Category: counselling posts

General posts about counselling in Walsall and Willenhall

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Dr Lade Smith and mental health services provision

A silent mental health pandemic

Finishing her term as president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Dr Lade Smith has been pushing for urgent change to funding for mental health services provision in the United Kingdom. In an interview on Radio 4’s Today programme this week, Dr Smith highlighted how this silent mental health pandemic is especially severe for children and young people, calling it the greatest threat to their health.

Demand for mental health services

Before introducing Dr Smith, interviewer Emma Barnett described the surge in demand for mental health services by giving some statistics: 4.1 million people sought help from mental health services in 2024 – 2025, which is a 56% increase on the 2.6 million in 2016 – 2017. That figure includes more than 1 million children and young people.

The anxious generation

In an earlier report, Alan Milburn (chair of the government’s young people and work report) suggested we now see a more anxious generation. Although not confined to the UK, the rise of neuro-diversity conditions including autism and ADHD has led to economic inactivity in our 18- to 24-year-olds. This is double or treble the rate of that seen by our European neighbours.

Mr Milburn was clear this can be addressed but was critical of a system that suggests young people diagnosed with a mental health condition are not fit to work.

Employers want to do the right thing

Emma Carter, Chief Executive of Bristol based WestSpring IT, highlighted the impact of long-term absences related to mental ill health. She described how colleagues will often need to pick up the workload from someone who is absent long-term. Describing the situation as a moral dilemma, she suggested employers want to do the right thing, but it’s hard to continue paying someone through a prolonged absence.

There was consensus that extended episodes of mental ill-health can have serious economic and personal consequences for those affected.

One in eight people has a mental illness

Dr Lade Smith gave her opinions on these ideas, stating ‘Mental illnesses are common, and they are disorders of youth. 75% percent of mental illness arises before the age of 24, 50% before the age of 14. Once you’ve survived the infectious diseases of childhood the most likely condition you’ll suffer from as a young person is a mental illness.’

She agreed with Mr Milburn that this is not just a UK problem but is worldwide. ‘One in eight people in the world suffers from a mental illness. That’s over a billion people’

When asked if this has always been the case, Dr Smith replied:

‘Without a doubt there’s been an increase in [the number of mental illnesses] across the world and the WHO (World Health Organisation) have said that since about 1990 there’s been an increase in mental illness. But that coincides with the increase in a number of the social factors that increase the risk of mental illness’

Giving some examples:

‘We know that about 78% of mental illnesses are driven by social factors such as financial insecurity, debt, poverty, and trauma.’

These adverse experiences including abuse and exposure to violence affect children in particular, because they increase the risk of developing mental illness in later life. Dr Smith suggested the upsurge in mental illnesses worldwide is related to increases these factors.

Low spend on health care support

Turning to the UK, Dr Smith said, ‘Mental illness is 20% of the disease burden in the UK but we get less than 9% of the healthcare spend. We know that we can treat mental illness very effectively, particularly in children and young people. So if you treat people quickly, early, particularly when the problem first starts when they’re young, then they won’t become an adult with a chronic relapsing illness, who doesn’t manage to finish school, doesn’t get into university, or doesn’t manage to get into work’. Without the right support they ‘essentially become someone who’s less likely to be able to be productive, to pay into the tax coffers, be economically active.’

Mental health support teams

In response to the comments, the Department of Health and Social Care stated it’s vital anyone struggling is able to access timely help and support. The government is spending an extra £688m in mental health services this year and hiring almost eight thousand additional mental health workers. It is also rolling out mental health support teams to every school and college in England.

Dr Smith replied, ‘We’re really pleased that they’re doing that, but the reality is it’s not quite enough I’m afraid. Even before the pandemic there was an increase in the number of people who needed mental health support, but unfortunately, we didn’t get an increase in the number of people who were available to provide that support. We are under resourced; we don’t have enough staff, we have staffing vacancies of 10-15%, always. That extra eight thousand staff, we need them on top of our actual numbers but each year we’re losing nine thousand staff through retirement and people just feeling burned out, and feeling that they can’t continue. So, we’re not replenishing the staff’.

