Uncategorized

Sadly many people have experienced dreadful events in their lives and the struggles they experience reflect the huge impact of those events. Our minds come up with many creative ways to manage past trauma and try to protect us. The ways in which we manage past traumas are unique to each individual, but some examples […]

I recently went to the ballet with a dear friend. It was a beautiful production of Sleeping Beauty with an incredible orchestra. During the interval my friend asked me “Did you hear that commentary?” I had no idea what she was talking about. During the first half of the performance she had heard a commentary

Much of my work is with people who struggle with the thoughts that they’re having and/or the actions they take in response to their thoughts. It is fairly normal human behaviour that we have a thought and we act on it, particularly when not acting on those thoughts create difficult feelings like anxiety or fear.

We have some hand soap in the bathroom which, in the bottle, looks like clear liquid. When we press to get soap out to wash our hands, the dispenser produces white foam, not clear liquid at all. Now, I know that there is a mechanism in the dispenser that does this, but I see that

Forgive me if the December blog feels a little self-indulgent – it is, because this month I became Mrs Sarah Jayne Smetham! I haven’t changed who I am; I have changed my name to match Brian’s – the wonderful man I have just married on 8th December. Changing my name was a choice I wanted

Have you ever found yourself thinking something like “I will do that when………..” I know I have, many times. I often hear clients say something very similar. Sadly their ‘when’ is often attached to conditions of worth about their appearance, for example “I will go to the gym when I have lost some weight” or

Here we are in October – the month of beautiful autumnal oranges and reds as the trees shed their summer foliage, and the time of ghosts and ghouls, witches and cauldrons, black cats and broomsticks! It is the time of year when we cut up our old sheets to make ghosts and hang skeletons from

September is Great North Run month – the time of year when up to 60 000 people head to Newcastle upon Tyne to run the iconic 13.1-mile route from Newcastle to South Shields. As we line up with everybody at the start I look around in awe and wonder at my fellow runners. Runners come

I hear so many people talking and getting frustrated about ‘going backwards’ or ‘getting stuck’ throughout their process of change and recovery, whether that be from eating and weight difficulties, or any other physical and psychological struggles. We even say it in general life, perhaps when we lose a job or feel trapped in a

I have had several conversations recently about ‘worth’. With fellow therapists, often the conversation is around charges reflecting worth. With clients, sadly the conversations all too often are about beliefs that they have no worth. Humans love to be able to measure things, to have a fixed number, or a framework to work within. Without