When I trained as a therapist, I had no intention of specialising in working with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), sometimes referred to Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD). In fact, I go further, I actively intended not to! Having worked in the mental health system for many years, I’d been subject to, and had absorbed the […]
The Skill of Commitment
Have you ever decided that you will get moving and get fit? You’ll know that choosing to rise to this challenge isn’t easy if you have. There are things to think about. You might need to buy some new trainers, move the clothes off that treadmill, or even join a new gym. But you think […]
How to Validate when you Don’t Agree
It can be really hard to validate another person when you do not agree with their point of view, or the way they’re behaving. Yet bluntly disagreeing, arguing, or ignoring can often create more opposition rather than bring them around to your way of thinking. An alternative way is to validate first, disagree second. Lets […]
Doing Nothing
I wrote the piece below a few weeks before the initial lockdown period in March 2020. In some ways the timing couldn’t have been worse; as I’m advocating spending an hour in isolation just as the whole world was to spend much of the next 24 months in varying stages of solitary confinement. I have […]
Event: Rutland House Counselling & Psychotherapy are proud to support mental health charity Lamp’s 5K challenge: Trip to The Moon
We are very proud to announce we are Event Partners for Lamp’s 5k challenge again this year! We together successfully travelled around the world last year, this time it’s a trip to the moon. During Mental Health Awareness week (9th – 15th May 2022) LAMP (Leicestershire Action for Mental Health Project) will be hoping of […]
Understanding Feelings, Defences, Behaviours, and the Self; from a psychodynamic perspective
I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them. Quote from The Picture of Dorian Grey, by Oscar Wilde, 1890. In the quote above, Dorian Grey, the protagonist in Oscar Wilde’s novel, attempts to use, enjoy and gain some mastery over […]