Like many of us, at the end of each year I like to take some time to reflect on the past year and also look to the year ahead for changes and improvements I’d like to make in the personal and professional areas of my life. The beginning of a new calendar year can be…
Brighton and Hove Psychotherapy was born from a simple decision. After years of working from other clinics, Mark and I realised it was time to create a space of our own. Finding the right premises wasn’t easy. We had spent years practising in therapy rooms that never quite felt right. While we were grateful for…
My heart is racing and I feel constantly under threat, even though there is nothing to fear. Emotionally it is like I’m in a war zone, ready to defend or attack, even though it’s peaceful here. I look over my shoulder, tense up with certain sounds. I’m scared for my life and for the life…
“The person is comprehensible only within this tapestry of relationships, past and present.” (Mitchell, 1988) Despite the many therapeutic benefits of group psychotherapy, it remains surprisingly underused. This may reflect the current emphasis on individual therapy, the specialist training required to facilitate groups, or perhaps a broader cultural shift towards individualism. Yet human beings have…
We live in an age where increasingly our value of anything comes down to money. Even environmentalists are needing to show the value of ecosystems and specific species of animals, in order to put forward a robust case for conservation. Little wonder then that the question of the value of counselling and psychotherapy in monetary…
In February of this year, The Guardian newspaper published two articles on the dramatic rise in male suicide figures in the UK over the past 30 years. I should imagine that this makes sad and disturbing reading for many, but it particularly spoke to me as I am a man. And a psychotherapist. The statistics…
As part of our ever increasing focus on a holistic approach to psychotherapy and mental health (functional psychotherapy) at Brighton and Hove Psychotherapy, I am drawn to writing a little about the importance of sleep and what happens when we don’t get enough. As I have already written, psychotherapy is a fantastic agent of change…
This may seem like a strange article title for a psychotherapist to concoct. And a strange title to post as a blog on a site promoting psychotherapy. But there is a paradox at play here: as psychotherapists, Sam Jahara and myself believe in psychological and emotional change leading to tangible life changes. It is something…
Recently I read a piece in a newspaper on how the numbers of women being caught driving whilst over the legal limit of blood alcohol has doubled over the past 15 years. The article went on to say that 17% of female motorists believed that they may have driven whilst over the limit in the…
Most of us of a certain age will remember watching Mary Poppins as children; indeed the 1964 Disney film continues to occasionally grace our screens, usually around Christmas and at a less-than-prime viewing slot. Even for those of us whose memories of the film have faded, we probably remember the leitmotif of the film: Mary…
Anxiety is a common psychological term and one that has entered cultural lexicon of daily life: if we are anxious, we all focus on what we can do to reduce our anxiety – as if anxiety is an externally generated condition that has descended upon us. Let’s be clear: anxiety is unpleasant and uncomfortable and…
The concept of energy psychotherapy may be unfamiliar to most and easily dismissed as something ‘new age’ sounding. However, in reality, working with body energy to heal trauma is neither a new concept, nor one that is apart from mainstream clinical psychotherapy. First off, what is energy psychotherapy? In brief, it is a directive method…