Shopping Cart
Your Cart is Empty
Quantity:
Subtotal
Taxes
Shipping
Total
There was an error with PayPalClick here to try again

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 |
![]() |
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 : |
Some better suggestions for New Year Resolutions ...
Posted on December 21, 2014 at 8:19 AM |
![]() |
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? |
Signs of Addiction or Substance Abuse
Posted on September 17, 2014 at 8:30 AM |
![]() |
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. |
Things Mindful People Do Every Day
Posted on May 6, 2014 at 5:55 AM |
![]() |
The following is my version of a post my brother sent to me recently about Mindfulness, originally posted on The Huffington Post and adapted by me: Here are things mindful people actually do every day to stay calm, centered and attentive to the present moment. They take walks. "In our culture of overwork, burnout, and exhaustion, in which we're connected and distracted 24/7 from most things that are truly important in our lives, how do we tap into our creativity, our wisdom, our capacity for wonder, our well-being and our ability to connect with what we really value?" Arianna Huffington asked in a 2013 HuffPost blog post. Her answer: Solvitur ambulando, which is Latin for "it is solved by walking." Mindful people know that simply going for a walk can be excellent way to calm the mind, gain new perspective and facilitate greater awareness. And it's Free! They turn daily tasks into mindful moments. Mindfulness isn't just something you practice during a 10-minute morning meditation session. It can be incorporated throughout your everyday life by simply paying a little more attention to your daily activities as you're performing them. As the meditation app Headspace puts it:
They create. Mindfulness and creativity go hand-in-hand: Mindfulness practice boosts creative thinking, while engaging, challenging creative work can get you into a flow state of heightened awareness and consciousness. Many great artists, thinkers, writers and other creative workers -- from David Lynch to Mario Batali to Sandra Oh -- have said that meditation helps them to access their most creative state of mind. If you want to become more mindful but are struggling with a silent meditation practice, try engaging in your favorite creative practice, whether it's baking, doodling, or singing in the shower, and see how your thoughts quiet down as you get into a state of flow. They pay attention to their breathing. Our breath is a barometer for our overall physical and mental state -- and it's also the foundation of mindfulness. As mindful people know, calming the breath is the key to calming the mind. Meditation master Thich Nhat Hahn describes the most foundational and most effective mindfulness practice, mindful breathing, in Shambhala Sun:
They unitask. Multitasking is the enemy of focus -- many of us spend our days in a state of divided attention and near-constant multitasking, and it keeps us from truly living in the present. Studies have found that when people are interrupted and dividing their attention, it takes them 50 percent longer to accomplish a task and they're 50 percent more likely to make errors. "Rather than divide our attention, it is far more effective to take frequent breaks between intervals of sustained, one-pointed attention," Real Happiness at Work author Sharon Salzberg writes in a Huffington Post blog. "Debunking the myth of multitasking, we become much better at what we do and increase the chance of being able to remember the details of work we have done in the past." The mindful way, Salzberg suggests, is to focus on one task completely for a given period of time, and then take a break before continuing or moving on to another task. They know when NOT to check their phones (or play on Ipad's, computers, etc). Mindful people have a healthy relationship with their mobile devices and know when to use them and when to turn them off or leave them alone. This might mean making a point never to start or end the day checking email or maybe even keeping their smartphones in a separate room while they're sleeping, or choosing to unplug on Saturdays or every time they go on vacation. Especially important, not using phones, checking texts or playing games when you really should be listening and chatting to the other people in the room who came to see you! One unfortunate by-product of tech addition and too much screen time is that it keeps us from truly connecting with others -- as HopeLab CEO Pat Christen described her own aha moment, "I realized several years ago that I had stopped looking in my children's eyes. And it was shocking to me." Those who mindfully interact with others look up from their screens and into the eyes of whomever they're interacting with, and in doing so, develop and maintain stronger connections in all their relationships. They seek out and embrace new experiences. Openness to experience is a by-product of living mindfully, as those who prioritize presence and peace of mind tend to enjoy taking in and savoring moments of wonder and simple joy. New experiences, in turn, can help us to become more mindful. "Adventure can naturally teach us to be here now. Really, really here," adventurer Renee Sharp writes in Mindful Magazine. "To awaken to our senses. To embrace both our pleasant and our difficult emotions. To step into the unknown. To find the balance between holding on and letting go. And learn how to smile even when the currents of fear are churning within." They get outside. Spending time in nature is one of the most powerful ways of giving yourself a mental reboot and reinstating a sense of ease and wonder. Research has found that being outdoors can relieve stress, while also improving energy levels, memory and attention. “We need the tonic of wildness," Thoreau wrote in Walden. "At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” They feel what they're feeling. Mindfulness isn't about being happy all the time. It's about acceptance of the moment we're in and feeling whatever we feel without trying to resist or control it. Excessive preoccupation with happiness can actually be counterproductive, leading to an unhealthy attitude towards negative emotions and experiences. Mindful people don't try to avoid negative emotions or always look on the bright side -- rather, accepting both positive and negative emotions and letting different feelings coexist is a key component of remaining even-keeled and coping with life's challenges in a mindful way. As Mother Teresa put it, “Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.” We have a natural tendency to avoid sadness and crying, for example. This stops us from getting past grief. When we see someone else crying our natural tendency is to