Brian Watson Psychotherapy & Training

17/05/2026

A lovely throwback to when I used to make custom mala beads 🥰 they were such a joy to make!

It was such a wonderful way to honour a specific spirit guide as I made them I would sing a mantra into every bead 💕
108 mantras 🥰 and with each individual knot I would set an intention for the person I was making them for that they would ask me to for example Love or abundance, manifesting or peace

The guru bead at the bottom which is traditionally larger would also hold the intention with Reiki and I would spend time meditating with the guru bead to ensure it held all the good and positive vibes

Let me know if you're drawn to owning your own mala and I can have a chat with you about what you want from them ❤️
🌺💕🌺
As always remember you are never too much and you are always enough 🌺
Big hugs 🫂 Jody Fay

16/05/2026

Eric Morecambe, The News, And A Small Act Of Self Care

Today I sat in the Winter Gardens in Morecambe at a centenary event marking what would have been Eric Morecambe’s 100th birthday, listening to stories about him and Ernie Wise. The room was full of people who quite clearly adored them. It felt like being in a big living room where everyone had grown up with the same two daft uncles on the telly.

Like a lot of you, I watched Morecambe & Wise as a kid. Whole families gathered round the TV, all laughing at the same joke. No crudity, no nastiness, just that gentle, clever silliness that somehow still works all these years later.
During the Q and A, Eric’s daughter Gail said something that really stuck with me. I am paraphrasing, but her suggestion was that every time somebody watches the news, they should watch Morecambe & Wise for ten minutes afterwards. The whole place laughed, but you could feel people thinking, “yes, that would actually help.” As funny as it sounds, she is definitely onto something.

From a therapist’s point of view, she has described a very solid bit of nervous system care. The news is designed to keep you watching by focusing on what is frightening, outrageous or heartbreaking. Your body reacts to that as if it is all happening in your front room. Muscles tense. Breathing changes. That background feeling of “the world is not safe” turns up another notch.

Ten minutes of Eric and Ern does something very different. It reminds your system that humans also do warmth, play and harmless daftness. Familiar sketches, shared memories, the rhythm of the gags you can almost say along with them, all quietly tell your body, “right now, in this room, we are safe enough to smile.”

It does not have to be them in particular, though they are a pretty strong contender. The principle is simple. If you are going to feed your brain a dose of doom, follow it with something that makes you genuinely soften. For you that might be an old comedy, a favourite piece of music, or, in my case at the moment, an alarming number of parrot and budgie videos. Birds are far funnier than they have any right to be.

This is not about pretending bad things are not happening. It is about balance. Information, then regulation. A bit of rain, then a bit of sunshine, so your system does not get stuck in permanent storm mode.

So here is a tiny experiment you might like. For the next week, if you watch the news, give yourself ten minutes afterwards with something that reliably makes you smile. Not scrolling. Something specific and kind. A Morecambe & Wise sketch. A comforting programme. A ridiculous cockatiel arguing with a hoover.

If you fancy sharing, what is your version of “Morecambe & Wise” when the world has got under your skin a bit?

13/05/2026

King Solomon’s Ring And The Weather Inside Your Head

I am a therapist, but I am also a maker.
Some days that means websites and courses. Some days it is magic props and trophies. Occasionally it is jewellery that looks like it has escaped from a fantasy novel and ended up on my workbench. I will post a photo of one of the rings I made with this, partly because I am quietly pleased with it and partly because it gives me an excuse to tell you a story.

There is an old tale about King Solomon. One evening, after a particularly dramatic day, he decided he wanted an object that could hold him steady, whatever mood he was in.

He called in a trusted courtier and said something along the lines of:
“Somewhere in the world there is a magic ring. If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy. Go and find it.”

Not the easiest shopping list.
The courtier set off. He tried the obvious places first. Grand jewellers with polished counters and very confident sales patter. They were excellent at diamonds, less good at mood‑altering wisdom rings. He moved on to market stalls, back streets, traders who dealt in oddities and old stories. Everyone had an opinion. No one had the ring.

