Therapy Tips

Welcome to Therapy Tips!

Learning how to be more critical of your thinking (not of yourself!) is an invaluable skill.

As human beings, all too often we get stuck repeating familiar patterns of thinking and behaviour without really stopping to reflect.

This is human nature and completely understandable. In a world of information overload and sensory over stimulation, the human brain does everything it can to “simplify” and “organise” the outside world for us to create meaning. So we categorise, make assumptions, take certain things for granted, and at times switch on automatic pilot, just to get through the day.

While this is ok some of the time, we need to know how to switch back into manual mode. If we don’t, we can find ourselves in all sorts of trouble. Anxiety, low mood, and conflict with loved ones are just a few of the things that can happen if we don’t learn how to think critically, and question our assumptions. Of course it’s not just the assumptions we make about other people, it’s also the ones we make about ourselves. These are often more insidious and harder to recognise. I’m not referring to that little voice in your head that tells you you’re “not good enough”, I’m referring to the story you have told yourself your whole life about why that voice is “right”. See the difference?

Now before we begin, here is the all-important DISCLAIMER:

This will not teach you how to BE a therapist. You’ll need several years at university and many years of clinical experience to do that. This is about learning skills for you to improve YOUR life, not someone elses.

This is also not designed as a self-help “cure” for someone experiencing real distress; if you are experiencing symptoms which are having a negative impact on your life, please talk to someone. Your GP, a loved one, a Psychologist. Accessing support is one of the most important (and under-rated) coping mechanisms we can learn.

Having said that, what these articles will teach you, is the following;

To get “unstuck”.
To feel more empowered.
To experience relationships more fully.
To lean on your “village” for support.
To know that you are more than OK the way you are.

To think more critically.
To identify patterns of unhelpful thoughts/behaviours.
To consider other possibilities/alternatives.
To accept and embrace ambiguity and uncertainty.
To sit with uncomfortable emotional experiences.

Rather than take you through a number of complex theories and strategies (how boring!), over the coming weeks I will be addressing common issues and examples of what I see in Therapy.

You will get an inside and exclusive look at exactly how a therapist addresses these issues; and in doing so – you will learn how to think like a real therapist!

So let’s get started……

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