Compassion Focused Therapy, or CFT for short, is a branch of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy which I’ve become really interested in over the past few years. People who come to Forrest Talking Therapies find it a really powerful way of working through all sorts of difficulties, and I often use the tools in my personal day … Read more
I’ve been practising yoga for many years. When I’m ‘on the mat’ I feel centred, it’s space away from everything else in my life and a rare chance to pay attention to my body instead of my mind. Recently I’ve been attending classes led by Liz Walker. Liz is an experienced yoga teacher who specialises … Read more
At this time of year we see a lot of spiders in our gardens and our houses. In the past I really struggled with this as I had a phobia of spiders, but thanks to Exposure Therapy I’ve just been able to scroll through lots of images of our eight-legged friends to pick the one … Read more
June treated us to some beautiful warm weather, as we celebrated the Queens Jubilee, Glastonbury and the start of Wimbledon. The Summer Solstice and Midsummer have already been and gone so I think it’s safe to say that Summer is officially here (cue cold weather and rain!) It’s often the Winter months as the dark … Read more
I’ve written blog posts about all kinds of problems such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. What all these problems have in common is ‘Thinking Traps’. These are habitual negative ways of thinking about ourselves, others or the world which are unrealistic and lead us into a spiral of anxiety and … Read more
Philosophers and scientists have debated about the relationship between our mind and physical bodies for a long time. I certainly align myself with a holistic approach. All you need to do is think about your favourite flavour ice-cream and notice the saliva in your mouth to know that there is a clear link between our … Read more
To mark the 25th World Book Day this month I’m sharing with you a list of book recommendations which focuses on the theme of mental wellbeing. Please bear in mind that this is far from an exhaustive list as the market is saturated with wellbeing books and there are more coming out all the time. … Read more
Life has been very busy for me over the past month so last weekend I decided to practice what I preach and take a day off to relax at home. I ended up doing some baking with my husband which I really enjoyed and this got me thinking about the benefits of baking for our … Read more
Therapy can be a life-changing experience but it’s not an easy process to engage in. Opening up to a stranger about your problems and vulnerabilities can feel daunting so it is vital that you feel safe, understood and confident in your therapist’s abilities. When looking for the right therapist, you could easily find yourself down … Read more
Since March 2020 words and phrases which we rarely thought of or had never even heard before started to become common place. It started with ‘Covid-19’, ‘pandemic’ and ‘lockdown’. A few months later others started to emerge such as ‘Post-Covid-19 Syndrome’, ‘long Covid’ and ‘long haulers’. I’m going to stick with ‘Post-Covid-19 Syndrome’ in this … Read more