‘Everyone is overwhelmed, we are literally on our knees and that means you end up with a bit of a postcode lottery’.

Mental health waiting times

Asking how this plays out in the provision of services, Dr Smith asserted its effect on waiting times’. She claimed,  ‘We’ve got children waiting over two years to be seen. If you’re a twelve-year-old child and you’re waiting one or two years because you’ve got a mental health problem, then that’s a sixth of your life.’

‘What happens is that parents will do the best for their children. The child stops going to school, they go to the GP. The GP thinks this is actually something beyond what I can manage. They refer them to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and then they sit and they wait, and they wait, and they wait for treatment. And in that time, people don’t just get better. It’s not like infections where your immune system fights them off. If you don’t get treated, things get worse.’

The role of talking therapy

Asking if it’s true that support via talking therapy is now easier to access, Dr Smith suggested, ‘There is greater access for talking therapies but we’re talking here also about severe mental illnesses. Illnesses like bipolar illness, schizophrenia; illnesses that require more specialist inputs like PTSD.’

‘Unfortunately it’s not easy for people to access support for those conditions. It can take up to nine years for someone to receive a diagnosis and treatment for bipolar illness for example.’

‘In that time that person hasn’t been able to function. They’ve dropped out school, they’ve broken all their relationships, they’re ruining their lives and unfortunately if they have got a job they probably dropped out of that job and not understanding why.’

Do we understand the seriousness of this?

‘No, that’s the problem, that’s why it’s a silent pandemic.’

The honest truth of the matter is that we’re not actually funding and investing in our mental health services. Work from Australia shows really well that [if] you invest in mental health interventions for children, young people and their parents, and parents supporting children and young people, the return on that investment is four dollars for every dollar that you put in, within three to five years. So, this isn’t simply about saying spending money. This is about saying investing money so that your return later on is so much greater.’

‘We need to invest in mental health services so that we can be economically productive.’

The difference between mental health and mental illness

Reflecting on the Prince of Wales’ recent comments on Radio 1’s ‘Life Hacks’, Dr Smith suggested ‘there’s a difference between mental health and mental illness. We all have mental health [and] what the prince is talking about is trying to support people to be more resilient and to be able to cope with all the life stresses that might hit us as we’re going thorough. But mental illness, that’s a different matter. That’s when someone has symptoms that are persistent, that are significant, that interfere with them being able to function, that impair their ability to function. In a way that you can have a severe mental illness like bipolar illness but actually have quite good mental health because you’re managing your bipolar’

‘Don’t get those two things mixed up. Because people are talking about mental health all the time, they’re not really thinking about mental illness. Alan Milburn is thinking, what on earth is going on with all these people with this mental illness? It’s because only fifty percent are able to get good care at any one time. If you only fund the services fifty percent, sometimes you’ll get fantastic treatment, sometimes you won’t. But I can tell you what we’re really good at: when you go into crisis, then we can look after you, but we need to be looking after people early.’

You can learn more about Dr Lade Smith’s ‘silent pandemic’ on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ web site.

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Mental health support plan for young people

Mental Health Support Teams

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and Health Secretary Wes Streeting have announced a new initiative to provide mental health support teams in schools. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme on 16 May, Phillipson explained the scheme is part of a £49m investment to hire 8500 additional NHS mental health practitioners by 2029-2030.

Also writing a joint article in the Daily Telegraph, the pair emphasised the importance of instilling “grit” in students. Phillipson argued that this quality is essential for overcoming life’s obstacles and achieving academic success. With twenty percent of young people facing mental health issues annually, the need for such initiatives is pressing.

