The battle is still on to save lives during the Covid crisis. As a traumatised world, we are just trying to get through. But Jill Carter wonders how we start to tackle the mental health consequences of the trauma caused by the pandemic. I watched the faces on the news this week of the bereaved…
Counsellors and psychotherapists are going to be busy helping front line workers and clients heal after the extreme stress of Covid-19. Jill Carter suggests ways to recover from extreme stress During difficult times, it’s a natural response to try to keep going. Therefore, the phrase ‘living off our nerves’ is very apt. We are all…
Traditionally psychotherapy has meant talking therapy. But as interest in trauma has grown, counselling and creativity have integrated. Jill Carter explores expressive arts therapy Like many therapists who gravitated to expressive arts therapy, I trained in traditional talk therapy first. I enjoyed listening and talking to clients. However, I soon saw the limitations of words.…
The pandemic moved many therapists online. We can still do more than talking therapy. Jill Carter shares creative solutions with arts and sandplay via the internet In early 2020, I was teaching arts and creative therapies from a rented office in London. The room buzzed with clients and students choosing from my collection of sandplay…
Counselling Supervision This is part of the title of my PhD research project. Included in my research aims are the following questions: What is happening in supervision? Does supervision do what it claims? In this short blog, I share in the briefest of ways, some of what I have discovered and hope to take…
Our thoughts on what is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the controversy over whether its diagnostic criteria cover what people call ‘trauma’. “A bad thing happened – I didn’t want it to happen – nobody could stop it happening” Survivor of American school shooting. This is for me a very clear definition of…
Holiday self-care checklist As therapists, we spend our days helping people through difficult times. Our subject matter is heavy. Each hour brings a new cognitive, emotional or relational conflict for us to understand and confront. It’s fascinating work, but it takes its toll. It’s all too easy to focus on improving our clients’ self-care at the…
This post is to mark Creativity and Wellness Week, written by Emma Steadman. Creativity in supervision Creativity in supervision is a key factor in enabling us to see what we cannot see or what we only partially see. For me, creativity in supervision enables insight for the benefit of our clients. It is not the…
Sandplay therapy is an effective and proven therapy to use in counselling children, young people and adults. In simple terms, the sandplay therapist asks the client to choose miniature figures from shelves and put them into a box of sand. This creates a free and protected space. The client can express feelings, memories and traumatic…
By nature, counsellors, play therapists and psychotherapists are caring and compassionate people. We enter the field to help others. But sometimes caring can be over-done. We focus on other people’s well-being and spend hours giving, often leaving ourselves outside of the circle of care. Nutrition and stress management is an important part of re-balancing that.…