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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
Should Therapists Take A Political Stand or Stay Neutral?
Posted on June 10, 2015 at 8:47 AM |
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Should professional therapists take sides politically and professionally or remain unbiased and neutral? The answer, my answer at least, Therapist have a duty and an obligation to challenge and oppose a system that targets and demeans the most vulnerable in society, that fractures and distorts mental health services, that results in people with mental health and other issues living in poverty, without benefits, and often suicidal. In the very first book of the Bible, when Cain is challenged about his murder of Abel, he cries out, 'Am I My Brothers Keeper?' The answer for this government : Yes. You are your brothers keeper, and their blood cries out to you from the ground. Let us not forget the hundreds and possibly thousands who have died because of austerity, benefit sanctions, workfare enforcements, cuts to services. Let us not forget the millions who suffer under welfare and benefits cuts, who are paid below a living wage, or on zero hour contracts, who struggle to provide for their children and families while the rich get richer. Let us not forget the thousands who now have to use food banks while companies and basic necessities (gas, electric, water) make more and more money at their expense. In the light of this governments war on the poor, professional neutrality is cowardice and collusion. Garry x |
Some better suggestions for New Year Resolutions ...
Posted on December 21, 2014 at 8:19 AM |
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In 2015 are there some things worth giving up? Here are twenty possibilities (which one will you choose?) ...
Well, there are quite a few suggestions. What will you change in the New year (although there is no reason you have to wait until then)? For myself, I don't have New Year resolutions, but I do take time over Christmas to reflect on what I want to change or move towards in the next year. Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes I don't, and that too is OK. Next year, I would like to spend more time exploring, meeting new people, being less assertive and more gentle, building up my faith, and a few other things. What will you change? |
Counselling in Leicester with Gateway Counselling
Posted on December 6, 2014 at 6:34 AM |
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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. |
Signs of Addiction or Substance Abuse
Posted on September 17, 2014 at 8:30 AM |
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Whether it is:
How do you know when enough is too much ... how do you know when you are addicted? Eight Signs of Substance Abuse or Alcohol Addiction: 1. Memory, Fuzzy Thinking and Headaches.
2. Using substances to help you cheer up and get through the day.
4. You feel that you need to drink or take drugs to fit in socially. 5. Are you ignoring health issues so you can keep on doing what you are doing? 6. Problems with family members directly related to your drinking or drug use.
7. Secrecy and Lies. 8. Withdrawal Symptoms. So What Do I Do Next?
As a person and as a counsellor, I really hope you manage to make a way forward and find ways of dealing with your problems. I do genuinely believe it is a beautiful world and a life worth living. Please find ways of enjoying your journey and defeating the things that are holding you back. And if you want counselling, you know where I am. Garry Rollins Gateway Counselling Leicester. |
Man in The Mirror
Posted on February 6, 2014 at 9:54 AM |
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I am not a huge Michael Jackson fan, but please don't hold that against me, because I think that the following is one of the most amazing videos and songs ever written, especially from a 'personal change' point of view. Enjoy ... |
Ten Things That Stop You From Being Amazing
Posted on February 6, 2014 at 9:44 AM |
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I friend gave me an article in The Metro this week about Life Coach, Michael Serwa, and the following impressed me so much I thought it was worth sharing (edited and expanded slightly) : Ten Things That Stop You From Being Amazing: 1. You worry too much about what other people will think. Other people are too busy worrying about what you think of them to be thinking about what you are doing. Or to use Will Smith's words: 'stop letting people who put you down control so much of your life.' 2. You are in a career you don't really like: Seriously, change it. Do you really want to look back from your deathbed and see yourself in a career you didn't really like? Take small positive steps towards what you really enjoy doing. 3. You try to do everything yourself: Don't. Learn to delegate or prioritise as much as you can so that you can free up time to do things that you really enjoy doing (and then do them) 4. You wait for something or someone to motivate you: Stop waiting for someone else. Find something that excites you, something you enjoy doing. That is what really motivates you. (if you are stuck, work out what it is that you do instead of the things you should be doing but don't want to). The reality is, no-one else can motivate you to do something you don't want to do. 5. People around you bring you down: On average we have five people we spend most of our time with. Choose those people wisely. No-one needs negative nellies in our life. Challenge them about it or spend less time with them. Also, perhaps, work out why you gravitate towards people who are bringing you down. 6. You put other people's happiness before your own: Work out what makes you happy, what makes you smile, and do more of that. Your happiness will be contagious and other people will be attracted to it. You can still help others, but not at the expense of your own happiness. 7. You don't know where you are going: You have no sense of direction, no purpose, no reason to get out of bed in the morning. What is it that you want to do. Where is it that you want to go. Set goals. Take actions. 8. You blame other people and circumstances for where you are: The truth is, life can be very unfair. But this is your life. Take responsibility for it and, basically, bluntly, stop moaning about it. You will feel better if you do something about the parts of your life that you are not happy about. Then you wont need to moan about it. 9. You are living with regret about the past or unrealistic expectations about the future: You cannot change the past, so grieve for it, cry if you need to and then move on. You don't need to forget it, but don't let it keep you in the past. And be realistic about the future. Especially, there is no Santa Claus, no magical solution to your problems. Don't wait for a lottery win before you decide to do something with your future. Act Now. 10. You are your own worst critic How many reasons do you have in your own head for why you can't do something. Stop criticising yourself (why do that to yourself?). Stop comparing yourself to others (they may appear confidant, but they struggle just as you do). Most of all, Be Kind To Yourself. I hope this helps. I found it very useful. But please, I beg you, don't use this list to put yourself down. Use it to motivate yourself. and I stand on the last words of point ten: Most of all, Be Kind To Yourself. Regards, Garry. |
Letting Go (If it is time) ...
