Chudleigh Counselling

07/01/2026

This following post from 2023 (I think) was one of my first ones that blew up when I first switched from a weight loss page to an Autistic "advocate" page...

"This is inspired by a post I saw the other day about some of the problems with the main character from The Good Doctor, Shaun? I think that's his name anyway I only watched one episode and couldn't watch anymore, because to be honest watching someone who isn't autistic play a hollywood stereotypical autistic was not a fun experience for myself as an autistic.

Now what do I mean when I say a hollywood stereotypical autistic? You know that character you always see, Sheldon Cooper, Sherlock Holmes and Rainman, social outcasts who are complete savants and geniuses in thier own way or own fields of expertise. Whilst also a lot of the time coming across as either intellectually inferior/superior or sociopathic/psychopathic in nature.

Now some may say surely the depictions of these characters on mainstream TV and film must be a good thing right? But are they really?

If someone's expectations of an autistic person is for them to be incapable of romantic relationships, only focused on one certain subject, with an ability to work out problems within a blink of an eye, can you see how they may be let down by meeting someone like myself who can barely remember how to defrost chicken most the time? Or confused by how I'm able to maintain a long term relationship with my wife? Or the fact that I actually have many areas of special interests but I'm not actually savant level on any of them?

I once got asked why I wasn't good at maths in a maths class because "I thought you people were all good at maths". In reality I'm absolutely dreadful at maths, autism doesn't come with a free calculator level brain attached.

Also another problem being most autistic characters are white male depictions completely missing the fact that female Autistics and Autistic POC do in fact exist.

Now it's okay to watch these shows and enjoy these shows and maybe even to think ooh look there's characters who's brains work differently to others. But please do not use TV as your only source of the autistic experience. Because we are so much more than these characters.

We aren't always rude, we often do understand other people's feelings, many of us do have to work hard to learn new things, we can't all work things out in our special mind palaces, we don't all have obsessive habits, we are able to form real friendships and relationships given the right circumstances and support, it isn't always as simple as mute or not mute, we aren't all sociopaths, we aren't all geniuses...

Then again some of us will relate to the autistic stereotypes and that's okay too. Because everyone is unique and everyone is beautiful in their own way.

We are autistic, we are people, we are sons, daughters, mother's, father's, lovers, friends and everything else anyone else can be.

Don't let stereotypes dictate who you think we should be. We are who we are."

28/11/2025

This is an informative guide for therapists who are wanting to set up their own private practice. This course will cover a range of topics to help you get started with you practise.

01/10/2025

💖 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐲: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 💖

Carl R. Rogers, in his reflective piece "Rogers, Kohut, and Erickson: A personal perspective on some similarities and differences" (Person-Centered Review, 1986, 1(2), p.129), shares a powerful insight into the essence of empathy: "To my mind, empathy is in itself a healing agent. It is one of the most potent aspects of therapy, because it releases, it confirms, it brings even the most frightened client into the human race. If a person is understood, he or she belongs."

This profound observation underscores the transformative power of empathy in therapeutic settings and beyond. Rogers highlights that empathy— the deep, nonjudgmental understanding of another's experience—can have a profound healing effect, affirming one's sense of belonging and humanity.

💡 Empathy as a Universal Healer: This quote reminds us that at the core of our need for healing and growth lies the desire to be truly seen and understood. Empathy bridges the gap between isolation and connection, affirming our shared humanity.

🌍 Cultivating a Culture of Empathy: Let's take Rogers' wisdom to heart and strive to foster empathy in our interactions. By seeking to understand the experiences and feelings of others without judgment, we contribute to a more compassionate, inclusive world where everyone feels they belong.

Share this post to inspire the spread of empathy as a tool for healing and connection. Together, we can create a supportive community that uplifts and understands, reminding each of us that we are not alone. 🌟

04/09/2025

Therapy isn’t one-size-fits-all, and neither are you.

If you have decided to reach out and talk about what is on your mind to a professional, it is important to make sure you choose the right therapist for you.

The NCPS Directory connects you with:
✔️ Accredited Counsellors & Psychotherapists
✔️ Specialists in various therapeutic approaches
✔️ Therapy that suits you - online or face to face

Search our Counsellor Directory to find a qualified therapist near you: https://buff.ly/BRIqDxX

19/08/2025

15/08/2025

What is the Accredited Register? 📄

The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) for Health and Social Care promotes the health, safety and wellbeing of patients, service users and the public by raising standards of regulation and voluntary registration of people working in health and care.

Our register is accredited by the Accredited Register programme, meaning our organisation meets all of the Authority’s standards, including public protection, risk management, education and training, governance, complaints handling and more.

When clients choose a counsellor from an Accredited Register, they can be confident that the counsellor has met the high standards required to be listed.

Find out more here: https://buff.ly/ISlqRhw

11/08/2025

11/08/2025

The Independent reports that OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, one of the most well-known Large Language Model (LLM) AI chatbots, recently announced that it will be looking to make the platform 'less dangerous' for users who are mentally or emotionally distressed.

But there’s a deeper, ethical question here: what happens when someone in crisis turns to AI instead of another human?

When distress stays inside a private exchange with a chatbot, there’s no connection to the real‑world systems of support and safety that could save a life.

No safeguarding. No trained, experienced, relational practitioner that can recognise risk, offer immediate help, or support someone in the real world to escalate the kind of support they're getting.

You need people - qualified, experienced, people - to recognise when someone is at risk, and mobilise the right help at the right time.

