Jo's Therapy for Authentic Living

24/12/2025

Thank you to all for your support this year. For your likes, follows, saves, shares and engagement.

A special mention to my clients who are committing to themselves and engaging in therapy… the work can be difficult, but also transformative, I hope. I am honoured and privileged to work with you all.

Wishing everyone a wonderful festive season, full of calm, peace, safety, fun and connection - and the odd bit of chaos, I’m sure!

I’m out of here until the 30th! Lots of love ###

01/12/2025

Ladies, life is hectic, especially in the run up to Christmas! Take some time and space just for you. Regroup, find support, share what’s on your mind, find calm and connect with others. We’d love to welcome you. Spaces still available!

30/11/2025

Anxiety isn’t always panic and fear. Sometimes it looks like productivity, perfectionism, constant planning, or always being the reliable one.

It’s easy to miss, especially when you’ve learned to cope by doing.

If this is familiar, and it certainly is to me, please know there’s nothing wrong with you. It’s a very human response to stress.

A quiet question to sit with today:
What does anxiety look like for you?

My 5-Minute Anxiety Reset PDF has five quick tools for when everything feels too much - it’s free on my
website.

Alternatively, you can read more about anxiety on my blog if you’re curious about how the brain and body
work together.

If you’d like longer-term support, my therapy page explains my approach.

22/11/2025

There’s a kind of exhaustion that isn’t about lack of sleep, it's emotional.
It shows up in irritability, forgetfulness, feeling disconnected, or just not feeling like yourself.

When life is busy, it’s easy to ignore this kind of tiredness and tell yourself you “should” be coping better.
But often, it’s simply your mind asking you to check in.

A reflection for today: What have you been carrying that you haven’t acknowledged?

If this speaks to you, you might like my blog on overwhelm, or if you'd like support straight to your inbox, you can join The Friday Pause, my fortnightly newsletter - click through to my website to access both.

15/11/2025

I can think of someone who is a pro at this. And with every eye roll I felt dismissed, disapproved of, and invalidated - losing confidence in whatever I’m expressing about my feelings or opinions or needs.

I understand how this can shape a person - negatively affecting their confidence, self-esteem, and self-belief (not to mention how someone may come to dismiss themself and become the eye roller to themself).

But, as harsh as this might sound, I have a responsibility to myself to not keep allowing that to affect me. Why would I put that power outside of myself. This isn’t an easy process, but my boundaries will help me show that I am no longer affected by how the eye roller may disagree with me. I can bring it up in conversation (“when you roll your eyes at me, I feel dismissed”), I can reduce time with that person, or I can find ‘safer’ people to be around, who will respect my feelings, opinions, boundaries, and needs.

We are instrumental in how we choose to see ourselves and have a responsibility to our self esteem and sense of self to use firm boundaries to let the wrong people fall away…

14/11/2025

09/11/2025

08/11/2025

Hi, I'm an accredited integrative therapist with an MSc in Therapeutic Counselling. I've been working as a qualified counsellor for 10 years. I love all things therapy and process!

I'm starting my supervisor's course soon and I'm looking for supervisees to form part of my training. If you're interested and could do with some extra hours of FREE supervision, I'd love to hear from you.

Contact me at jo@jostherapy.com, or look at my website to get a better idea of how I work and my training:
www.jostherapy.com.

Please share if you know others who may be interested!
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07/11/2025

Have you ever noticed how uncomfortable it can feel to let people really see you, beyond the version you’ve learned to present?

Sometimes, authenticity feels like exposure. We want to be known, but we also want to be safe, and this can shape how we show up in life and relationships.

Many of us learned early on that being too much or too honest invited judgment or rejection.
So we built subtle defences - masks of competence, kindness, humour, or busyness - to protect the parts that felt too vulnerable.

But the cost of those masks is often disconnection.
Therapy can become the space where we slowly and safely remove them, piece by piece, until what’s left is real, and whole, and accepted as good enough.

If this resonates, I’ve written more about it in my latest blog:
👉 The Fear of Being Seen: When Authenticity Feels Too Exposing.
Read it here - https://bit.ly/4hLc3Ol