Procrastination
We make hundreds of decisions everyday ranging from the simple (brown bread or white bread?) to the complex (leave the job or stay?).
Psychologists talk about these two decision types as employing two different processing systems:
System 1 (fast, intuitive and emotional) would help you pick the right loaf.
System 2 (slow, analytical and logical) would kick in to help you decide whether or not to stay in a job.
The problems tend to happen when clients feel they are stuck in a loop, unable to employ their decision making systems and that this is negatively impacting their mental health and wellbeing.
The first thing I would look at with a client who presents with issues around procrastination is…. Are we actually talking about procrastination here?
Couples counselling - Time out for grown ups
You may think that the idea of ‘time out’ is just for kids but actually it’s a key skill for fighting couples to master (don’t worry, nobody will be sitting on the naughty step!)
The trouble with trying to stop an argument once it’s underway is that your neurobiology is working against you. By the time tempers have frayed, both you and your partner are in ‘fight or flight’ mode which makes your brain read everything as an attack.
So how do we de-escalate the situation enough to be able to see what is happening for our partners – and make moves to repair the rift? Try these four useful steps…
Changing your relationship with anxiety.
Hi. I thought I’d finish this little introductory series of blogs with a part 3 on how to address anxiety. Hopefully you’ve started to give up the fight against anxious thoughts and let go of the negative self-talk. Now here’s another anxiety myth we can put to rest:
‘You can delete anxious thoughts by replacing them with positive ones’
Unfortunately, you can’t. That’s not a thing. Sorry positive affirmations but we are coming for you.
‘Have a word with yourself.’
Hello, it’s my turn to offer up a therapeutic tip for dealing with mental health difficulties. Following on from Anna’s excellent advice on giving up the fight against anxious thoughts (see the Blog below), I decided to offer up another observation on anxiety.
Today I’m looking at negative self-talk. How many times have you told yourself to ‘just pull yourself together’ or…
Have a word with yourself.
The brand new Forres Counselling Blog
We are two psychotherapists who are passionate about sharing useful tools for dealing with real life mental health difficulties. So as part of our website, we thought it may be helpful to start a blog where we take turns to offer therapeutic tips that may help with day-to-day life. Of course, nothing beats talking therapies if you’re struggling, but to steal a supermarket tag line, every little helps.