If you want to learn more, or support our campaign to share what makes good, effective therapy (spoiler alert: it's the relationship between the therapist and the client), then you can read more here: https://buff.ly/SAzckEn

Source: https://buff.ly/XlJIEnc

25/07/2025

Check out this new service offering low cost counselling:

Looking for support?At Therapy Services South West CIC, we believe professional counselling should be affordable and accessible for everyone.Our low cost counselling service offers:Qualified Counsellors: £30-£40 per session. (in person or online)Final year student counsellors: £10-£20 per session. (in person or online)Person-centered, Inclusive approach. Support for all adults (18+) Neurodivergent and Neurotypical.Who we support:Adults facing anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, relationship issues, life transitions, stress, low self-esteem, personal or work related problems,Neurodivergent individuals (diagnosed or self-identified).Anyone seeking a safe, non-judgmental space for emotional wellbeing.Why choose us?Compassionate, experienced counsellors, trauma-informed and neurodiversity affirming approach.Unlimited sessions.Flexible appointment options (weekday, evening, online)Community-focused, every session helps fund more affordable support.Income from counselling is reinvested to expand local mental health services and reduce barriers to accessing care.How to access support:Email: admin@therapyservicessouthwest.co.ukWebsite: www.therapyservicessouthwest.co.ukAll clients receive an initial assessment to match you with the right counsellor.Therapy Services South West CICLow Cost CounsellingServices

Therapy Services South West C.I.C, designed and tailored for you

18/07/2025

My mother braided my hair every morning for twelve years. Perfect French braids that never came undone, not even after recess. She packed my lunches in brown paper bags with my name written in her careful cursive—the same way her mother had written hers, precise and distant. She saved every report card, every drawing, every ticket stub from school plays where I forgot my lines, preserving evidence of a childhood she was trying to love better than her own had been loved.

But she never asked me how I felt about anything, because no one had ever asked her.

Emily Durante's voice reading Jasmin Lee Cori's words felt like someone finally naming the ghost that lived in our house—the space between my mother's meticulous care and my soul's desperate hunger, the same hunger that had lived in her chest for decades before I was born. I was forty-three when I realized you can be perfectly tended and completely unknown, and that my mother had spent her whole life being both the tender and the unknown.

1. The Mother Who Counted Everything But Me
Cori writes about emotional absence like archaeology, unearthing what was never there. My mother counted calories, counted steps, counted the minutes until my father came home. She counted everything except the tears I swallowed at dinner, the way I practiced conversations with myself in the mirror, the silent scream that lived in my throat whenever she looked through me instead of at me.

She loved me with her hands but never with her eyes—because no one had ever shown her how to see. Fed my body but starved my spirit, passing down the same careful hunger her own mother had served her. Taught me to be seen but never to be known, because being known had always been dangerous in her world.

2. The Hunger That Has No Name
When Cori listed what children need to hear—"You are wanted, you are special, you are safe, you matter"—I felt something ancient and raw tear open. I realized I'd been waiting thirty years to hear those words from her lips, and that she'd been waiting sixty years to hear them from her own mother. We were both starving at the same table, reaching for bread that was never baked, neither of us knowing how to be nourished when we'd only ever learned to serve crumbs.

3. The Art of Vanishing While Present
I learned to disappear so well that sometimes I forgot I existed. Made myself paper-thin so I could slip through the spaces between her sighs. Became an expert at reading her moods like weather patterns, adjusting my entire being to match her atmospheric pressure. Cori calls this self-abandonment, but it felt like survival. How do you grieve learning to live as a ghost in your own life?

4. The Daughter Who Mothers Herself
Reparenting isn't pretty. It's holding yourself while you sob for the child who learned that love meant being convenient, while also grieving for the woman who could only love through logistics because emotions had always been too costly in her childhood home. It's speaking to your own reflection with the tenderness she never learned, forgiving yourself for needing what she couldn't give while forgiving her for not knowing how to give it. It's becoming the mother you needed while still loving the one you had—the woman who showed love through French braids and packed lunches because that's the only language of love she'd ever been taught.

Cori's book broke something in me that needed breaking. Not my love for my mother, but my need for her to be different than what her own story allowed. I closed it understanding that some wounds are inheritances, passed down through generations of women who loved imperfectly because they were loved imperfectly, each doing their best with hearts that had never been taught how to unfold. That my mother's silence wasn't cruelty—it was the sound of her own unhealed heart, the echo of all the words no one had ever said to her.

I am learning to hear my own voice again. It sounds like coming home. You can learn too.

FIND THE BOOK: https://amzn.to/44GSLTZ

You can find and listen to the audiobook narration using the link above.

12/06/2025

🚨 Big news! Our campaign has been nominated for Campaign of the Year at the SMK National Campaigner Awards 2025! 💥

In partnership with Centre for Women's Justice, End Violence Against Women Coalition and Rights of Women, we fought to stop the routine police requests for survivors’ counselling notes — and we changed the law. 💪

“This recognition is the result of years of hard work and collaboration between leading organisations working to end sexual violence, with the aim of improving the experiences of survivors who are navigating the criminal justice system.” - Ciara Bergman, R**e Crisis England & Wales' CEO

Endless thanks to the survivors who bravely shared their stories, to our incredible partners, our network of R**e Crisis centres, and to everyone who backed this campaign. 💜

📣 National recognition for our campaign is a powerful reminder of what our movement can achieve together.

🔗 Read more: https://smk.org.uk/awards_nominations/keep-counselling-confidential/

24/05/2025

This is an informative lead-in for those considering training to become a practicing counsellor as well as a beneficial stand-alone course in effective listening and enhanced self-awareness.