Posted on January 24, 2014 at 12:36 PM |
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What does it take to let go in our lives? To allow for loss – of a loved one, a cherished object, a known and familiar feeling or experience. How do we go about surrendering and letting go? My experience is that most of us will cling to that someone or something, refusing to let it go completely. We make excuses, rationalize and bargain with ourselves. Confronted with the event of loss we tend to grip, to cling, to wrap ourselves around the very thing we need to let go of. What will we have once we let go? Once we surrender? It takes a leap of faith, a belief that once we release our grip we will be able to continue our life in a different, and perhaps even fuller way. We build our lives around loved ones, family, things, objects, habits, beliefs, you name it. And letting go of “it” whatever “it” is, threatens our very sense of being. Talking with a patient about her struggle letting go of her persistent binging, and of her tendency to isolate and sleep, to wrap herself in familiar patterns, her fear that she will always have a black hole inside, she tells me a Buddhist story: To let go is counter intuitive to us, and yet, we cannot advance without doing so. The very act of clinging keeps us immobile, tightly wound around the thing we cling to. Even when we want to let go, we fear… the precipice. I think this must be akin to what Sartre had on his mind when he described existential angst. Very unlike the next example, which celebrates letting go as part of the natural order of life.Around Christmas time of 2009, I heard a beautiful sermon on WQXR radio (by Reverend Bruce from the Unitarian Church in NYC) on this very topic. He was speaking on the need to let go with gratitude and an open heart. He shared an experience, which was recorded by an observer in the Metro section of the New York Times newspaper. It went something like this: A woman steps out of a subway car and starts to put her gloves back on when she realizes that she is missing one. She turns to look at the subway car and sees one lonely glove on the seat, the companion to the one she is holding in her hand. It is now too late to retrieve the glove from the train, so with a shrug of the shoulders she throws the glove that is in her hand back into the train as the doors close. She smiles and walks away. Surrendering with gratitude and open heart. My colleague, Dr. Mark Epstein (Open to Desire) talks about the difference between holding and clinging. Clinging is more akin to gripping- tightening our hand around something so that it lies prisoner within our grasp. Surrendering with gratitude and open heart requires an open hand. It requires a lightness of touch, a lightness of being. Openness rather than tightness. Think about what we do when we are afraid: we tense up, tighten up every muscle we have; we crouch, cross our arms, we close up. We grip and hold onto ourselves. We do this to try and protect ourselves. The question is: from what? Some fears, perhaps most fears, come from within, even if they are triggered by external events. In the case of letting go, it is our fear of not having, of looking into our own precipice, of losing our (known) sense of self, that makes us grip and hold on.Once we think of surrendering with an open heart we are immediately confronted with the fact that to do so requires an act of faith on our parts. I do not mean of the religious or spiritual kind, I mean of the personal kind. A personal leap of faith. The woman on the train platform did exactly that when she threw her remaining glove into the train: she released her grip with a smile. Her act of faith exemplified in her release of the glove – in her belief that she could let go, and that she was better off throwing it back into the train to join its companion, rather than bemoaning her loss, or worse – attempting to retrieve it. The act of letting go creating new possibilities of ownership (anyone need gloves?) as well as freedom. Can any of us disagree with that? Surrendering has to do with acceptance. Acceptance of who we are, of all of those parts of ourselves that we spend much our lives not wanting to know, but nevertheless know of. Acceptance of what we do, how we think, what we say, and of course, of what has happened to us in our lives. Acceptance of our limitations and our not so nice parts. Like the man hanging on a limb in the precipice, most of us will do “anything” not to let go. We will bargain, get angry, deny, all part of the cycle that leads us to acceptance and surrendering. We all have much to learn from the woman on the train. Velleda C. Ceccoli, PhDFirst published on Dr. Ceccoli’s blog, Out of My Mind, on June 21, 2010. And one more, just because I think it's a cool list ... |
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