—
You may be familiar with the concept of spiritual bypassing. If you are not, it can be summarised as using spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid dealing with emotional wounds or psychological issues in one’s life. In addition to this well-known way of coping with or avoiding emotional pain, I am also seeing a different…
Most of what you read about online safety is, understandably, about protecting your personal data and not getting scammed. But what about your mental and emotional safety? People from some atomised minority…
I’ve recently had a piece published in Counselling Matters, the journal of my professional membership body the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society. It’s a reflection on my training to become a therapist and how important it’s been for me to get advanced specialist training in working with people who are gender-expansive, have a range of…
—
It is pretty much compulsory to love the NHS. Not to love having healthcare free at the point of access. Not to love or respect the people who work in the hospitals and clinics we use. We must love the actual institution itself. It is akin to how it feels almost compulsory to love the…
—
It will not come as a surprise to many that being trans is, now apparently more than ever, a battleground. The UK and US appear to be in the grips of a full-blown moral panic about trans people, and this relatively small and remarkably vulnerable group is experiencing reactionary violations of their rights because they…
Asexuality is one of the least well-known and understood identities. Many people can’t even comprehend a life where sexual attraction and activity isn’t a feature. Unfortunately, as with other sexual identities that fall outside of the culturally expected norm, asexuality has been pathologised for many years.
Somewhat late to the party, I’ve recently caught up with Heartstopper, the Netflix queer teen drama based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novels and original Tumblr comic series. Rather than focusing on reviewing the show, critiquing its plot and examining the themes, I am instead going to talk about why it is so vitally, searingly important…
—
Much of what you will see about mental health today will focus on anxiety and depression, and the importance of talking to others if you are having a hard time. This is important, as anxiety and depression are some of the most common ways in which people find their mental health gets in the way…
Being a member of a minority group – whether that is sexuality, gender, relationship style, neurotype, disability, body size, race or ethnicity – can sometimes feel like living beneath a cloud. Even for those of us proud to live under the rainbow banner, it can feel like a storm is brewing, ready to rain on…
—
What is a parasocial relationship? It is the social and emotional connection we develop with people in the media that we don’t know personally. The characteristics of a parasocial relationship include feeling a connection and closeness to the person, and that relationship being one-sided. We feel as though we know the people we have parasocial…