkled, crinkled tubor in the ground in the autumn that in spring appears again with a beautiful burst of colour and fresh leaves. I’m sure there’s an inspiring analogy for mental health in there somewhere…

I found this short clip from 2013 on the BBC news app this morning and it’s lifted my spirits. Imagine the experience of walking through 80 acres of the finest Dutch tulips….beautiful.

Watch here