Someone said to me recently, "I think I'm suffering from some sort of weird depression." I was intrigued by the use of the word "weird" because, when they described how they were feeling it just sounded like depression, nothing weird about it. When you look up the definition of depression … [Read more...] about Depression And Disconnection
Self Acceptance
Why Comparison Is Largely Unhelpful
One day, my therapist asked, "Where does your self-esteem come from?" I looked out through the window into his lush green garden and at the woodlands beyond, wishing myself in amongst the trees. I didn't know where my self-esteem came from, I just knew that I wasn't generating much of it … [Read more...] about Why Comparison Is Largely Unhelpful
Word Games & Boundaries
I'm playing "Bananagrams" with my daughter and, in what now feels like a rash move fuelled by early game bravado I have "dumped" too many of my opening letters and find myself with a swathe of tiles in front of me and unable to make anything of them. Serenely fashioning "Paradoxical" on the … [Read more...] about Word Games & Boundaries
Imagining The Worst
One morning last weekend, we couldn't find the dog's collar which made me irrationally angry. The two things I really can't deal with, apart from goat's cheese, are being late, according to my exacting routine, and losing things. So not being able to locate the collar made me late for walking the … [Read more...] about Imagining The Worst
Why Every Therapist Needs A Therapist
My therapist reaches into an old A4 envelope for my notes down at the side of his chair wedged between whichever book he's reading and a travel mug I have never seen him sip from. These beginnings always take an age, a ritual of sorts. While he shuffles pages into order I look out of the … [Read more...] about Why Every Therapist Needs A Therapist