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Gateway Counselling and Therapy Leicester
Gateway Counselling and Therapy Leicester
Safe Professional Counselling and Therapy in Leicester
Safe Professional Counselling and Therapy in Leicester
My Blog
Blog
Are you being controlled and abused by your partner or someone else in authority?
| Posted on June 10, 2015 at 8:15 AM |
comments (71)
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 All abuse is dangerous, but Narcissistic Abuse is, to me, particularly insidious. The Abuser appears so loving to start with, but slowly over time cuts off support mechanisms and positive relationships, isolating the victim, and then being incredibly manipulative, making the abuse seem like the victims fault, making them feel like it is them who have failed in some way, not good enough, must try harder, be better. The reality is that it is the Narcissistic Abuser who has failed, who is not good enough. Somewhere in their childhood they did not form secure loving relationships and learned to get what they need by manipulating others, isolating others, abusing others. As I commented on Facebook, they appear to be strong but are actually weak. Do you recognise this pattern? Are you a victim of a Narcissistic Abuser? Has your partner or another person isolated you from family and friends? Do they control where you can go and who you can see? Are they critical of your family and friends when you do go and see them? Do they have temper tantrums and then blame you for making that happen? Do they apologise and promise to change, or tell you that it's only because they love you? Do you feel like you are walking on eggshells, afraid of upsetting them at the slightest thing? Do you feel your needs have definitely taken a back seat to their needs? Do you feel constantly Not Good Enough, a failure, low self esteem, no confidence? The truth is that you have a right to be you, To have a voice To be respected To be free from fear and abuse If you are the victim of Narcissistic Abuse, please please get in touch TA Therapy is an excellent way for you to discover who you really are and be able to understand why you have ended up where you are, but more importantly, how you can change and move on. And if you are so insecure that the only way you can get your relationship needs met is by controlling the person you love, by abusing them (let's be honest here), then realise what is happening and get in touch for therapy also. It does not have to continue this way, and abusers need to find healing also. To get in touch, click the big red button to go to the Contacts page :  |
Counselling in Leicester with Gateway Counselling
| Posted on December 6, 2014 at 6:34 AM |
comments (17)
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 If you live in the Leicester area (England) and think you or someone you know would benefit from counselling then please do get in touch.www.gateway-counselling-leicester.co.uk Tel. 0116 2120807 E-mail : [email protected] So what kind of issues to people seek help for:
Seeking Help Is Not A Sign Of Weakness It Is A Sign That, Very Often, We Have Tried To Be Too Strong For Too Long. If you or someone you know would benefit from counselling, then please do get in touch or encourage them to get in touch. The picture above is the back page of my brochure. If you would like a brochure or several brochures for yourself or your workplace, contact me. |
Alternatives to Self Harm
| Posted on November 30, 2013 at 6:31 AM |
comments (70)
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WHAT ARE THE TIPS TO PREVENT OR ALTERNATIVES FOR SELF-HARM? Minimise self-harm damage: If you feel an even stronger urge to self-harm, try the following harm minimisation tips:  • Use a red felt tip pen to mark where you might usually cut;• Hit pillows or cushions, or have a good scream into a pillow or cushion to vent anger and frustration; • Rub ice across your skin where you might usually cut, or hold an ice-cube in the crook of your arm or leg; • Put elastic bands on wrists, arms or legs and flick them instead of cutting or hitting; • Have a cold bath or shower. "One of the reasons that young people say they self-harm and may be cutting or injuring themselves, is that something has happened in their life that has made them feel contaminated or polluted by what's happened, whether it's physical or emotional," says Frances McCann, mental health practitioner. "It becomes a way of 'letting something out' and dealing with feelings of self-disgust or low self-esteem." The Butterfly Project (One of My Personal Favourites)  The A-Z of distractions Often the best thing is to find out what has worked for other people who understand where you're coming from. TheSite.org asked young people from young people's mental health service, 42nd Street in Manchester, to come up with some of the alternatives that help them:  • Alternative therapies: massage, reiki, meditation, acupuncture, aromatherapy.