Welcome to my Blog
Here you will find posts on a wide variety of topics including anxiety, depression, grief, family estrangement, gender identity. They are intended to provide help with managing issues, suggest practical tools and coping strategies, and provide thoughtful pieces to help you think about your own situation.
Often I write a post after I find a topic re-surfacing multiple times in my work, and sometimes I am contacted by individuals just like you, looking for a bit of information or guidance about a specific topic.
Use the search and category filters below if you are looking for something in particular.
If you’re looking for additional information on how I work with specific issues, do use the menu above.
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Feeling guilt after cutting off parents doesn't necessarily mean you made the wrong decision. A counsellor explains where the guilt comes from, how it gets tangled up with grief, and ways to cope with it on the hard days....
Whether to reconcile with an estranged family member rarely has a single right answer. Here I share the questions that can help you think it through, the signs it may or may not be the right time, and why it's okay not to decide yet....
Sibling estrangement can be just as painful as any other family loss, yet it's often treated as a minor falling-out. Here I look at why sibling relationships break down in adulthood, how it differs from parent-child estrangement, and what can help you cope....
Therapy for family estrangement isn't about taking sides or pushing you to reconcile. Here's what it can look like in practice, from the first session to the grief, guilt and decisions we work through together, and how you'll know it's helping....
There can be a particular kind of silence that follows an adult child cutting off contact, and it isn't like other silences. It isn't just the absence of phone calls or messages or the small, ordinary noise of someone being in your life. It's the absence of an explanation....
Coming out as trans can be very hard. Planning when, planning where, planning how. Repeating what you’re going to say over and over in your heard, or perhaps writing the sixth draft of an email you are going to send. For some, a harder part can be what happens next, when someone you love goes...
When people talk about abuse, most imagine a black eye, bruising on the body, broken bones and other visible injuries. If you can’t see it, surely it can’t be that bad. But not all abuse is physical. Emotional abuse leaves no marks on the skin. There are no bruises that you can show as evidence...
I’ve been sitting with this story for a few days now – NHS Wales cancelling every gender-affirming surgery for Welsh Gender Service patients with no notice -and I keep coming back to the fact that some people found out surgery was cancelled just hours before they were due to go into theatre (QueerAF) . This...
Workplace burnout is becoming one of the most significant wellbeing challenges facing employees today. Despite this, it remains something people rarely feel able to admit. Research from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy’s ‘Public Perceptions Survey‘ reports that nearly 1 in 5 people suffer from work-related burnout. Look around your office – 1 in...
Family estrangement is rarely about a single blow-up event or one bad phone call. In most cases it's the result of a long pattern — unresolved harm, boundaries that were never respected, or a fundamental gap in values that could not be bridged. It's also almost never a spur-of-the-moment decision. As a counsellor and therapist...
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