Your Wild Self - Psychotherapy & Counselling

08/10/2025

S*x in relationships is often about more than what most think.

13/09/2025

To go deep and explore the unconscious.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/sep/08/a-better-life-is-possible-but-only-if-you-dive-deep-into-your-unconscious?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social_img&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwZnRzaAMyzv9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHjjTj6Kq4wAHxu8719FSoo8QCywUri34E-iZqCuN0Iwbrc9vSDXIl_Jo-7f5_aem_8eC6ErRofLrll__oRUg0Ig =1757331037

We are used to skimming the surface of our emotions, distracting ourselves with endless doing. To discover what we really need, we must move beyond the shallows

10/09/2025

07/09/2025

How diagnosis becomes a life sentence and can be used to make rulings without all the context.

07/09/2025

What are your thoughts about this?

In Gestalt we tend to look at the historical context for how people have adapted to their environment resulting in patterns that can inhibit them. In other moments the adaptation can be essential to functioning (or once was).

I believe that’s what this article is attempting to express.

“Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in America today,” Arthur C. Brooks writes. The key to conquering feelings of dread may be seeing it as part of “the great opportunity and adventure of life.” https://theatln.tc/Ka8yfHHe

In the 19th century, the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard identified anxiety as “an adventure which every man has to affront.” To most people, anxiety seems like something to eliminate if at all possible. But for some, “within healthy boundaries and when properly managed, anxiety is an integral part of life that can afford learning, raise performance, and even make life an adventure.”

Although anxiety can seem, at any level, like an “unmitigated evil,” Brooks writes, “anecdotal accounts also attest to some upside to feeling anxious: Even people who experience what is generally regarded as a debilitating level have noted that they derive some emotional benefits from their anxiety.” Some people have found that anxiety can raise one’s awareness of others, promote empathy, and bring one greater self-knowledge.

As for a Kierkegaardian adventure, research suggests that when people are given a task, and feel some level of anxiety but are not overwhelmed by it, their “flow” states reach their highest levels. “Perhaps you can relate to feeling fully alive when you’re working within your abilities but are just on the edge of them,” Brooks explains. The idea of adventure can also be philosophical: Researchers have found that although people do not wish to relive stressful events, they later tend to report various benefits from their exposure to anxiety. “They felt freed from limitations imposed by their past life,” Brook writes, and “had a clearer understanding of life’s meaning.”

A disorder such as anxiety that involves dysregulated and debilitating anxiety “should not be minimized,” Brooks writes. “But anxiety per se is not the enemy; it can even be a friend if understood and managed correctly.” The first step is to accept anxiety as a normal occurrence, not suppress it.

🎨: Jan Buchczik

03/09/2025

Disenfranchised Grief…

Navigating the reality of a life lived unlike the way one might have hoped.

I have been contemplating this recently.

When the forces of our environment speak so loudly it can be difficult to grieve the loss of what could have been.

"The loss of potential, of an unlived life, is just such an ambiguous loss. It doesn’t have a funeral. It has no rituals. But it shapes us deeply."💯

Don't just scroll and get the gist. Read the full article supporting a writer and supporting independent media when it's most needed. Find "Grieving the Unlived Life: Honoring the Distance between What Was & What Might Have Been.” on 🐘⁠👉🏼 https://elejrnl.com/?p=4169684

30/08/2025

If unlived experience is not able to be held and articulated – by way of symbol, language, or gesture – it will turn inward, taking up residency in tissue, muscle, and organ – finding a new home within the neural network.

This is neither pathology, nor error, but a kind of sacred signaling - where the body itself becomes the vessel for the unfinished conversation.

It can show up as tightness in the throat, difficulty speaking truth, or restlessness in the belly. In the heart, it might be an ache or longing that feels older than this life. It may manifest as fatigue, tension, heat, or trembling.

These are not random symptoms. They are the body’s poems of the soul, reminders of the parts of us that were never fully welcomed. They are how the body keeps faith with the unlived life - waiting, patiently, to be received with presence and love.

29/08/2025

“…grief is just love dressed in another form.”

I witness grief a lot in my work with clients. I find it such a tender and beautiful honour to be part of such stories.

Grief was a theme in my work today. I am always amazed at how threads of shared experience can weave unknown individuals together.

Grief is a strange visitor.

It shows up unannounced, never asking for permission to enter and quietly filling the corners of your room. Sometimes, it gives signs — milliseconds of realization that it’s coming — but most times, it’s too late to save yourself from the eye contact.

There are moments when it smiles at you from aged photos. It sends a message through a notification, as if saying, “This time, in the past years, I was here.” It asks you to stare at it when you decide to dispose of what’s left — the dusty remembrances, tampered letters, forgotten gifts.
Sometimes, though, it comes at you in the most unexpected ways. It greets you through a familiar perfume. A midnight snack you glance at on a grocery shelf. A song playing in the cab. Even a single word that once meant more than just a word to you.

Grief is a stubborn visitor. And honestly, even if I lost count of how many times I’ve experienced it, I’m still unsure if there’s a “right” way to deal with it — because grief hits us all differently.
But here’s what I’m sure of: whether it shows itself as grand or subtle, grief is just love dressed in another form.

—Ali
Artwork by (IG)