The Therapist Diaries

 Hello and Welcome Back to The Therapist Diaries,  As the holiday season approaches, many people find themselves pulled in different emotional directions. There’s excitement, connection, and celebration, but there can also be stress, overwhelm, and the pressure to make everything feel “just right.” If you’re noticing your shoulders creeping up toward your ears or your mind moving faster than you'd like, you’re not alone. This is a time of year when mindfulness can become a gentle anchor, something steady to return to when everything else feels a bit chaotic. This year is the first year that I'll be spending the Christmas holiday away from my parents and while I'm very excited for the plans I have made, a few days ago I suddenly found myself overwhelmed with the anticipation of juggling work, travel, cooking my first dinner, and the feeling that everything needed to be perfect. After having a good crying session and talking it through with my loved ones, I stopped and took a...

 Hello and Welcome Back to The Therapist Diaries,  Today, I'm stepping out of the office and lying down on my own therapy sofa because I want to talk about a topic that I've been struggling with recently and I think it's one a lot of people struggle with.  Making. Big. Decisions. I should start by prefacing that I am an extremely indecisive person- ironic because in contrast I'm also very stubborn and once my mind is made up there's no changing it- but before I can make any kind of decision my anxiety brain has to overthink it a gazillion times. I'm not even talking about big decisions when I say this, I'm saying that I can't even pick what I want for dinner or what music I want to listen to in the car. It's why my boyfriend is forced to watch the same comfort shows over and over again, and why he now knows the lyrics to Taylor Swift songs. So big decisions are a BIG problem for me.  Decisions such as changing careers, moving to a new city, or even c...

 Hello and Welcome Back to The Therapist Diaries,  In the United States, many of us have just wrapped up celebrations for Thanksgiving, a holiday where friends and family come together and enjoy each other's company. It's not, however, always as joyful as it seems. As many of you know, one of my gigs as a Trauma Therapist is to work for the Mobile Crisis Hotline. This week I went to assess a teenager at the hospital, and she said something which really struck me. She said, "I hate it when the house is full of people. I feel so lonely, and I hate it." At first, I thought she had misspoken. What does she mean she feels lonely when the house is full of people? Surely that makes her feel the opposite. I asked her to repeat herself and she said the same thing again. She hadn't misspoken the first time; I just hadn't  heard  her.  The truth is that loneliness is a complicated emotion, and it often shows up in ways that don’t seem to make sense. Many people come ...

Hello and Welcome to The Therapist Dairies,  Is anyone else feeling stressed? It's getting to that time of year where time seems to fly by, and things seem as though they're mounting up.  Stress rarely announces itself loudly at first. It creeps in through the small moments you dismiss as “just being busy” or “having a lot going on right now.” As an therapist, I often tell clients (and their parents) that the body is usually the first to whisper that something is off, long before our minds catch up. You might notice tension in your neck and shoulders that never fully goes away, headaches that seem to arrive right on schedule, a fluttering stomach or lingering digestive issues, disrupted sleep, or a sense of fatigue that no amount of coffee or energy drinks seems to fix. Sometimes stress shows up as irritability or forgetfulness, or even a sense of detachment from things you normally care about. None of these sensations mean something is wrong with you; they mean something is a...

 Hello and Welcome to the Therapist Diaries,  If you’ve ever watched  Wicked , you probably went in expecting a story about good versus evil. What you may not have expected is a deeply human portrait of trauma, identity, and survival disguised as a musical. When Elphaba and Glinda sing  For Good , it isn’t just about friendship, it’s about how trauma reshapes us, redirects our pathways, and ultimately, transforms who we become. Trauma does not look the same on everyone. In fact, one of the most misunderstood things about trauma is the assumption that there is a “correct” way to respond to it. Some people cry. Some become quiet. Some become angry. Some become driven. Some dissociate. Some rebuild. And some like Elphaba, become the very thing the world once accused them of being. Elphaba’s trauma begins early. She grows up as an outsider, judged for a physical difference she did not choose. She is rejected by her father and mistreated by her peers. Her experience...

  Hello and Welcome Back to The Therapist Diaries, Sometimes our brains needs an off switch. If you’ve ever found yourself lying awake at night, replaying a conversation for the tenth time or imagining every possible “what if” scenario, you’re not alone. Overthinking is something so many of us do, often without realizing how much space it takes up in our minds. It can feel like your thoughts are running on a treadmill that never slows down, and no matter how much you tell yourself to stop, the mental noise keeps pushing forward. It can be overwhelming and even give us physical symptoms such as headaches or breathing difficulties. As a therapist, I see this a lot, and experience it myself. and I want you to know that overthinking isn’t a personal flaw. It’s a very human response to stress, uncertainty, and emotional wounds we haven’t fully understood yet. One of the biggest reasons we overthink is that our brains are hard-wired to protect us. When something feels unfamiliar, risky, ...

  Hello and Welcome Back to The Therapist Diaires,  This week we’re wrapping up our four part series on lessons Married at First Sight UK can teach us about building healthier relationships. This week we’re talking about how to how to balance romantic ideals with the realities of long-term partnership, which in my opinion, is something we’re all guilty of at times.  If you’ve followed this blog series, you know that  Married at First Sight UK  is one of my favourite running case studies in modern relationship dynamics. Beneath the dramatic edits and the occasional dinner party explosion, the show consistently offers rich insight into the expectations people bring into marriage and the reality that unfolds once the cameras stop focusing on the first kiss and start recording the first disagreement. One of the biggest myths the show highlights is the idea that chemistry should strike instantly and passionately. On screen, viewers often treat the aisle moment like a...

 Hello and Welcome Back to The Therapist Diaries,  Married at First Sight UK 2025  may be coming to an end but that doesn't mean the lessons from the couples and experts have to stop. Over the course of this series, I've been looking at 4 big take away's that I noticed as a therapist watching the show.  1) Attachment Styles  2) Communication 3) How Couples Evolve Together 4) Marriage Expectations vs Reality So, if you're not ready to sign up for couples therapy just yet but are interested in building a healthier relationship with your partner, this is the place to be! Today we're talking about Number 3- How couples navigating change in relationships, how couples can evolve together, or what to do when they don’t. So, take a seat on the sofa and let's get into it.  In the show, we witness a range of couples who meet at the altar as strangers, this TV staged situation exaggerates the natural challenge any couple faces when entering a committed life toget...

  Hello and Welcome Back to the Therapist Diaries,  Continuing on with our lessons from  Married at First Sight blog series, today we’re going to look at communication among the couples and the lessons we can learn from them about respecting others. If you’ve ever watched Married at First Sight, you know it’s both a fascinating social experiment and an emotional whirlwind. Two strangers meet for the first time at the altar, promise to build a life together, and then face all the joys and growing pains of marriage under the watchful eye of the cameras. As a therapist, I can’t help but watch through the lens of human connection. What unfolds on screen often mirrors what happens in couples therapy, the delicate dance of how couples talk, listen, and handle conflict. Beneath all the drama, the show reminds us that communication really is the glue that holds relationships together. One of the biggest lessons MAFS offers is that talking isn’t the same thing as communicating. Ma...