‘Youth today encounter numerous challenges’ she remarked, acknowledging how some issues differ significantly from those she experienced. She also highlighted the pandemic’s impact on young people, particularly during pivotal moments in their lives.

Building Resilience

Introducing NHS-supported, evidence-based interventions during critical developmental stages is seen as crucial for building resilience and preventing future mental health crises. Phillipson believes providing young people with access to trained, qualified professionals is the right thing to do, noting the direct correlation between mental health and school attendance.

The Secretary of State applauded the growing openness about mental health among both young people and adults. ‘It’s good that we can talk about it,’ she said, ‘but it’s about supporting people to navigate these challenges.’ She stressed the government should provide support, while also emphasising the role of community in helping individuals manage these issues.

‘Everyone experiences mental health challenges,’ Phillipson concluded, ‘and if these issues are not addressed in young people, the consequences can be severe and lifelong, potentially hindering their academic performance and overall well-being.’

School Counselling in England

Access to improved mental health services and counselling interventions for young people is to be welcomed and has long been called for by Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza. As highlighted in an earlier post, it has also been the focus of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) through their ‘School Counselling in England’ Campaign. Details laying out how extra practitioners will work alongside their colleagues in education are still to emerge.

More information about the scheme can be found on Gov.UK

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Feeling Grief and Loss when a Celebrity Dies

Last September an article on BBC radio’s ‘All in the Mind’ series considered how people can feel a sense of grief and loss when a celebrity or high-profile person dies. How can we explain genuine feelings of grief when we don’t know someone, and have probably never even met them?

FEELINGS OF GRIEF AND LOSS

The article was prompted by a letter from a listener after the death of Dr Michael Mosley in June 2024. The listener said she had found herself grieving his death as if it were that of a dear friend. She explained the grief was so intense, especially in the evenings when she used to listen to his podcasts. She wondered what type of grief this is and how it might be overcome.

Image by Jana from Pixabay

To help answer this question, long-term show presenter Claudia Hammond spoke with psychologist Dr. Dara Greenwood from Vassar College in New York and sociologist Ruth Penfold-Mounce from York University. She began by asking Dr. Greenwood why the death of a celebrity can affect us so profoundly, even if we did not know them personally. The doctor explained that although it might seem odd at first glance, it is fundamentally human to emotionally engage with others beyond physical proximity. We can feel connected to and mourn the loss of individuals we have never met, which extends naturally to celebrities and other public figures through media exposure.

She went on to say ‘We have all these wonderful ways of emotionally engaging with other people in our lives in ways that are not always about who is physically in front of us. So we can feel connected to and or mourn the loss of a colleague we kind of know, or a distant relative we’ve met once.’

STRONG CONNECTIONS

Professor Penfold-Mounce elaborated by explaining the nature of these relationships, and how such attachments should not be seen as trivial. This type of grief can be as real as that experienced for personal acquaintances:

‘I think the grief that we feel for these celebrities is really related to the connection that we have with them. It can be incredibly strong and I don’t think that should be underestimated. We can’t just dismiss it. We form these attachments and even if they aren’t being formed back to us, that attachment is real. So that grief can also be very much experienced as real.’

The listener felt a heightened sense of loss in the evenings, because that’s when she used to listened to Dr Mosley’s podcasts. Suddenly when you don’t hear that voice anymore, there’s an emptiness in your life. And that is a grieving point.

These connections are sometimes referred to as parasocial relationships.

PARASOCIAL GRIEF

When discussing whether certain age groups or types of people are more prone to parasocial grief, Dr. Greenwood noted that the way in which individuals identify with the celebrity matter significantly. For example, young women who identified with Princess Diana were most affected by her sudden death.

Despite never having met her, so many people around the world felt a profound sense of loss and grief. This was largely due to the strong emotional connections they had formed with her through media coverage and her public persona. Many identified with her struggles and admired her humanitarian efforts, creating a bond that felt very real. When she died, the outpouring of grief was immense, with people placing flowers, letters, and other mementos at public memorial sites.

