Many of us experience having negative automatic thoughts. These thoughts are negative as they are unhelpful, and often increase our anxiety and/or depression and can be very believable.  They are automatic because they enter our minds without us realising how they got there, as if they are out of our control.   One unhelpful way […]

An Introduction to Self-Esteem  ‘Self-esteem’ is the kind of term you hear circulating loosely within the hubbub of personal and social conversation. Its ambiguous title may have cropped up when a friend searched for a word to explain the unfathomable sense of sadness that haunted you at some stage, or perhaps even recently. Its lack of […]

Depression is quite common and affects about one in five of us at some point, according to campaign group Depression Alliance. It affects men and women, young and old. If you are affected by depression, you are not ‘just’ sad or upset. You have an illness which means that intense feeling of persistent sadness, helplessness […]

Just a couple of months ago there was a series of programmes on TV about mental health. In one programme, the theme focussed on whether people with mental health problems are able to hold down regular jobs, and whether employers would employ people who disclose current or past mental health problems.  A picture of a […]

A while ago I read, with interest, an article produced by the International Transactional Analysis Association on the topic of Transactional Analysis.  The article was fascinating and for me gave meaning to what we do and the way we live our lives. But what is Transactional Analysis?  Transactional Analysis was introduced by Eric Berne in […]