Months slipped by. The king’s deadline loomed. The courtier’s optimism did not.

On the last afternoon before he was due back, walking through one of the older parts of the city, he noticed a tiny shop he had never seen before. No window display, just a crooked sign and a door that stuck.

Inside, an elderly jeweller sat surrounded by drawers of tarnished metal and forgotten pieces. The courtier explained his task one more time, more out of habit than hope.

The old man listened, thought for a moment, then reached into one of the drawers and pulled out a simple band. No gem. No decoration. Just enough space on the outside for a few small letters. He took a tool, scratched four words onto the surface, and handed it over without much fuss.

When the courtier read the inscription, something in his shoulders dropped. He knew he had finally found it.

Later, when Solomon turned the ring in his hands and read the same four words, his expression changed too. What those words were is not a secret. You already know them. You have heard them on bad days and rolled your eyes on good ones.
This too shall pass.

The rest of the story is mainly about what happens when that sentence stops being a slogan and lives a bit deeper in the body.

How it quietly levels out the highs and softens the lows. How it reminds you that both sunshine and rain are part of the same weather system.

I am not going to go full English teacher and unpack every symbol. You are perfectly capable of letting it land in whatever way you need. Maybe it nudges you to remember that today’s panic is not forever. Maybe it reminds you that the really good patch you are in is precious precisely because it will not look exactly like this again.

We do need the rain to appreciate the sunshine. We also need the memory of sunshine to get through the rain. The ring just gives you something solid to turn between your fingers while the internal weather does what it always does and moves on.

If you feel like sharing, which part of the story do you recognise yourself in today: the king, sending people off on impossible emotional errands, the exhausted courtier searching every stall, or the quiet old maker at the back, scratching a few words into metal and letting them do their work?



P.S. I lost my mood ring and I really don't know how I feel about that.....

10/05/2026

Occupational Burnout Day: Live from a Café Table

Apparently today is Occupational Burnout Day, which feels like an odd thing to celebrate, so I am marking the occasion with an oat milk latte and a sausage and caramelised onion sausage roll. This is what dangerous rebellion looks like in your fifties.

I should probably be doing something more productive. Writing a newsletter. Planning a course. Replying to the emails I have artfully ignored all week. That is how burnout sneaks in. Not with one dramatic breakdown, but with a hundred tiny “I will just squeeze one more thing into this gap” moments until your nervous system quietly taps out and leaves your body to handle the fallout.

We are very good at recognising burnout in theory. We can list the symptoms. Exhaustion. Irritability. Feeling strangely ineffective. We share posts about it, nod wisely and tag our friends. Then we eat lunch at our desks and answer messages on the toilet because apparently the rules do not apply to us.

So here is my very modest, deeply unglamorous suggestion for Occupational Burnout Day. At some point today, give yourself ten minutes that are completely useless to your career. Drink something hot while it is still hot. Eat something you actually enjoy. Do not use the time to learn, optimise or listen to a podcast about how to be more efficient. Just be a mammal for a bit.

Your brain will insist this is indulgent, self sabotaging and possibly illegal. That is the same brain that thinks burnout is a reasonable price to pay for answering everyone instantly. It is allowed to complain.

You are allowed to rest anyway.
If you need a sign, consider this sausage roll your official permission slip.

06/05/2026

An article that is Food for thought ❤️

The Harmony Hub is built on three Principles:-

1. Authenticity- courses, classes and groups are facilitated by people who walk the walk and live by what they teach/share.
2. Accessibility- open to all.
3. Affordability- fair prices charged and concessions available when we are able.

This article really resonated with me this weekend. I’m not sure of the source so if you recognise the author please let me know so I can credit them.

Be Careful Who You Trust With “Healing” Today

We’re living in a time where everything is being called healing…

Quick certifications.
Weekend practitioners.
People offering to “fix” you after a short course.