OVERCOMING PARASOCIAL GRIEF

Reflecting on the listener’s original question, Claudia asked how can people overcome the grief they feel following a death of a celebrity? Professor Penfold-Mounce suggested part of the benefit of gathering, either in person or virtually, is the community validation that individuals receive. Sometimes scholars have talked about experiences of disenfranchised grief (feeling a loss that doesn’t always fit in with social norms) in relation to celebrity deaths, where others might question how an individual can be affected by a person they never met.

In cases like Princess Diana’s, this is less likely to occur due to her high profile. Acknowledging, validating, and understanding the emotional bond someone may have had with a deceased celebrity or media figure can help in processing grief. However, it can become problematic if it leads to persistent rumination and an inability to move beyond feelings of loss. Generally, discussing these feelings with others and working through the emotions productively can be beneficial.

The professor remarked that public mourning, such as the outpouring of grief following Princess Diana’s death, has become more commonplace. Creating shrines and leaving offerings can be part of the grieving process or act of curiosity.

GRIEF AND FICTIONAL CHARACTERS

Social media has changed the way we grieve, providing platforms for shared memories and emotions. Dr. Greenwood cited a study where fans responded to the death of a character on the show House, suggesting that even fictional portrayals can evoke grief-related emotions. Social media allows for communal validation of these feelings.

Addressing how to overcome grief following a celebrity’s death, Dr. Greenwood emphasized the importance of community validation and the acknowledgment of emotional bonds. If grief becomes rumination, seeking productive ways to process emotions is advisable. That might include seeking help from a trained therapist.

POSITIVE OUTCOMES

Finally, both experts acknowledged potential positive outcomes from parasocial grief, highlighting the sense of community and connection formed around high-profile figures. Sharing information about how a celebrity or public figure died might lead to greater knowledge about health issues and raise awareness about diseases.

The episode can be found in full on BBC Sounds.

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Children’s Mental Health Week 2025

Organised by the Place2Be charity, Children’s Mental Health Week 2025 is built around the theme of Know Yourself, Grow Yourself. In partnership with Disney and utilising characters from the animated film, Inside Out 2, the aim is to encourage children to grow and develop by embracing self-awareness and building resilience. It will also discuss the importance of building strong relationships with others to better cope with life’s challenges.

It’s an important time for raising awareness about mental health issues for children. In September 2024, Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, pointed out the sharp rise in anxiety levels in younger people. Referrals for anxiety-related therapy have risen from just under 99000 five years ago to more than 200000 in 2023-24, for children aged 17 and under.

The Commissioner went on to explain that anxiety is the most common reason children are referred to mental health services, with more than 270000 on a waiting list for support. She reiterated the need for a counsellor in every school in England, as well as earlier interventions to stop children reaching crisis point. You can read more about Dame de Souza’s recommendations here.

Further information about Children’s Mental Health Week 2025, along with free resources for schools, are available on the Place2Be website.

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A counsellor in every school in England

BACP campaigns for a counsellor in every school

Back in March 2021 Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza appealed for every child to have access to therapy, highlighted by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) through their ‘School Counselling in England’ Campaign. Recognising that England lagged behind similar government funded schemes in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, BACP urged people to sign its petition.

In an update issued January 2025, BACP has briefed the current generation of MPs about their ongoing campaign. It hopes to keep the issue at the forefront of a strategy to tackle mental health concerns in England, and to secure funding for registered counsellors.

You can learn about the next steps in this important campaign to provide every school, academy, and FE College with a paid counsellor on the BACP website.

My original 2021 post can be found below:

Children’s Commissioner wants to rebuild childhood

Dame Rachel’s comments fit within her wider call on the BBC website to ‘rebuild childhood’ following the pandemic. After ‘seeing first-hand the effect of this crisis on young people’s hopes and dreams’, Dame Rachel asserts that sometimes our responses have not been good enough. She is urging policy makers to seize this moment in history, and to restructure our offer to children with the same spirit and ambition as the Beveridge report in 1942. This report went on to form the basis of the modern Welfare State in the UK after the end of World War Two, and it was as ambitious as it was popular, possibly because it was built on around individual responsibility as well as state intervention.

