What Your GP Wants You to Know Before Starting Therapy
A GP's perspective on beginning therapy, including when to seek support, finding the right therapist and why you don't need to be in crisis to start.
Letting go: when your child leaves home
Whether this is the first time you're letting a child go, or the third or fourth, it tends to catch you differently each time.
Media & Contributions
I regularly provide expert commentary to the media on childhood, adolescence, relationships and emotional life, drawing on my clinical work as a psychodynamic psychotherapist and my background in neuroscience.
The i Paper
I’m a child psychotherapist: why Mummy Pig’s pregnancy will help children
I provided expert commentary on how the arrival of a new sibling can bring mixed feelings for children, including excitement, jealousy, anxiety and fears about losing a parent’s attention. I also discussed how stories, cartoons and play can give children a safe way of exploring feelings that may be difficult to put into words.
The Standard
Why are we so obsessed with seemingly mismatched celebrity couples?
I provided expert commentary on why unexpected celebrity relationships can capture public attention. I discussed how these couples can challenge assumptions about who “belongs” with whom, including ideas about class, gender, status and identity, and how public relationships can become a screen onto which we project our own expectations and anxieties.
Woman & Home
When you have to walk away
I provided expert commentary on grief following the death of someone from whom we have been estranged. I discussed how this can involve a double loss: grieving the person who has died while also mourning the relationship itself, including unresolved feelings and missed opportunities for connection.
Published in Woman & Home
Hippocratic Post
Top Tips for Managing an Empty Nest
I provided expert commentary on the emotional transition that can accompany a child leaving home, including the mixture of loss, anxiety, pride and relief that parents may experience. I also discussed how this period can involve an adjustment in the relationship between parent and child as young people move towards greater independence, particularly when leaving home for university.
Stylist
No matter how hard I try, I can’t get new healthy habits to stick. Why?
I provided expert commentary on why changing habits can be more complicated than simply having enough motivation or willpower. I discussed how unconscious resistance can make change difficult, alongside the role of reward and motivation in the brain, and how becoming more aware of what may be pulling us back towards familiar patterns can help us understand why change sometimes feels unexpectedly difficult.
The Independent
How to deal with children’s tantrums this Christmas
I provided expert commentary on why the expectations and excitement surrounding Christmas can sometimes become overwhelming for children. I discussed the importance of recognising and validating feelings of disappointment or frustration, rather than simply trying to stop difficult behaviour, and how family traditions and time together can help children feel more secure and connected.