Heather McLeod Counselling

03/29/2022

Quote by Pádraig Ó Tuama - audio, poetry and writing

Graphic by The Mind Geek

08/26/2021

06/11/2021

SO true! Can you relate?

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Support my work and see many comics like these ahead of time: Patreon.com/theawkwardyeti

05/25/2021

Like all relationships, we can help our parts that experience extreme emotions or burdens by listening to them and attending to them, as we would any person we care about.

Jon Schwartz & Bill Brennan, From “There’s a Part of Me…” (available via link in bio)⁣⁣

https://ifs-institute.com/store/136

05/20/2021

Achieving a genuine state of self-compassion is a more challenging undertaking than many realize. Far from a little feel-better incantation you offer yourself when stressed, it’s a journey into multiple parts of yourself that may include the good, the bad, the ugly, the confused, the frightened, a...

04/20/2021

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/well/mind/covid-mental-health-languishing.amp.html

The neglected middle child of mental health can dull your motivation and focus — and it may be the dominant emotion of 2021.

04/13/2021

We often know that it is not possible to be happy all of the time, but we can sometimes have a difficult time when we feel anything but happiness, and we can feel desperate to get back to feeling happy again. Often, we don’t know what to do with difficult emotions such as fear, anger, sadness or jealousy or with any emotion that feels uncomfortable (even if we can’t name that emotion).

However, it is important that we don’t turn from or reject painful or difficult emotions. If we do, they will often find another way out, often in ways that feel big, intense or overwhelming. Being curious about these emotions, from a place of non-judgment, and having compassion for the parts of us that feel such painful emotions is often a good place to start. Once we understand and acknowledge these emotions, it is possible to work towards increasing tolerance for them.

04/09/2021

This is a gentle reminder that we are still in a pandemic, and that the compound effect of prolonged hardship may have sneaked up on you.

As a therapist I have the privilege of seeing unfiltered snapshots of our lives throughout the pandemic. I've noticed a shift in recent weeks, a tiredness that we are struggling to articulate.

Here in Scotland we’ve been in a second lockdown since December, things are opening up, but slowly. It can feel like being in a suspended space of unknowns. Not wanting to hope, yet not wanting to remain as we are.

Wrapping our heads around our current reality is exhausting. This is exhaustion that goes beyond the very real energetic drains of parenting, zooming, cooking, schooling, being in proximity to people all day, or being alone all day.

I have no solutions over and above the 'sleep, eat well, get outside, connect when you can' advice.

But…acknowledgement can be helpful. Validating our fatigue and accepting this uncomfortable reality, without denying, minimising or criticising, can help. It's okay if you feel sad, angry, frustrated, frightened, excited, or all of the above.

If you feel like you should know how to ‘survive’ pandemic times by now, please remember that each phase brings us new challenges. Nobody knows how to ‘do’ this. You are doing the best you can.

Drop a line below to tell me how you are today. No judgement here, only validation. 💗

04/08/2021

Healing Trauma in the present 💝 you begin to accept that your responses may not seem make sense at times and slowly begin to understand that they do.

03/27/2021

It is difficult to heal when we are unaware or afraid to face what needs healing. When we learn how to help our protective parts that are working hard to keep the parts that are in pain contained or concealed, healing can begin ❤️

If you were hurt & abused as a child, or experienced overwhelming, shattering traumatic life events later on down the line, it’s likely that you may feel constantly on edge, fearful & in survival mode: constantly scanning for danger.

Trauma healing, is all about self awareness.

Self-awareness is our ability to observe & notice our our thoughts, feelings, body sensations & actions, & be curious as to whether they are bringing messages that we might need to attend to.

When we are traumatised we often notice messages which tell us we are in danger, when we’re not. We might rely upon coping strategies to survive such as numbing ourselves through booze & drugs. We might dissociate, a protective mechanism that disconnects us from threatening experiences, losing large chunks of our days & struggle to be present in our relationships. It can feel so dangerous to be present, and we might work so hard to be anything but in the here and now.

Often people who come to therapy have been on autopilot for years. Not feeling safe enough to look inwards & meet themselves. Fearful of what they may find. 

When we begin building self awareness, it can offer up the opportunity that instead of shaming & hating on ourselves, that we are deeply hurt & in need of sensitive & gentle care. It means, that we might understand with a more compassionate lens the impact which our past is having on us in this moment. It means knowing what makes us tic and what triggers us, it means gentle noticing & inhabiting our beautiful animal bodies, it means being realistic of our resources & accepting our limitations. 


A good starting point, is to ask yourself: How well I you know myself?