Welcome to the Warm and Friendly Counselling blog!
I hope what you read will be of interest to you. If anything here resonates, you’re very welcome to get in touch.
Finding Yourself Again After Life Has Changed
Sometimes nothing obvious has gone wrong, but something doesn’t feel quite right anymore. You might find yourself questioning things you thought were settled, or wondering why life feels different lately. This article explores those in-between moments, including times of change such as loss, relationship transitions, or coming to understand yourself in new ways after a neurodivergence diagnosis, with warmth and reassurance that you’re not alone.
Why Socialising Can Feel Tiring, Even When It’s Good
You might enjoy spending time with others, yet still feel drained afterwards. This article explores why socialising can take so much energy, including how different ways of experiencing and processing the world, can play a part, and how understanding your needs can help you find a more comfortable and balanced way of connecting.
12 useful things to know about counselling
This article highlights 12 things to know about counselling, from the first awkward steps of opening up, to uncovering patterns, working through challenges, celebrating progress, and even finding humour along the way.
Why Relationships Can Feel Harder When One or Both Partners Are Neurodivergent
Sometimes couples care deeply about each other and still feel like they keep missing each other. When neurodiversity is part of a relationship, understanding how each person experiences the world can open the door to greater kindness and connection.
Ways of Being Close – A neurodiversity-affirming approach to Couples Counselling
Closeness isn’t about thinking or reacting in exactly the same way. It’s about feeling seen, heard, and understood by each other. When neurodiversity is part of a relationship, the ways partners experience and express things can sometimes feel harder to navigate. Couples counselling offers a space to slow things down, make sense of what’s happening between you, and gently find your way back to one another.
Neurodiversity in Women – identity, relationships, and learning to live more authentically
In this post, you’ll find a grounded exploration of neurodiversity in women and how these experiences can shape different aspects of life and emotional wellbeing. It invites reflection on identity, relationships, and emotional depth, and offers a kinder, more compassionate way of being with yourself.
Emotional first aid for Autistic and ADHD burnout – Bringing Joy Back
When burnout takes over, even joy can feel out of reach. This article offers a compassionate look at autistic and ADHD burnout, explores why that happens and how everyday moments of warmth and self-compassion can support recovery.
Living With AuDHD: When Autism and ADHD Come Together
Living with AuDHD can feel like moving between deep focus and restlessness, craving structure while resisting routine, and noticing emotional and sensory nuances that others often miss. This post explores how recognising and understanding these traits can bring clarity, self-compassion, and the chance to live in a way that feels more authentic.
Loneliness, Relationships, and the Need to Be Seen
This post explores loneliness as a deeply human experience, looking at how it shows up in relationships, attachment patterns, and neurodivergent lives. It offers a compassionate perspective on the longing to be seen, alongside gentle ideas for understanding and softening loneliness and making sense of it.
Late-life neurodivergent diagnosis: Seeing yourself with kindness
Discover how receiving an autism or ADHD diagnosis in adulthood can bring clarity and relief, support deeper self-understanding, and help you look back on past experiences with greater compassion.
What Is Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy? A Warm, Supportive Guide for You
This blog post explores what neurodiversity-affirming therapy is and how it can help people in therapy. It looks at masking, burnout, and validation, and explains what to expect from an affirming therapist and how counselling can help you feel understood, supported, and more able to live with ease, self-acceptance, and confidence.
The here and now – why being present can feel refreshing
When life is busy or overwhelming, being present can feel surprisingly hard. In this blog, we explore why this happens and how therapy can gently help you feel more grounded, connected, and at ease in the here and now.
Why change can be hard – and why we keep trying
Change often feels hard because part of us clings to familiar patterns while another part quietly longs for something different. Through compassion, patience, and gentle curiosity, we can begin to grow into what we truly want.
What is Interpersonal Therapy and how can it help you?
Feeling low, anxious, or stuck is often closely linked to what’s been happening in our relationships and life transitions. This post introduces Interpersonal Therapy and explores how a compassionate, here-and-now focus on connection can support emotional wellbeing.
Finding Meaning through Life’s Challenges
At different points in life, we can find ourselves at a crossroads where loss, uncertainty, and mixed emotions invite us to grieve what has been left behind while questioning who we are becoming. With reflection, realistic expectations, and support, these transitions can become opportunities to reconnect with meaning and move forward with greater clarity.
Neurodiversity, Masking, and Burnout: The cost of “fitting in”
Masking can help neurodivergent people fit in, but it often leads to exhaustion and burnout. This article explores why masking happens and how counselling can offer support, understanding and a space to be more authentically yourself.
Finding light in the holiday season – Why this time can feel heavy
The holiday season can look warm and joyful on the surface, but for many, it amplifies feelings of stress and loneliness. Learn why the holidays can feel hard and find practical, kind ways to support your emotional wellbeing.
Emotionally Draining Workplaces: Stress, Burnout, and Bullying
Feeling drained, overwhelmed, or stuck at work? This post explores how stressful or unhealthy workplaces can impact your emotional wellbeing, and how counselling can help you make sense of what you’re experiencing.
