Ben Rath - Counselling and Psychotherapy

31/03/2023

I'm pleased to have become a member this year of the Climate Psychology Alliance, offering educational resources as well as therapeutic support for those struggling with anxiety and distress related to the climate crisis.

As well as a facilitated climate cafe's for people to come and share their thoughts and feelings in a safe, non-judgemental space, they also provide a directory of therapeutic support practitioners who are offering 3 free sessions for anyone who's mental health has been affected by the climate crisis and who might be looking for support (of which I'm also happy to be a member).

Find out more at their site below.

We provide support to individuals and groups struggling with eco-distress and offer safe spaces to share emotions surrounding the climate crisis.

04/10/2022

I'm often drawn to the writing of Viktor Frankl when I start to feel overwhelmed by scale of suffering and injustice in the world.

A psychiatrist who survived the concentration camps in the Second World War, Frankl wrote movingly about his experiences in his famous book 'Man's Search for Meaning', and ultimately provided a hopeful account of our capacity to live a life of meaning and dignity even in the worst of circumstances.

In a painful and chaotic world, finding a personal source of meaning can be a really important part of maintaining positive mental health and protecting against hopelessness and despair.

On moving beyond optimism and pessimism to find the deepest source of meaning.

19/07/2022

The psychologist Boris Cyrulnik wrote of how children are 'saturated by their environment'. He described how our minds as children are like sponges, soaking up the emotional and social environment around us and using the information gathered to construct our beliefs, habits, thoughts, and feelings about ourselves and the world.

This is particularly true when it comes to our experience of acutely stressful, threatening, dangerous and/or traumatic events. How a child processes these events and the meaning they derive from them will depend on how their parents and other adults around them respond.

Having open conversations with children and young people in which they are able to express and articulate their emotions really helps them to process these difficult experiences.

The article below explores what these conversations might look like in practice, using the idea of emotion coaching:

''Besides offering immediate comfort, family chat can shape a child's memories of what occurred when their minds return to it in the future, and the ways that they will respond to later upsets.....Even the most casual chats can shape a child's memories, for example, so that they weave the details together into a narrative and start making sense of their feelings.''

Talking about traumatic events can be hard – but makes a huge difference to children's wellbeing, research shows. Here's how to find the right words.

18/07/2022

'R.A.I.N' is a simple mindfulness tool developed by Tara Brach and explored in her book 'Radical Compassion'. It's designed as a reminder to help us check-in with our internal experience without judgement, and offer care and nurture to the parts of us that need it most.



https://www.instagram.com/p/CfD9VKlNThP/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

10/06/2022

A gentle reminder that we're humans, not robots, and that our value is not conditional on our capacity to be productive.

07/06/2022

I wrote a blog post exploring personality disorders as a diagnosis and the stigma associated with them. I also look at therapeutic model that seeks to understand the underlying psychological processes with compassion and awareness of the impacts of early relationship trauma.

Personality disorders remain heavily stigmatised, but effective therapeutic care based on compassion and awareness of trauma is possible.

30/05/2022

I appreciated this article exploring the concept of community care as a necessary addition to self-care, reminding us that whilst taking care of our own mental health as individuals is important, we shouldn't lose sight of the importance of building and sustaining communities of mutual care and support.

There is only so much an individual can do on their own to take care of themselves without the support of a community around them, especially when people are suffering as a result of systemic social and economic problems not of their making.

''Unlike the messages we often receive about self-care, which focus on individual efforts to achieve wellness, community care consists of the collective efforts we make to be healthy and happy''.

Self-care plays a big role in your health, but we need community care too. Here's what community care is and how it contributes to our collective wellbeing.

16/05/2022

A helpful short video on how acknowledgement of grief and giving people permission to feel their pain is a much more effective way to support people than trying to cheer them up or make them feel better.

(sharing this video? using it in a training! Great! Tag or email us and let us know, and be sure to give proper attribution.) It's so hard to know what to do...

27/04/2022

'Overcoming the emotional pain of status anxiety often requires the development of self-compassion and the capacity for self-nurture, building a stable base of unconditional self-worth that can weather the storms of changing circumstances and misfortunes.

It also requires a collective effort to change the dominant culture and promote new ways of valuing each other, not as units of economic production in competition with each other for status and prestige, but as members of a shared community who can collaborate together to support each other’s well-being.'

From a new blog post on overcoming imposter syndrome and status anxiety.

On Overcoming Status Anxiety and Imposter Syndrome Most of us, at some point in our lives, have experienced that bitter internal voice telling us we’re not good enough, that we’re a fraud, and that it’s only a matter of time before everyone finds out that we’ve tricked them into thinking we....

15/04/2022

Daydreaming and mind-wandering are important parts of maintaining mental health, reducing stress and managing anxiety. We are not machines designed to be focused and concentrated all of the time, and need time and space for regular mental relaxation and rest.

5 Positive Effects of Daydreaming

14/03/2022

'If your circuits are overwhelmed there’s a reason and the reason isn’t because you are heartless, it’s because there is not a human heart on this planet that can bear all of what is happening right now.'

an essay on circuit breakers, empty buckets, and the shame-show of social media

22/02/2022

I'm on day 4 of isolation with covid so this research has been very useful to me while I can't get out for my daily walk in nature.

A variety of studies, including this one by Vrije University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, show that just viewing images of greenery and natural environments is enough to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest mode). This not only reduces the effects of stress but can also act as a buffer to prevent us getting so stressed in the first place. Cool, huh!

Of course, the results are not as strong as when we are actually out in nature engaging with all our senses but it's definitely worth spending some time looking at your favourite nature pics when life is getting a bit hectic. I'd combine that with some long, slow exhales and holding a natural object like a pebble or pinecone if you have access to something like that.

I'll put some images in my stories for you. Perhaps you could do the same and tag me so we can all get a calming nature dose while we're on social media!

And for some IRL nature connection to the max, I have 2 events coming up:

❄️ Winter In The Woods - this Sunday! Kersal Dale Nature Reserve 2pm. Afternoon nature retreat with forest bathing, journaling, campfire marshmallows and cacao with

🌱 Spring Equinox Forest Bathing - Sun 20th March 10am, Clifton Country Park. Celebrating new life with a nature connection walk and tea ceremony.

Full details and tickets via mindful events link in bio.

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