Latest Blog Posts
Chronic Shame
Children from difficult backgrounds will often have lots of feelings of guilt and shame. Sources of shame can be parents, siblings, school or wider society and this will be carried into adulthood and will often manifest as feelings of the self
The Effects of a Difficult Childhood
A difficult childhood can be defined as one where one or both parents may have been in addiction, have had a difficult childhood themselves that they never dealt with, they may have had anger issues and therefore were frightening, or they
Adverse Childhood Experiences
Adverse Childhood Experiences A study was published in 1998 as a collaboration between the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente (a health care service provider) and was one of the first studies to look at the relationship
Structural Dissociation
The Structural Dissociation Model Dissociation is on a spectrum ranging from daydreaming to DID – Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder). Normal dissociation means to go onto automatic pilot when doing an activity (for example, when driving a car and
How Does Counselling Work?
Often in life, we may feel that we talk but others do not really listen, or that we are not worth listening to and then we may keep our thoughts and feelings to ourselves. If we have come from a dysfunctional
Person Centred Therapy
It has been proven through studies that clients get the best results from therapy when certain conditions are met in the relationship between the counsellor and the client. The counsellor needs to be warm, genuine, non-judgmental and empathic and the client
Internal Family Systems Theory
How the Mind Works as an Internal Family Internal Family Systems Theory, developed by Richard C. Shwartz in the 1980s, has grown out of family systems theory (e.g. if a child is acting out, the whole family dynamic is responsible for
Why Some People Do Not Know They Have Trauma
We learn to defend ourselves from the world at a very young age. These defences become ingrained and we think they are parts of our personalities. We may often dismiss our defences as ‘that’s just me.’ Defences are ingenious as they
The Fear of Abandonment
What is the Fear of Abandonment? A fear of abandonment is a deep-seated fear of being left by people that you are close to. This fear affects your thoughts and behaviours. It can be rooted in childhood from physical or emotional