• Bake or cook something tasty. (Also builds self esteem once you get good!) • Craft-work: make things, draw or paint. Be Creative. Express yourself. • Dance your socks off. • Exercise for a release of endorphins and that feel-good factor. Start jogging. • Forward planning - concentrate on something in the future, like a holiday. • Go for a walk, with friends if possible. • Hang out with friends and family. Play some games (hangman, charades, etc) • Have a bubble bath with lots of bath bombs fizzing around you. • Hug a soft toy or a real person. Also, cuddles and hugs lower depression, reduce anxiety, Fact!  • Invite friends round, chat, have pizza, a film marathon, games. • Join a gym or a club. • Knit (it's not just for old people you know). This is surprisingly therapeutic. • Listen to music. (preferably music you can dance to in your bedroom) • Music: singing, playing instruments, listening to (basically making as much noise as you can). • Open up to a friend about how you are feeling. Ask them to listen without talking to start with. • Pop bubble wrap. Keep popping until every single bubble is popped. • Play with a stress ball or make one yourself (balloons, flour). • Read a book. • Rip up a phone directory or thick catalogue (Argos, if you're in the UK). • Scream into an empty room. (Make sure its empty!). Or find an empty field, remote place. • Spend time with babies (when they're in a good mood). Watch children playing. • Tell or listen to stories • Tai Chi, Mindfulness, Reflection, Prayer • Visit a zoo or a farm that lets you hold the animals(animals do the best things). • Volunteer for an organisation (will make you feel all warm inside). • Write: diary, poems, a book. Keep a journal in which you can be brutally honest. • Write all your negative feelings on paper, then rip them up or burn them (safely). Let them go. • Yoga: meditation, deep breathing - this might help you relax and control your urges. • Zzz - get a good night's sleep. There are many self-help tips that may help you, otherwise known as 'alternatives to self-harm', or 'coping tips and distractions'. You might find some are more effective than others. Don't be disheartened if a technique isn't successful. Try a different one to see if it works better for you. Here are a few you might want to try: The 15-minute rule - if you're feeling the urge to self-harm, give yourself 15 minutes before you do. Distract yourself by going for a run or writing down your feelings. When the time's up, see if you can extend it by another 15 minutes. Try to keep going until the urge subsides; Meditation - try to visualise the urge as an emotional wave you can surf. Imagine it reaching a crescendo then breaking as you successfully resist its force;  Write a list of things you've achieved that make you feel proud, or fill a box with things that make you happy, such as pictures of friends and loved ones. Keep them handy and look at them when you're feeling bad; Practice expressing your emotions and feelings through art or writing or talking to a friend. And Finally, as always, if you need it, get counselling: you know where I am. x  |
What Is Depression
| Posted on November 19, 2013 at 4:27 AM |
comments (39)
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A Personal Reflection "I get angry when I read drug manufacturer’s definitions of depression and see drab commercials that burst with color as soon as the meds are introduced. Feeling sad, overwhelmed, hopeless, sleeping a lot… as long as we hold onto the definitions that are fed to us as truth without exploring them we can never see anything more than that. If it were that simple, maybe popping pills would help. But it is their very definition that blinds us to the truth of discovering what depression is. We feel like they really know us, with their simple definitions. We read each symptom on the checklist and say “Yes! that is exactly how I feel!”. Upon further examination, you have to admit that this is only part of the picture. People are in so much pain, so desperate for immediate relief, needing someone to understand us in the worst way, that reading these simple sentences, seals the deal. We do not question if it is deeper than that, we believe that we can pop a pill and then all those symptoms will disappear. If it were that simple, why are more and more medications failing more and more people? According to the Abilify website, 2 out of 3 people taking an antidepressant still experienced unresolved symptoms of depression! I have taken the typical definitions of depression and injected a little bit of deeper truth. Depression is:
