Expressive writing was first studied by James Pennebaker in the 1980’s and the first scientific study, in collaboration with Joshua Smyth in 1986 found that this technique seemed to help those who used it to offload and discharge feelings. They studied the effects of this technique and found that a significant number of people who […]
Read more "Expressive writing for emotional health"This article reports on research from Sarah Garfinkel and Hugo Critchley into how Interoception could be a key part of helping us to understand our emotions better.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/sarah-garfinkel-interoception
A study published in Nature – link below – showed a decrease in anxiety symptoms in the young participants who took a prebiotic supplement versus those who did not. Interesting evidence for the link between our microbiome and wellbeing. https://rdcu.be/cjI1V
Read more "Link between anxiety and the gut"
The’Morning Pages’ have been my refuge, my place to cry, my thought organiser, my decision helper, and my main method of offloading and processing how I feel for nearly 18 years now. Over the past year I have adapted them into nightly pages instead. This seems to also stop me from browsing on my phone […]
Read more "The Morning Pages by Julia Cameron"
In my book ‘Do I Need to See a Therapist?!’ I have put together a list of all the therapy directories I could find that offer a place to search for counsellors and psychotherapists. I plan to link to this information on here once the book has been published but for now these are the […]
Read more "Where to find a therapist in the UK"
neurosciencenews.com/eye-trauma-mark-16659/ A study carried out jointly between Cardiff and Swansea University has found that people who have suffered PTSD show different pupil dilation and constriction patterns. The study looked both at constriction in response to light changes, but also enhanced pupil dilation in response to both exciting-positive and traumatic-negative imagery, and perceiving both as equally […]
Read more "Differences in pupil dilation between people with PTSD and those without"
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632881-300-consciousness-isnt-just-the-brain-the-body-shapes-your-sense-of-self/ This article in the New Scientist pulls together some exciting findings from researchers studying the role of our bodies, and particularly our hearts, in our emotional lives. HEP looks to be an area of interest and I wonder how this links in with HRV? The part that stood out for me with the HEP […]
Read more "Rethinking the role of the body in emotions"
So how do you find a therapist, and how do you find the right one for you? In the UK, the first places to look would be the therapist directories held by the main registration and accreditation bodies, for example the BABCP, BPS, UKCP and NCS. Outside of these bodies there are directories such as […]
Read more "How to find a therapist"
Writing has always been my way of trying to process and understand events and experiences, and to write out ideas, plans, wishes and hypotheses for the time and space I have yet to move through in life’s journey. I use a technique called ‘The Morning Pages’ as my daily brain dump – except I do […]
Read more "Expressive writing"
I’ve been a fan of Julia Cameron for 17 years. Her book ‘The Artist’s Way’ released my writing and helped me believe that I could be creative. The most well known exercise in The Artist’s Way is the ‘Morning Pages’. This exercise is meant to be done in the morning and ideally should be three […]
Read more "Changing Morning pages to Nightly pages: an experiment to help my Covid-19 Coronavirus Insomnia."