COVID-19 lost generation

It’s too early to see if anything so positive and transformational will emerge from the current crisis, although the Children’s Commissioner has already spoken of her commitment to ensuring there isn’t a ‘lost generation’ because of COVID. As well as calling for no reduction in Universal Credit, and the provision of free school meals through the summer holidays, Dame Rachel announced the launch of a ‘Big Ask’. This survey will gather the views and opinions of children’s reactions to the pandemic, as well as other barriers to achievement.

If you would like to know more about therapy, or you are looking for private counselling in Wolverhampton, Walsall, or the West Midlands area please Contact Me or call 07824 385338.

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New guidance for talking therapy and the menopause

Talking therapy and choice

New draft guidance from the health watchdog NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) suggests women should be offered talking therapy through the NHS to help manage symptoms related to menopause. Talking therapy might be used alongside or instead of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to offer women more choice. NICE said women should talk to their doctor and then be able to choose which treatment will work best for them. In particular, the guidance points out that coping strategies learned through cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be effective when managing menopause related sleeping problems, night sweats and hot flushes, and symptoms of depression.

Manage menopause related symptoms

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on 17 November 2023, GP Dr Nighat Arif explained how her practice already offered cognitive behavioural therapy to patients. This type of talking therapy was mainly to help manage menopause related symptoms like brain fog, irritability, anger, and low mood. ‘Some women find their symptoms are really impacting them and their sleep is also affected’, she stated, explaining that the previous NICE guidance suggested HRT should be prescribed for psychological symptoms, rather than anti-depressants.

Talking therapy waiting times

Dr Arif went on to highlight some of the controversy surrounding this new guidance, recognising it might increase the disparity of health inequality by pushing more women to seek counselling in the private sector. It seems the issue is not around the effectiveness of talking therapy, but a lack of available therapists within the NHS. She said, ‘currently, offering CBT for menopausal symptoms on the NHS is just not there’ and that ‘clinical care boards have not been offering it because of funding.’ According to Dr Arif, waiting times for NHS counselling is also an issue, with a three to six month wait even for online CBT, and that’s likely as part of a group session. ‘For face-to-face CBT we are looking possibly a year’. The low availability of some services on the NHS has long been discussed, and she suggested, ‘this guidance I feel has come around to maybe take the pressure off the demand for HRT. That’s the cynic in me!’

Mental health wellbeing

Dr Arif also shared some observations about the nature of issues presented to her as a GP in recent times, ‘Since COVID, nearly 100% of my consultations have some sort of mental health wellbeing aspect that needs to be tackled’, adding that ‘CBT is brilliant’ for patients with some of those issues. She felt it important not to oversimplify CBT as an approach however, and that we ‘need to think of CBT as not just this umbrella term because there are different layers to [it] that a woman needs, so acceptance-commitment therapy … really helps with hot flushes and night sweats. This is important she added, because up until now much of the focus has been on HRT for managing symptoms related to menopause. In addition, some women are advised not to take HRT because of pre-existing medical conditions, while others are put off because of its associated risks. ‘HRT is not a silver bullet and it’s not one size fits all.’

'The Knowledge: Your guide to female health - from menstruation to the menopause' Published August 2023
‘The Knowledge: Your guide to female health – from menstruation to the menopause’ Published August 2023

NICE guidance

Dr Paula Briggs from the British Menopause Society was also interviewed by the BBC. She believed that the guidance would be beneficial for women that can’t have HRT, as it would ‘go a long way to helping them feel recognised.’ You can find out more about the guidance at the NICE website, here.

