Mental Health Archives - Wellspring Therapy & Training

Taking action against loneliness: MHA Week

May 11, 2022 By wellspring

Loneliness: how can we take action this Mental Health Awareness Week?

In the 2020/21 Community Life Survey, it was reported that 6% of respondents (approximately 3 million people in England) said they feel lonely often or always.

The Mental Health Foundation also conducted a study, tracking mental health across the pandemic, which showed that one in four adults (24 per cent) in the UK have felt lonely because of Coronavirus.

As we navigate life post-lockdown, it makes sense that this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) focuses on alleviating loneliness. (9th-15th May).

Feeling lonely can affect our mental health, and poor mental health can also make us feel lonely. So how can we take action this Mental Health Awareness Week and help to break that negative cycle?

Here are a few ideas…

💬 Share: Sometimes we’re afraid to admit to being lonely or to talk about our mental health because of the stigma attached to it. This week try sharing a social media post about Mental Health Awareness Week or starting a conversation about mental health with your friends, family, or colleagues.

☕️ Reach out: Arrange to have a cuppa with a friend this week, ask how they’re doing and take the time to listen. And if you’re finding things tough yourself, why not get in touch with someone you trust and be honest about how you’re feeling? If you’re not sure where to turn, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 for free at any time of the day or night, 365 days a year.

💳 Donate: Counselling can be a really important space for helping people to feel less alone with their problems. By donating to our affordable counselling services, you can help us to provide support to people in our community who may be feeling isolated, anxious, or struggling with mental health issues. Thank you.

Donate here

Cara’s Story – dealing with work stress

October 1, 2021 By wellspring

I came to Wellspring after I’d experienced a kind of mental breakdown due to work stress.

I was diagnosed with recurrent depression. Although I’d had episodes of depression after the birth of my children, this was the first time that I’d suffered depression because of work. And it wasn’t just stress, I felt myself spiralling into a state of anxiety. It was getting to the point where stuff at work was affecting my everyday life, my time with my kids and my life at home. Things were getting really difficult and so I thought counselling might help.

I had my sessions remotely which worked well. At first, I wasn’t sure what it would be like doing counselling online, but I was quite surprised by how easy it was to engage in the sessions and to open up, even though we were communicating via a screen.

I found the counselling sessions such a supportive space. It was a chance to offload and make sense of things. Having somewhere to come every week was a helpful way of monitoring my progress. I knew that each week I was going be talking to someone, which helped me to be more reflective and to tune into how I was feeling throughout the week. It was really easy to talk to my counsellor. He very kind, patient, and easy to talk to – he completely exceeded my expectations. The counselling sessions also gave me some consistency, which is what I needed at the time.

Talking to somebody gave me the confidence to change my job and the field I worked in. It was something I thought I could never do. My counsellor didn’t tell me what to do, but it was so helpful to sound things out.

It gave me a sense of confidence and empowered me to take control. Counselling also gave me skills and techniques to manage my feelings in the moment.

Since having a mental health crisis and having counselling, I actually feel like my mental health is better than it has been in years. It was so helpful to have the time to reflect during my counselling sessions. As a result, I take better care of my mental health day-to-day than I have ever before and it’s made such a difference.

For some people, there’s still stigma around the idea of getting counselling. There can be so many ‘what ifs’ –and wondering what others might think. But if you are struggling with mental health problems, I would encourage you to get in touch with Wellspring. It genuinely is for everybody – whatever your faith, whether you are religious or not. It’s also great that Wellspring’s counselling services are affordable as money worries and mental health problems often go hand in hand. Just reaching out to that have that initial conversation is the first and biggest step. It’s friendly, it’s welcoming, and it really has been life-changing for me.

If you would like to help us support more people like Cara, you can set up a regular donation over on our Donate Page. Thank you.

And if you are interested in exploring the possibility of counselling for yourself, please find out more about the Counselling Services we offer here .

Stress Awareness Month

April 23, 2021 By wellspring

Stress Awareness Month has been held every April, since 1992 to increase public awareness about both the causes and cures for our modern stress epidemic. In today’s blog post, Alex helps us to understand what stress is and how it can lead to burnout.

Stress is a bodily reaction to threat. It is hardwired into all of us. In other words, it involves automatic, ancient programming over which we have little control. If a predator is chasing us we don’t have time to think about our reaction, we experience the stress response in our bodies. We recognise the flight/fight/freeze response in a change to our physical state. The rise of adrenaline and cortisol is programmed to stimulate our muscles to move, our blood supply to surge energy to those muscles and any prospect of resting or digesting food is temporarily halted. We are primed for our best response.