All of these symptoms are the things circling under the surface of the depression. It is all a vicious cycle, all of these symptoms feed each other and create more depression until the point where we lose all hope. Medication promises to treat these symptoms, but will never heal anything. What we need to do is dig below the surface, find the roots and work to dissolve them. As a result, all of the surface symptoms disappear. The more I think about how much medication I was on, and how strong all of the symptoms still were, the more I realize how amazing my mind truly is. It never stopped telling me, no matter how medicated, that something is really wrong under the surface. It didn’t give up, until I listened to it. Feeling suicidal is not really about wanting to die. It is about wanting to be free." Padhia Avocado. |
We Believe What We Tell Ourselves
| Posted on October 12, 2013 at 12:56 PM |
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 This, I think, is one of the most important points in counselling and therapy for people to grasp. What we tell ourselves has a huge impact on the way we think, how we feel and what we do about our lives. Even more so, the stories we tell ourselves and keep retelling ourselves have a huge impact ... those stories we also keep telling to other people to justify why we feel the way we do or why we do what we do. Imagine ... A person who constantly tells themselves they feel useless, convinces themselves they can't do something, reminds themselves of all the times they tried and something went wrong or others made fun of them, even tells others those stories as if in jest, but they're not really joking ... What's going to happen to that person? And what about the person who feels that life isn't worth living ... They remember all the struggles, the pain and hurts which are incredibly real and actually happened, they have a list in their heads of every bad thing that happened, and probably a list of who was to blame for it. They may even have convinced themselves that they are to blame somewhere buried inside. They have a 'yes, but' for every time someone tries to convince them life is worth living, a story they recount as if to prove their point. They retell all those stories, not just to others but to themselves over and over again (and by default ignore all the reasons people give them for why life is worth living, because those reasons don't fit what they want to believe). What is going to happen to that person. And finally (for now) ... What about the person who says ...
and so on. What will happen to the person who remembers the times they succeeded (even though there were times when they failed), reminds their friends of the better times as well as the worst, chooses to look at the beauty in the world (even though there is plenty that is not beautiful). It is not an easy path. It is easier (and often more popular) to look at the crap that happens to us (and let's face it, it happens to all of us and there is no shortage of examples) But maybe it's time to let go of those stories and find better ones. The choice, as always, is our own, yours and mine Regards, Garry x |
Life or Death
| Posted on September 13, 2013 at 4:47 AM |
comments (14)
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Life or Death This is from one of my Tumblr contacts called The Angry Therapist. Sometimes I think he talks alot of sense: "It’s really simple. If you strip everything down, you are either living or dying.  You are obsessing about the future, dwelling on the past. Holding onto expired relationships. Eating like shit. Feeding addictions and unhealthy patterns. Not sleeping. Weighing yourself. You are assassinating people’s character, taking hostages (making other people feel bad because you’re not happy), dreading work, getting annoyed by everything and everyone, exuding negative energy, fighting everything, verbally vomiting, taking, see life as a prison. You are filled with anger instead of hope. You are deteriorating. You are dying. You are dark.Or. You are creating, building, investing in yourself as well as others (relationships that are meaningful to you). You are drawing healthy boundaries. You are allowing yourself to be heard. Expressing your truth. Dreaming. Facing fears. Not judging, expecting, or labelling You sweat, stretch, eat real food, drink lots of water, and make sure you get enough sleep. You love hard and forgive often. You stay in today and try to seek joy in what and who is in front of you instead of chasing images and material objects. You don’t tie ability to worth. Think different. Breathe. You are regenerating, evolving. You are living. You are giving. You are light. When you are dying, the world gets very small. You lose your vision. Everything gets heavy. When you are living, the world gets very big. You have nothing but vision. Everything is bright. You wake up every day and you have a choice. You can either live or die." - Angry I think that's very cool. You wake up every day and you have a choice. |