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Women with autism

I heard an interview this week with broadcaster and voice coach, Carrie Grant, talking about her autism diagnosis at the age of 58. Interviewed by Cathy Newman on Times Radio’s Drive show, Grant spoke about some of the issues women with autism face.

Grant is the mother of four neurodivergent children and has campaigned on behalf of young people with autism for fifteen years. She was prompted to get an assessment after observing her own children and realising she had some of the same autistic traits. She felt it was not so easy for women to get a diagnosis however, because a lot of the criteria for assessment fitted around a stereotypical male. Women with autism are sometimes ‘under the radar’ in terms of assessment Grant explained, because they can appear to be highly sociable and don’t necessarily have the same traits as men.

Women with autism can be extremely empathetic, they can ‘almost climb into the skin of other people’ and to a greater extent can feel other people’s feelings. Speaking about her own neurodivergency, Grant believed she shared the same heightened sensory perceptions as many other people with autism, especially around hearing. Even though this brings some difficulties (‘when I’m tired the fridge sounds super-loud!’), she also says there’s a positive benefit given the work she does. ‘When I’m listening to two hundred singers, I can point out the one that’s singing out of tune’.

Neurodivergence and the workplace

Grant goes on to discuss some of the challenges facing people with autism when it comes to employment, ‘The reason I announced my diagnosis on Auticon (a company promoting neurodiversity to employers) was they are all about the workplace and the assets that we have as autistic people’. Only 29% of autistic people are in work however, and many of those people do jobs that are ‘way below the gifts and skills they have within them. I want to be able to open those doors and say let’s have a discussion about this’. Throwing a challenge to employers, Grant suggests autistic people might need some adjustments in the workplace because everything is ‘geared towards what you’re calling normal, give us those adjustments and we can thrive’. There are clear benefits to employers where not everybody thinks the same way or processes things in the same way, not least in the disciplines of problem-solving and creative thinking. These benefits will only be realised by employers who make more space at the table for neurodivergent employees, however.

Autism and childhood trauma

Grant has been open in talking about the abuse she suffered in childhood, and about how this might have contributed to her autism going undetected. ‘One of the issues when you’re just trying to work it out for yourself is that childhood trauma can also bring some of the same traits. It can make us more sensitive; it can make our senses more sensitive’. She states how important it is to get an assessment, as this will enable a professional to strip back what might be presenting from past trauma. They can then identify the difference between trauma and autism.

Getting a diagnosis later in life

Why did Grant wait until her fifties to seek a diagnosis? One of the biggest issues around getting a diagnosis was that ‘for a very long while there wasn’t really a great assessment tool for women’, adding that some of the two-hundred families she works with via a support group would have waited seven years for an assessment. Getting a diagnosis privately used to cost between £3500 and £5000, and like most people she admits she wouldn’t have been able to afford it. Thankfully now it’s hundreds rather than thousands of pounds, with the process taking a few weeks. In the end, Grant felt ‘like this was the right time to do it’ adding, ‘women in their 40s and 50s are one of the biggest group of people who are being diagnosed as autistic.’ It’s not always a positive experience of course, because ‘for many of those women it will be a really grieving time.’ It might lead them to reflect on their childhood and think, ‘oh my goodness my entire life I didn’t understand myself’ or look back on past events with severe regret.

Being labelled as autistic

Asked if being labelled as autistic has held her back, Grant suggests ‘a label is only a problem if you have a problem with the label’. Clearly, she does not, proclaiming ‘I think I’m fabulously autistic and I think my kids are fabulously autistic, and I think autistic people are fabulously autistic!’

Carrie Grant is co-author of ‘A Very Modern Family: Stories and Guidance to Nurture Your Relationships’, published by Piatkus.

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Dr Kirren Schnack’s tips for helping with panic attacks

This week I heard to a fascinating interview on Times Radio with clinical psychologist, Dr Kirren Schnack. She revealed how she had been surprised by the popularity of her short video on TikTok, ‘three ways to stop a panic attack’, which gives some quick tips for helping with panic attacks and reducing their effects.

