Compass Therapy

Online & in person Highlands | compasstherapy.co.uk ACT_outside_highlands

Evidence based Therapy | CBT & ACT adults | Menopause support, anxiety, stress, burnout, boundaries & trauma patterns. 1:1 therapy, groups/retreats & cold-water therapy programme.

31/10/2026

Not your usual Halloween witch 🖤
This is what’s on my reading pile this weekend: How to Kill a Witch by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi of the Witches of Scotland campaign.
Between 1563 and 1736, around 4,000 people in Scotland were accused of witchcraft. Most were women, and around two-thirds of them were put to death.
The last woman executed for witchcraft in Britain was Janet Horne, just up the road from me in Dornoch. She was an older woman who was probably confused and vulnerable, and her neighbours turned on her.
What stops me in my tracks is who got accused. Older women. Widows. Healers and midwives. Women past childbearing age who no longer fitted the role they’d been given, or who simply knew too much.
Midlife women being seen as ‘too much’, ‘difficult’ or ‘not quite right’ isn’t new. It’s centuries old.
So this Halloween I’m remembering them, and every woman who’s been made to feel she’s too much for simply being herself.
Have you read it? 👇
Midlife MidlifeWomen Menopause ScottishHighlands

29/10/2026

I’m a therapist.
My mind still gives me a hard time.

Self-doubt. Worry. The “who do you think you are” voice.

I used to think I had to quiet all of that before I could get on with my life.

I don’t.

I can take my thoughts and feelings with me and still do what matters.

That’s what we practise in Everyday ACT Plus.
Not a quick fix.
Small, daily steps with women who get it.

DM EVERYDAY and I’ll tell you more 🧭

HighlandsTherapist

19/10/2026

What direction would you like your life to take? 🧭

When you’re busy holding everything together, it’s easy to lose touch with what matters to you.

Everyday ACT+ offers space to reconnect, find your direction and take small steps, with support along the way.

Grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, an evidence based psychological approach, we bring practical skills into everyday life.

Around 10 minutes a day to notice what’s showing up, explore your values and practise moving towards what matters.

You’ll have weekday WhatsApp prompts, peer support from other women, two monthly Compass Community Calls, private weekly check-ins and personal monthly video feedback from me.

New members start Monday 2 November.
£100 per month.

Curious? Send me a DM with YES and I’ll share the joining details. You’re welcome to ask questions, too.

Helen x
Compass Therapy
Your wing woman, every step of the way.

16/10/2026

“I’m not confident enough to join.”woman said this to me recently”.

So many of us wait to feel confident before we do the thing. Before we join the group, try something new, meet new people or make the change we’ve been thinking about for months.

Confidence rarely arrives first. It grows from doing, often slowly and usually with some wobbles along the way.

So instead of waiting, try this:
Notice the nerves, and name them for what they are.
Make room for the discomfort. That’s willingness.
Take one small step towards what matters to you.

Courage first. Confidence later.

You don’t have to feel ready. You can come along nervous, uncertain and well outside your comfort zone, and still belong.

That’s exactly who Everyday ACT Plus is for. It’s a warm, supportive online community for women who want to bring ACT into everyday life. We explore what matters together, one small step at a time. No pressure to have it all figured out and no need to feel confident first. Just come as you are.

If something in you is quietly saying “maybe”, that’s enough to start. See details at the link in my bio.
Your wing woman, every step of the way.
Helen x
Willingness

11/10/2026

I don’t argue with my thoughts. I’ve never once won a debate with my own mind at 3am.

This week, “I should have this sh*t all sorted by now” showed up. Instead of believing it or fighting it, I named it, thanked my mind for trying to help, and turned back towards what mattered.

The thought didn’t vanish. It just stopped driving.

What’s the thought that hooks you most often? Tell me in the comments 👇

07/10/2026

When a woman in her late 40s (generation) sits down and tells me she is not coping. I notice three things before she said very much at all.

She apologises for being there. She describes broken sleep, brain fog or anxiety that seems to have come from nowhere, without connecting them and she’s fighting herself: “I should be able to handle this”.

These changes are common in perimenopause, yet so many women are never told. They assume they’re failing, when their body is simply changing and asking for a different kind of support.

If this sounds familiar, Everyday ACT Plus is my online community for women navigating this stage together, with practical tools to make room for what’s hard and move towards what matters. Link in bio.

04/10/2026

So many people I work with describe themselves as lazy. The unanswered emails, the washing pile, the evening lost to scrolling, and a voice asking “what’s wrong with you?”

What I usually see is a mind that’s been working flat out all day: bracing, second-guessing, replaying conversations and planning for the worst. That inner tug-of-war is exhausting, and calling it laziness only adds shame on top.

Unhooking from that label is often the first step towards having energy for what matters.

Does this resonate? Tell me in the comments 👇

SelfCompassion CompassTherapy

30/09/2026

Therapy isn’t somewhere you have to perform being a “good client”.

You don’t have to arrive knowing exactly what’s wrong.

You don’t have to talk about something before you’re ready and you certainly don’t have to leave every session feeling better.

Sometimes therapy is uncomfortable.

Sometimes the work is noticing what your mind is doing, making room for what’s here, and choosing one small step towards the life you want to be living.

That’s an important distinction for me as an ACT therapist.

ACT isn’t positive psychology. We’re not trying to replace difficult thoughts with positive ones or make uncomfortable emotions disappear.

We’re developing psychological flexibility learning that difficult thoughts and feelings can come along for the ride without having to decide where we go next.

You don’t have to feel better first.

You can begin from exactly where you are. If you are wondering if therapy is for you just message me - we can start there 🫶🏼

26/09/2026

This week has been a bit of everything.

New clients, familiar faces and returning clients. More face-to-face work, which I’m really enjoying. Two clinical supervisees. Facilitating MSc Applied Psychology small-group supervision. And a very wet HealthScape swim thrown into the mix.

One of the things I love about the work I do is the variety and the adaptability it asks of me.

Different people. Different settings. Different roles. Therapist, supervisor, facilitator… and occasionally standing beside a Highland loch in the pouring rain.

After more than 25 years working in mental health, I’m still learning, adapting and genuinely loving the work.

And then I come home to this ❤️

24/09/2026

Today’s swim was wet. wet. 🌧️

In almost a year of meeting, only had one other properly rainy swim. Today, we showed up anyway.

We swam. We stayed. We enjoyed it.

A reminder that meaning and purpose don’t disappear when things feel difficult. Sometimes they’re found right there in the middle of it in connection, community and choosing to show up for what matters.

And the cake was definitely worth staying for. ❤️

Address

Ross Shire
Inverness
SIV11QY

Website

http://CompassTherapy.co.uk/

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