So far so good, in survival terms. However, this is more problematic when we find ourselves stuck here, on a constant loop of these hormonal surges, and no respite to be found. This is chronic stress. Stress that is never given a chance to leave our bodies before the next threat is recognised. It’s like the story of the frog in boiling water. You may be able to cope in the moment, like the frog in warm water but if you gradually increase the temperature eventually the frog will die as it didn’t notice the gradual build up of heat. Our bodies still respond with the automatic programming. The causes of stress may often be personal, but they are universal in the stress response they trigger.

This is burnout.

Resting and healing from burnout needs to address both the immediate distress and the longer term chronic problems of pressure. We need to learn to complete the stress cycle (see previous blog post on this) so all our stresses do not build together over time. Counselling can help with this, and with addressing any overwhelming stress that has been hanging around too long.

For more information about how to deal with stress, see ‘Burnout’ by Emily and Amelia Nagoski or visit www.stress.org.uk.

Written by Alex Brook-Dobson [Wellspring Counsellor]

If you would like to refer yourself for counselling, please use the link at the bottom of our Therapy page.

Wellspring House has now re-opened for a limited number of face-to-face counselling sessions. Zoom and telephone counselling are continuing to take place. Most of our clients live within a radius of up to 20 miles. However, if you live outside this area (but still in the UK) and do not have access to a local counselling service, you can still contact us through the online form as we do have capacity to see a limited number of adults from outside the area.

See our Resources page for more support and links.

We are all in this together – Self-Care during Lockdown

March 10, 2021 By wellspring

We are all in this together.

It is easy to dismiss our own needs at the best of times. We can become experts at distracting ourselves or minimising our own importance. If there are people worse off than ourselves, which there generally always are, we can say it is our duty or humility that requires us to stay silent around our own needs.

When we are hungry, we are no less hungry by knowing that there are people who are starving in the world. Our need is not so great as theirs of course, but neither is it to be ignored.

The pandemic has brought immeasurable suffering and grief to so many, but it doesn’t mean that the individual trials and challenges we all face our insignificant.

We are not all in the same boat, but we are in the same storm.

As humanity we are all in this together. We have different boats, but if we look after our boat we can stay afloat to help others who may be sinking.

It comes back to self-care. We do not need to deny ourselves self care if others are suffering, we can use it to ultimately help them.

How can you look after yourself today? And if it helps, try and identify who else that will help?

Written by Alex Brook-Dobson

See our Resources page for more support and links.

Our building is currently closed for face-to-face counselling until further notice. But we are still offering sessions over the phone or through Zoom to the people of Harrogate and the surrounding area. Most of our clients live within a radius of up to 20 miles. However, if you live outside this area (but still in the UK) and do not have access to a local counselling service, you can still contact us through the online form as we do have capacity to see a limited number of adults from outside the area. If you would like to refer yourself for counselling, please use the link at the bottom of our Therapy page.

Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2021

March 3, 2021 By wellspring

Eating Disorders Awareness Week is taking place this week, 1st-7th March 2021.

What thoughts and feelings come to mind when you think about food and eating?

We all need food; without it we won’t last long; but the act of eating is about far more than providing our bodies with the nutrition we need to stay healthy. Life’s milestones are celebrated with food; we all enjoy cakes for birthdays and weddings! Think about those dinner dates with friends or partners; as humans we love to share food when we get together. Lots of us have missed this simple pleasure over the last year.

But for many people food and eating is complicated and stressful. Around 1.6 million people in the UK struggle with an eating disorder.

We tend to think of it as more of a problem that affects women, but 11% of that 1.6 million are male. It can affect us at any age although it is more common in young people between the ages of 14-25.

For those of us who struggle with an eating disorder it can be very isolating and frightening. It’s often a secret illness that sufferers go to great attempts to hide until there are obvious physical signs. Even then, the sufferer can struggle to acknowledge there is a problem.

So, what can we do if we have someone close to us who we think might have an eating disorder? It can feel stressful, frustrating and bewildering. We can feel very helpless.

The good news is that there is help and support out there for sufferers and their loved ones.

Beat is a leading eating disorder charity that provides education, support and help. They have a telephone helpline open 7 days a week. You can find their website at: www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk and the helpline number is 0808 801 0677.

If you have an eating disorder, talking through what is happening for you with a counsellor can give you a safe and confidential space to help you work out a way forward and start on the path to recovery.

If you are supporting someone with an eating disorder, counselling can give you a space to talk and gain strength.

Sufferer or supporter; you are not alone.

Written by Beth [Wellspring Counsellor]

See our Resources page for more support and links.

Our building is currently closed for face-to-face counselling until further notice. But we are still offering sessions over the phone or through Zoom to the people of Harrogate and the surrounding area. Most of our clients live within a radius of up to 20 miles. However, if you live outside this area (but still in the UK) and do not have access to a local counselling service, you can still contact us through the online form as we do have capacity to see a limited number of adults from outside the area. If you would like to refer yourself for counselling, please use the link at the bottom of our Therapy page.