Responsibility
I have a weird relationship with responsibility, and it's something I'm having to work through in personal counselling. Growing up I had lots of...
Screen time, habits, and friction
I'm familiar with this feeling of waiting, not wanting to do anything in case something else happens. A lot of the time it makes no sense, because there's...
Dysregulation continued
I’m still pondering regulation, and how we can use emotional regulation as avoidance. There’s also a trend on social media of people talking about how they...
Dysregulation and avoidance
I'm starting to feel a little wary every time I hear the word dysregulation, or dysregulated in reference to a person. It feels a bit pathologising of...
Pole dancing and patience
(or, what pole dancing taught me about b2b marketing self care) I do pole dancing, which some of you may know. I'm currently going fortnightly, in order to...
why self care is hard
I'm doing a workshop about self care this weekend, so I'm thinking about it again. I've spoken a lot about self care, about how to break it down, how to try...
The aftermath of helping
So I've been gone for a while, and I apologise for that. Without giving too much away that isn't mine to give, I went to France to help a friend, and then...
Witnessing your feelings
The emotion is free to naturally arise and pass, and you are strengthening your capacity to rest in an open, witnessing presenceRadical Compassion, Tara...
Slowing down
After months of uncertainty, I've made the decision to resit my second year of my course. This means I'll be graduating July 2027. All my work and hours from...
Sense-making in the counselling room
I've been thinking a lot about sense-making, but in a therapeutic context. So much of the work we do in counselling is about making sense of our experiences,...
Delayed musings on conflicting patterns
I know this is late, apologies. Paid members: your newsletter is coming tomorrow <3 Upgrade now I have some more health stuff going on. It's more of an...
Take time to re-
My tutor posed a question for us in my last class. She asked us to check in with ourselves, and find a word with the prefix 're-' that described how we were...
How do you show up for yourself? (paywall removed)
Every so often I remove the paywall from a piece that I’m proud of. This is an example of a post you’d get if you upgraded to a paid newsletter. This piece...
How much does your resilience cost you?
I recently re-shared this post from October 2025: https://buttondown.com/SelfCareBackpack/archive/discomfort-vs-safety/ On tiktok someone left a comment...
Anxiety, intuition, and the moon
At the start of February, I got a(nother) tattoo. This one is of the moon tarot card. The moon tarot card has a wonderfully dual meaning. One of the one...
Hisses get kisses
I watch a lot of animal videos on the internet, a lot of them are rescue or foster. One of the things I have discovered, when it comes to feral cats and...
Sitting in calm
A progress note: I’ve seen the requirements needed to sit my Certificate of Proficiency exam in July and I meet them. This means I am on track to quialfy as...
Soothing old patterns
I am experiencing some ambiguity. I might be able to graduate this year, or I might not. It's still possible, probable even, but not guaranteed. What I'm...
So often it's sub-concious
I'm not trained in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), but I have had it (though looking back, I didn't have the best practitioner). In CBT, the focus is on...
On Stuckness
Have you ever felt stuck? We talk about being stuck in therapist circles. It's when sessions get stuck in a loop, and neither the client or therapist knows...
