Whether you call yourself a people-pleaser or you’re unaware of why you seem to find yourself inexplicably saying “yes” to things you don’t want to do, it’s very likely you often end up feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and resentful. A life driven by a fear of rejection and a need for external validation leads to little satisfaction and not much joy. You’re investing your time and energy into what you believe others expect from you, dismissing your own needs, values and beliefs in the process. What is your role in co-creating these situations and relationships where there doesn’t seem to be space for the true you? Learn more about why you may be getting in your own way of meaningful relationships and how to start stepping out of this pattern.

Many people don’t know the difference between a psychologist, counsellor or psychotherapist and it can make looking for therapy confusing. Counsellors and psychotherapists are qualified in supporting you with many difficulties and challenges which you may not need a psychologist for. Find out more.

Maybe you’ve considered yoga, but think that you’re not bendy and enlightened enough or the idea of chanting “Om” in unison with a bunch of strangers puts you off. Find out how exactly this ancient art of contorting our body into human-sized origami helped me when I really needed it in this blog.

When our emotions stick around for a prolonged period of time or keep coming back, it is helpful to have a healthy outlet for expressing them. These ten emotion-releasing activities will support your connection to yourself and others, improve your health and help you live more authentically.

The spring’s arrival invites us to clean up and declutter. Learn about why and how recognising unhelpful thinking patterns, finding lightness, orienting towards positives and becoming intentional about your choices can help you cleanse, energise and restart this spring.

Therapists don’t really have it all figured out. They are human beings who face life’s inevitable challenges and stressors just like anyone else. If the idea that your therapist might need therapy of their own unsettles you, read on to find out why you want your therapist to do their own therapy.

Are you feeling disconnected from yourself or questioning who you really are? Do you feel like something’s missing? You might have been living the way you thought you were supposed to and lost yourself along the way? Learn about how listening to our body helps us reconnect with our authentic self.

Authenticity allows for deeper and more genuine connections. It enables us to live a more joyful, meaningful and fulfilling life. How and why did you learn to mask who you really are? What have you lost along the way? Find out what gets in the way of you being yourself and how to start changing that.

Most of us didn’t get much help around healthy ways to process emotions and as a result developed coping strategies and habits that may start causing trouble later on in life. Learn about what emotions are, why they are important and how to process them in healthy ways in this article.

We all have parts of ourselves that we dislike and yet they are what makes us whole. When we keep a part of ourselves hidden from the world, we may never quite feel loved and accepted.

We cannot have equality without equity. We don’t all come with the same privileges and we’ve not all had the same starting point or journey in life. While, as a counsellor, I don’t have the power to change my clients’ circumstances, I can support them in becoming better equipped for facing them.

Do you dislike your body, find it inconvenient or consider it your enemy? Or do you love your body, take care of it without agenda and listen to what it communicates to you? Why are so many of us struggling to have a healthy relationship with our body and why may we want to work on having one?

Daniela MacAulay, a gestalt psychotherapist provides her reflections on Jonah Hill’s Netflix original documentary “Stutz” about his relationship with his therapist, Phil Stutz, who is also the author of a unique method ‘The Tools’, which he uses in his work to help people live a more fulfilling life.