Understanding Relationships – Why They Matter and How to Navigate Them
Relationships shape who we are and how we see the world, bringing joy and connection, but they can also challenge us and cause frustration. This article explores how tuning into our emotions, understanding our attachment patterns, and improving communication can help us navigate relationships with greater clarity, compassion, and confidence.
Neurodiversity and Anxiety – Understanding and supporting yourself
Living in a world that isn’t always designed for neurodivergent minds can be stressful and exhausting. This article explores how anxiety can affect adults and young people with autism and ADHD, and offers supportive ways to care for yourself and feel more at ease.
“I’m Not Good at Anything” – The Inner Critic and the Power of Self-Compassion
Life’s setbacks can make us doubt ourselves. This article explores how practising self-compassion allows us to meet challenges with kindness instead of criticism. It transforms self-doubt into resilience, brings clarity and perspective in moments of disappointment, and helps us move ahead with confidence.
Facing Your Fears and Anxiety This Halloween
As the spooky season approaches, many enjoy the fun and excitement, but for some, the season can stir feelings of fear or anxiety. This post explores how to face anxiety and feelings of fear with understanding, compassion, and courage – not only at Halloween, but beyond it.
Development Through the Lifespan – Understanding Growth & Young Adulthood
Life is a continuous journey of growth and change. This post explores young adulthood as a time of self-discovery, connection, and new possibilities, and how therapy can support you in finding balance and meaning along the way.
Motivation as a Driving Force to Overcome Obstacles in Life
When life feels heavy, it’s often motivation that helps us take the next step.This post explores how our inner drive, personal story, values, and sense of meaning shape the way we overcome obstacles and reignite that spark to move through difficult times.
Adult ADHD, self-compassion, and relationships
Living with adult ADHD can present unique challenges in relationships and daily life. This article highlights how cultivating self‑compassion, effective coping strategies and fostering open communication can support stronger connections and greater emotional well‑being.
Discover Existential Therapy: Finding Meaning in the Human Condition
Explore how existential therapy helps us pause, face aloneness, and discover meaning, all within the safety of an authentic therapeutic relationship. This post reflects on living more fully, embracing life’s challenges, and connecting deeply with ourselves and others.
Understanding the Autistic Experience and How Counselling Can Help
Counselling can support autistic adults to better understand themselves and navigate life’s challenges. In this blog post, we explore how therapy can help make sense of confusing experiences, reduce anxiety and isolation, recognise individual strengths, and build confidence and wellbeing in everyday life.
Exploring Autism – A different way of experiencing the world
Discovering or understanding autism as an adult can bring relief, clarity, and self-acceptance. This blog explores how counselling can support autistic adults in embracing their strengths, navigating challenges, and moving forward with confidence and compassion.
The Challenges and Opportunities of Midlife
Midlife is a phase that provides an opportunity to pause, reflect, and reconnect with your sense of purpose. It is a time to rediscover yourself and to share your care, wisdom, and creativity with others. This period can be a time of renewal, balance, and deeper fulfilment, and counseling can help you navigate this journey.
How to stop people pleasing and start prioritising your needs
Are you frequently putting yourself last and saying ‘yes’ when you actually want to say ‘no’? Learn how to break free from people-pleasing, establish healthy boundaries, and prioritise your own needs with confidence and compassion.
Update your Self-esteem
We all have moments when we are our own harshest critics, replaying our mistakes and doubting our worth. However, negative self-talk does not make us stronger. It keeps us trapped in shame and self-doubt. Here are some ways to quiet that inner voice and rebuild your confidence through self-compassion.
Discover Online Counselling – Get support wherever you are
Feel supported wherever you are — online counselling lets you connect with a caring therapist in a space that feels safe and familiar, helping you navigate life’s challenges with understanding and compassion.
How To Navigate Through Life Transitions
Adulthood is a journey of stages, from finding identity and love to navigating midlife balance and eventually seeking wisdom. Each step marked by new challenges, deeper relationships, and chances to grow.
What Therapy Can Teach Us About Ourselves
Therapy isn’t about proving your pain or polishing your story. It’s about creating a space where you can gently notice your blind spots, listen beneath the surface of your feelings, grieve what you’re letting go of, and begin to find steadier ground in the simple act of showing up as your real self.
What Is Transactional Analysis?
Ideas from Transactional Analysis can help people make sense of their thoughts and feelings, notice patterns in relationships, and develop a greater sense of choice in how they respond to everyday situations.
Walking Side by Side – Discovering the Benefits of Walk-and-Talk Therapy
Walk-and-Talk therapy combines movement, nature, and conversation to enhance mental well-being, reduce stress, boost self-esteem, and improve engagement, especially for those with neurodiverse traits, men, and individuals who feel stuck in traditional counselling settings.
Therapists Have Therapists Too
Even therapists go to therapy, not just during traing or when life feels hard, but as a normal way to reflect, grow, and make positive changes, showing that therapy is something everyone can benefit from.
Embracing Autumn: A Season for Reflection and Renewal
Autumn invites us to slow down and reflect as the world turns golden, offering both comfort and challenge, and with the support of self-care and counselling, this season can become a gentle time of resilience, balance, and new beginnings.
Let’s talk!
Your first phone consultation is free.