Dr Schnack’s tips for helping with panic attacks include:

  • Breathe in and out using a straw. Breathing out for longer than you breathe in, which helps to naturally reduce hyperventilation by balancing the gases in your blood.
  • Put your face in a bowl of iced water. This creates a strong sensory diversion.
  • Do jumping jacks. Quick exercise makes a physical diversion from what’s going on mentally.

Schnack admits these three methods appear a little unconventional at first but are backed up by some sound methodology. Panic attacks can be the result of the nervous system becoming overwhelmed, but you can turn off some of its signals by stimulating the sensory system. While some people will benefit from riding out feelings associated with an attack, for others the sensations of a panic are too overwhelming. These methods can form a ‘diversion from what’s going on mentally, and from an anxiety point of view.’ This in turn can stop the escalating sensations of panic.

Schnack advises it might be helpful for people to be aware of these strategies before a panic attack starts because they can help someone in the moment. They should be seen as techniques to help you cope ‘until you are able to address the fully underlying root cause of the problem’ using therapy. The strategies can also help people alleviate distress between therapy sessions.

Reaching a Younger Audience

Reaching out to a younger audience using TikTok is particularly relevant. Reducing anxiety in young people is important at a time when pressures caused by ‘academic stress, technology, social media, and family dynamics’ are compounded by huge changes occurring within the brain. There are so many factors combining just when young people and teenagers are trying to establish their identity and build self-esteem. As levels of poor mental health amongst young people are at a record high, we would surely all benefit from more research in this field.

Tips for Panic Attacks and Anxiety: find out more

The strategies are also referred to in Schnack’s new book, ‘Ten Times Calmer: Beat Anxiety and Change Your Life’. You can find out more at Dr Schnack’s website. If you would like to know more about how therapy can help to cope with feelings of anxiety and panic attacks, please use this link to contact me.

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Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition that can affect men, women, and children. The causes of OCD are not always clear, but it’s characterised by Obsessions (unwanted and intrusive thoughts or images that enter your mind, causing anxiety) and Compulsions (repetitive acts or behaviours in response to those thoughts).

For example, someone with an obsessive fear of contaminating themselves or others might repeatedly wash their hands. They are doing this because it feels right to protect themselves or those closest to them, and not necessarily because their hands are dirty. Similarly, people with an obsessive fear of being burgled might repeatedly check locks, doors, and windows several times before feeling safe to leave the house.

Obsessive compulsive disorder can start in childhood, but it’s causes may not be apparent. It might be triggered by a stressful change or significant life-event, or it could owe to differences in brain activity or low levels of serotonin. There could also be a genetic factor; people with a family history of OCD are more likely to develop the condition.

Seeing a therapist can help you to overcome OCD, and talking therapies can be particularly effective. Please contact me if you would like to know more. You can also find more information at OCD-UK. This charity allows people to better understand the condition. It also offers support and advice to those trying to overcome OCD.

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Anxiety Awareness

It’s normal for all of us to feel anxious from time to time, but when anxiety becomes overwhelming it can have lasting consequences for our mental health, wellbeing, and relationships with the people closest to us.

Anxiety is often triggered by changes in our lives that lead to uncertainty. It can be connected to concerns about money or a job, personal relationships, or the way some social situations make us feel. With exam results being published over the next couple of weeks, anxiety can also be triggered by worries around GCSEs and A-Levels.

This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week chose anxiety as its theme. More information about the condition and strategies for managing anxiety can be found on the Mental Health Foundation website at https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/mental-health-awareness-week

You might also want to seek help from a therapist, either for yourself or someone close to you. If you are looking for anxiety counselling in the Walsall or Wolverhampton area, please Contact Me via the contact page on my website. You can also call me on 07824 385338. There is no obligation to book a session and we can discuss whether counselling is the right approach for you.