Author: Diane Gowing

Counselling and Psychotherapy

How to Talk to People who have been Bereaved

With the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, it is becoming increasingly likely that you will unexpectedly find yourself talking to someone who has recently lost a loved one.  This can feel very daunting, as it throws up fears of saying the wrong thing and somehow making things worse.  These fears are very valid – we…
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Rocket Man: The Inner Child

I saw the film Rocket Man recently, the story of the little boy who became Elton John. It was told beautifully, and at times brutally, as it needed to be. When we are feeling stuck, there is often a part of us which suffered such pain as a child that we cannot bear to recognise…
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Do you Know a Narcissist?

Narcissists are everywhere – we can be related to them, get into relationships with them, or work with them. M. Scott Peck terms them “People of the Lie” because their whole self image is based upon a lie. These people cannot tolerate any threat to their self esteem – they have to esteem themselves at…
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“Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for all your other relationships”

Here’s a thought, and it’s about self love.  This is often the most difficult form of love to feel.  When we suffer trauma through abuse, especially abuse that continues in one form or another, the part of our brain that looks out for trouble stays switched on all the time.  So we anxiously expect that…
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Article – Gabriel Mate – Addiction

This contains a great piece of insight: “It’s not what it is, it’s what it does.” It’s not really that we like all that much whatever it is we crave.  What we really crave is the feeling that it gives us when we get it.  Pinpoint that and we’ve got the root of the craving…
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How our childhood affects our ways of relating

Here’s an interesting clip on how our childhood affects our ways of relating to others . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZj176ZoM4Y

Counselling Takes Courage!

“It’s a different kind of mind that looks inward and perceives the need to fight a battle against its own long-held beliefs and judgments.  It’s a rare mind that looks, sees, and then decides to wage this war – the last war.”   – Miguel Ruiz, The Toltec Art of Life and Death