want them to stop crying and tell them everything is going to be ok. Mindful people know that it is ok to feel what we feel and to stay with others as they feel what they feel. (Interestingly, I think we often stop others from crying, not to make them feel better, but to make ourselves feel less uncomfortable. Good friends cry with those who cry). They're conscious of what they put in their bodies -- and their minds. So often, we shovel food into our mouths without paying any attention to what we're eating and whether we feel full. We ignore discomfort, hoping it will go away, even when it clearly won't. Some use alcohol, drugs, even porn, to numb what they feel. Mindful people make a practice of listening to their bodies -- and they consciously nourish themselves with healthy foods, prepared and eaten with care. But mindfulness is all about taking your time, paying attention to the moment, focus fully on what is happening and how they physically feel. Mindful people also pay attention to their media diets, are equally careful not to feed their minds with "junk food" like excess television, social media, mindless gaming and other psychological empty calories. (Too much time on the Internet has been linked with fewer hours of sleep per night and an increased risk of depression. I believe that each of us know exactly what we do that is unhealthy and we do it anyway. Maybe it is time to embrace a more mindful and healthy way of living. They remember not to take themselves so seriously. As Arianna Huffington writes in Thrive, "Angels fly because they take themselves lightly." A critical factor in cultivating a mindful personality is refusing to get wrapped up and carried away by the constant tug of the emotions. If you can remember to laugh and keep an even keep through the ups and downs, then you've come a long way already in mastering the art of mindfulness. Much of our distraction is internal -- we ruminate, worry and dwell on our problems. But those who are able to maintain a sense of humor about their own troubles are able to better cope with them. Research from the University of California Berkeley and University of Zurich found that the ability to laugh at oneself is associated with elevated mood, cheerful personality, and a sense of humor. Laughing also brings us into the present moment in a mindful way. Joyful laughter and meditation even look similar in the brain, according to a new study from Loma Linda University. They let their minds wander. While mindfulness is all about focusing on the present moment, mind-wandering also serves an important psychological function, and conscientious people are able to find the happy medium between these two ways of thinking. It’s smart to question whether we should always be living in the moment. The latest research on imagination and creativity shows that if we're always in the moment, we're going to miss out on important connections between our own inner mind-wandering thoughts and the outside world. Engaging in imaginative thinking and fantasizing may even make us more mindful. Research has found that those whose daydreams are most positive and most specific also score high in mindfulness. |
Ten Things That Stop You From Being Amazing
Posted on February 6, 2014 at 9:44 AM |
![]() |
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. |
Running In The Rain
Posted on January 25, 2014 at 8:13 AM |
![]() |
We Believe What We Tell Ourselves
Posted on October 12, 2013 at 12:56 PM |
![]() |
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 |
Are you Helping Yourself?
Posted on October 11, 2013 at 3:17 PM |
![]() |
Are you Helping Yourself? I am writing this page partly because I am currently very ill, with breathing problems, asthma and a very nasty chest infection. Hopefully, by the time most people read this, those things will all have gone. But not everyone is so fortunate. There are times in each of our lives when we feel rubbish. We can't be bothered with anything, even if we have to be. Everything weighs us down or seems hard or heavy. The phrase 'walking through treacle' sums life up for many people. For others it may be stress, depression, too much work, not enough work, relationship problems. So the question here is ... Are You Looking After Yourself? On the new website page (called 'Self Help Page') is a simple list of ways each of us can simply look after ourselves better. As you read it, be honest. Which things do you think you need to build into your life in order to look after yourself better? None of it is revolutionary or new. To be honest, you probably already know most of it. But the real question is still ... Are you doing it? Are you looking after yourself? Decide today to do it (maybe not all at once). Decide to make your own life just that little bit better, not by waiting for someone else to change or to suddenly come in and support you, but by being your own strongest support. It won't solve all your problems. It probably wont even take most problems away. But lets be honest, it really can't hurt can it. Be your own strongest support by helping yourself today.... Take a look here ... |
Categories
- Society (1)
- Gender (1)
- Drugs (2)
- Alcohol (3)
- Addiction (5)
- Beauty (3)
- You Tube Videos (4)
- Grounding (5)
- Suicide (3)
- Blame (9)
- Strength (11)
- Self Help (15)
- Porn (1)
- Pornography (2)
- Poverty (1)
- Political (1)
- Justice (1)
- Narcissism (2)
- Manipulation (3)
- Fifty Shades of Grey (2)
- Domestic Violence (5)
- Abuse (5)
- Transactional Analysis (1)
- TA (1)
- Scripts (3)
- Self Esteem (18)
- Advice (10)
- Anger (11)
- Happiness (16)
- Change (23)
- Stories (8)
- Senses (4)
- Panic Attacks (4)
- Mindfulness (5)
- Depression (11)
- Busyness (5)
- Breathing (4)
- Anxiety (11)
- Shame Abuse Choice Sadness Pain Hurt (8)
- Posters (3)
- Family (3)
- Success (3)
- Acceptance (22)
- Sadness (9)
- Pain (7)
- Healing (18)
- Life (26)
- Tumblr (4)
- Motivational (19)
- Facebook (3)
- Relationships (18)
- Forgiveness (10)
- Self Harm Depression Anxiety Personal Stories (9)
- Home
- Individual Therapy
- Online Therapy
- Special Offers
- What Clients Have Said ...
- Training Days
- About Transactional Analysis
- I'm OK You're OK
- Managing Stress and Depression
- Mindfulness
- Cutting Out Self Harm
- Are You Addicted?
- Marriage Matters
- Questions and Answers
- Contact Me Here
- Useful Links and Websites
- Upcoming Events
- Best Advice?
- Self Help Page
- Blog
- Home
- Individual Therapy
- Online Therapy
- Special Offers
- What Clients Have Said ...
- Training Days
- About Transactional Analysis
- I'm OK You're OK
- Managing Stress and Depression
- Mindfulness
- Cutting Out Self Harm
- Are You Addicted?
- Marriage Matters
- Questions and Answers
- Contact Me Here
- Useful Links and Websites
- Upcoming Events
- Best Advice?
- Self Help Page
- Blog
/