CBT Essentials Part 4 Welcome to the fourth instalment of ‘CBT Essentials’ a new mini-series within Forrest Rambles where I’m exploring the building blocks of CBT. You can read the previous editions on agenda setting, mood questionnaires and goals on my website. This month I’m looking at ‘homework’ a phrase which conjures up a variety … Read more
CBT Essentials Part 3 Welcome to the third instalment of ‘CBT Essentials’ a new mini-series within Forrest Rambles where I’m exploring the building blocks of CBT. I’m hoping this will be of interest to those of you who are curious about CBT and those who want to know more about what to expect from their … Read more
CBT Essentials Part 1 Welcome to a new mini-series within Forrest Rambles which I’m calling ‘CBT Essentials’. Over the next few months I’ll be looking at the building blocks which make up a typical CBT appointment. I’m hoping this will be of interest to those of you who are curious about CBT and those who … Read more
I’m getting to that time in my life where I’m finding myself having more and more conversations about ‘the menopause’. Then towards the end of last year the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) proposed an update to their guidelines to include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as a treatment which can help during menopause. … Read more
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