Anxiety can feel like an unwelcome guest that just won’t leave. But waiting for it to disappear before you start living the life that you want is a bad idea. Why? Because inaction and avoidance keeps anxiety going and...
Read More
In my last post I described self-compassion as a life skill that we can all keep working on. But why bother? What makes a little self-compassion so important for mental health? Well, over a thousand research studies have...
Read More
Self-compassion is a core skill for maintaining good mental health. So, what is self-compassion? Think for a moment about what makes a really great friend. Answers often include things like kindness, support, encouragement,...
Read More
Do you eat McDonald’s every day? Probably not. Why? Because you care about your health, right? However good something may taste in the moment, you try to make healthy choices most of the time. Well, your mind is just like...
Read More
What are the key factors that take you from mildly anxious to a full blown panic attack? 1. It all starts with hypervigilance to threat. This means we are constantly on the lookout for signs that we might not be safe. When we...
Read More
9 key points about emotions: 1. No emotion is bad or wrong. 2. They all have a reason, a message, a function. 3. All of the emotions we experience today evolved because they promoted our survival in some way by influencing our...
Read More
Are you waiting for the time to be just right? Are you waiting until you feel like it? One of the hardest facts about mental health recovery is that you are never going to feel like it. There will never be perfect circumstances...
Read More
When life takes things out of our hands and all the problem-solving in the world is not going to change anything, its time to prioritise the coping strategies that will help you to endure the emotional pain that you face. When...
Read More
There is a time and a place for goal setting, planning and preparation. But the day to day business of healing and recovery demands that you focus on the here and now. When people come along to therapy, they describe the changes...
Read More
How to take control of a problem Feel like you are going round in circles? It might be because you are. In therapy many people discover that they are facing hard times using old coping strategies that no longer serve them. As a...
Read More
Self-soothing is a skill used to manage overwhelming emotion. It’s the skill of committing to treating ourselves with kindness and compassion when we are in the midst of struggle. It is choosing behaviours that will help to...
Read More
Sitting with emotion is something a lot of people struggle with. Just allowing it to wash over you naturally, without turning to something that will smother it, numb it or block it out. Some use TV, gaming, alcohol or smoking....
Read More
Be the first to know about the latest free videos, articles and podcasts from Dr Julie Smith. Enter your email and we will let you know when new content is available.