And the truth is — not all of it is real.

⸻

In traditional paths, healing wasn’t something you just learned…
👉 It was something you lived, earned, and embodied over time.

It came through:
• Experience
• Challenge
• Deep personal work
• And a genuine connection to spirit and nature

Not a certificate printed after a few hours online.

⸻

⚠️ The danger today is this:

People are putting their trust, their energy, and their vulnerability into hands that may not be ready to hold it.

And that can leave you:
• Disappointed
• Confused
• Still searching
• Or even more out of balance than before

⸻

Real healing isn’t:
• Instant
• Flashy
• Or something done to you

👉 It’s something you are guided back into within yourself

⸻

So take your time.

Feel into the person you’re working with.
Ask questions.
Trust your instincts.

Because the right practitioner won’t try to impress you…

👉 They’ll help you reconnect to your own strength.

⸻

What is needed is:-
🌿 Grounded work
🌿 Real experience
🌿 No shortcuts

Because this path deserves respect.

⸻

06/05/2026

06/05/2026

Are You An Empath, Or Has Your Nervous System Just Never Been Off‑Duty?

In therapy and healing circles, I hear “I am an empath” a lot. Usually what people mean is “I feel everything, all the time, and it is exhausting.”

I am not against sensitivity. It is a huge asset in this work. What I question is the idea that it is always a mystical gift, rather than, quite often, a survival skill learned very young.

Many “empaths” I meet grew up in homes where it was not safe to switch off. Parents with volatile moods. Addiction. Depression. Silent anger. The kind of house where you learn to read the sound of the key in the door and adjust yourself accordingly.

As a child you cannot leave and you cannot fix it, so your nervous system does the only thing it can. It becomes exquisitely tuned to other people.

Micro expressions. Tone of voice. The way someone walks into a room. You scan constantly, trying to anticipate trouble before it lands.

That is survival empathy. It is fast, automatic and non negotiable. Your body believes that keeping everybody else regulated is the only way to keep yourself safe.

Fast forward a couple of decades and there are real dangers in leaving that pattern untouched.

In your personal life, survival empathy pulls you towards people who feel familiar. Intense, wounded, self absorbed, often abusive. Your radar locks onto their pain, your old training kicks in, and before you know it you are back in the role of emotional shock absorber. It feels like love. It is actually hypervigilance doing what it has always done.

Professionally, the same thing plays out with clients. If your system is still wired for survival empathy, you do not just sit with a client, you merge with them. Their nervous system becomes your nervous system. When they leave, you are wrung out. Do that with three clients back to back and of course you are shattered. It is one reason so many good therapists and healers quietly believe they can only cope with two or three people a day.

This is not because you are weak. It is because your body is doing the work in the least sustainable way possible.

There is another way of being with people that some writers now call sovereign empathy. When I use that phrase I mean the kind of empathy that can feel deeply with someone without taking responsibility for their inner world. It is attuned, but not absorbed.

Sovereign empathy still lets you feel deeply with another human being, but three things are different.

You stay anchored in your own body. You can sense “this is mine, that is theirs” instead of one big blur. You choose when and how much to open. Your empathy has a volume control, not just an on switch jammed on high.

You hold responsibility where it belongs. You care, you attune, but you are not secretly trying to manage someone else’s inner life for them.

Sovereign empathy grows out of safety and self trust, not fear. It is supported by good boundaries, a regulated nervous system, proper supervision and the boring, repetitive work of healing your own history.

The real shift for many of us in the helping professions is not learning more techniques. It is moving from survival empathy to sovereign empathy, so our sessions stop draining us and we stop paying for “being an empath” with burnout and illness.

Your sensitivity is real. It kept you safer than you would otherwise have been. You do not have to throw it away. You are allowed to evolve it, so it no longer leads you into abusive relationships or leaves you exhausted after three clients.

If you recognise yourself in this, you are not alone. You are simply a very skilled nervous system that was never taught it had a choice.

29/04/2026