Maternal Mental Health Month tends to bring a particular kind of conversation into focus, although it is often not the one that gets said directly. What I find myself noticing, both in practice and more generally, is how quickly people begin to measure themselves against an idea of how this period is supposed to feel, and how easily that comparison…

There is something about days like On Your Feet Britain that sounds simple when you first hear it, and then becomes less so the more you try to place it into an actual day. The idea of moving more and sitting less makes sense in principle, and it is easy to agree with, but it does not always translate neatly…

When women don’t fit I am writing this at the beginning of Women’s History Month. Marking history is important, but so is asking what continues quietly beneath it. As a therapist and as a woman, I am interested not only in who we applaud, but in how we name women when they do not fit. There is a particular kind…

Christmas Eve often arrives carrying far more than mince pies and wrapping paper. For many people, it’s a day thick with expectation. Expectations about how we should feel, how we should behave, and how much of ourselves we should give. Old family dynamics can re-emerge quietly but powerfully, sometimes before we’ve even realised what’s happening. Roles we thought we’d outgrown…

When people find out I’m a therapist, they often imagine calm. Someone endlessly patient, grounded, and perfectly organised. I sometimes wish they could see the inside of my head instead, the lists that multiply, the tabs that stay open, the way I can forget what I walked into a room for while remembering every detail of something a client said…

Modern dating has its own dictionary now, a whole language of shorthand for feelings we can’t quite name. The ick. The spark. The slow burn. Each one is supposed to mean something clear about attraction or compatibility. But human connection is rarely that simple. I think about how much of our idea of love has been sold to us, through…

I’ve always hated exercise. Not the movement itself, but everything around it — how it’s sold to us, what it’s supposed to mean. For most of my life, exercise was tangled up with shame and “shoulds.” It was about fixing, burning, earning, or proving. The endless messages about how we should look, move, or measure up had already stripped away…

You’ve probably heard the phrase: “Am I the drama?” It’s become a funny sort of cultural shorthand for those moments when we catch ourselves wondering if we might actually be the one adding tension to a situation. I’ll admit, I’ve used it at home more than once. I sometimes joke with my kids that I need a sign at the…

There’s something powerful about the way Taylor Swift connects with her fans. It’s not just the music, it’s the authenticity. She shows up as her full, vulnerable self, not hiding the parts that aren’t fashionable or in vogue. She shares the silly, the sentimental, the heart-broken and the fiercely independent – and somehow, her following honours all of it. That’s…

Halloween is a funny time of year. For a few hours, fear becomes something we play with. Children dress up as witches, vampires, or ghosts. We walk through haunted trails waiting for a jump scare. We tell stories about shadows and monsters. I used to love dressing up with my children and taking them trick or treating, and I still…