Stressed to the max - Rachel Oliver

23/12/2025

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate and a happy new year!

See you on the 5th Jan! 🤍

Warm regards,
Rachel @ StressedToTheMax ☃️🎄🤍

📩Book in a free consultation with me here: StressedToTheMax.co.uk or complete the form on my website and instagram page!

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22/12/2025

19/12/2025

🎄 Christmas Can be Heavy 🎄

❄️Christmas is often wrapped in expectation. Joy. Togetherness. Gratitude. Yet for many it arrives carrying weight rather than warmth.

In my work as a person centred therapist I sit with people who feel overwhelmed by this season. The pressure to be present. The ache of absence. The strain on finances. The quiet exhaustion of holding everything together.

🤍 Mind UK reports that around one in ten adults feel lonely at Christmas. This matters.

If you are finding this time difficult, you are not failing. You are responding to something real.
You are allowed to step back.
You are allowed to rest.
You are allowed to say this feels heavy.
You are allowed to put yourself first, even now. 🫶

As this year draws to a close, I offer you this with care. May the remainder of the season meet you gently. May you release what is not yours to carry. May the turning of the year bring softness, steadiness, and a deeper kindness towards yourself.

Warm regards,
Rachel @ StressedToTheMax ☃️🎄🤍

📩Book in a free consultation with me here: StressedToTheMax.co.uk or complete the form on my website and instagram page!

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17/12/2025

🎄 Closing times over Christmas 🎄

📩Book in a free consultation with me here: StressedToTheMax.co.uk or complete the form on my website and instagram page!

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16/12/2025

When anxiety shows up, everything can feel overwhelming 🤍

You’re not alone in that.

Sometimes it can help to gently remember this simple idea:
There are only three things guaranteed in life:
Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

Anxiety often pulls us back into the past or pushes us ahead into the future.

And you might notice that when you allow your focus to return to today, to this moment, things begin to feel a little more manageable.

This isn’t about dismissing memories or avoiding what’s to come.
It’s about offering yourself the space to stay grounded in what feels within your control right now.

Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

Meeting yourself where you are.

One moment. One step. One thing at a time ✨

📩Book in a free consultation with me here: StressedToTheMax.co.uk or complete the form on my website and instagram page!

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12/12/2025

Happy Christmas Jumper Day 🎅🎄

10/12/2025

☁️ Anxiety does not live only in the mind.

✨It is often carried quietly through the body
✨ in the tightening of the chest
✨ in the shortening of the breath
✨ in the constant readiness of the muscles
✨ in the restless energy that makes it hard to fully settle.

These sensations are not signs of weakness. They are the body’s language of protection. A nervous system doing its very best to keep you safe in a world that can sometimes feel too much.

Your body is not betraying you. It is communicating with honesty and care, even when it feels uncomfortable to listen.

Nothing about this experience makes you defective. It simply means your system has learned to respond to life in a particular way.

And with gentleness, safety, and the right support, new responses can slowly take shape. 🤍

📩Book in a free consultation with me here: StressedToTheMax.co.uk or complete the form on my website and instagram page!

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08/12/2025

🧠 Anxiety & the body 🧠

In the UK, 1 in 6 adults experiences a common mental health difficulty such as anxiety each week. Each statistic holds a human story, a nervous system navigating a world that can feel overwhelming at times.

Anxiety is not a personal failing. It is the body’s natural response to perceived threat. When your chest feels tight, your breath feels shallow, or your body feels restless, this is not your body working against you. It is your nervous system trying to protect you in the only way it knows how.

Your body speaks with honesty. With care, understanding, and the right support, it can also learn safety again.

You are not broken. You are responding to life.

▫️You might begin gently by noticing your breath without changing it.

▫️By placing a hand on your chest or stomach to offer steadiness.

▫️By allowing yourself to sit with the feeling rather than pushing it away.

▫️By reaching for safe connection and trusted support when it feels too heavy to hold alone.

🤍Small moments of compassion can begin to soften even the most guarded nervous system.

📩Book in a free consultation with me here: StressedToTheMax.co.uk or complete the form on my website and Instagram page!

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05/12/2025

💛You don’t have to be fixed here, only heard 💛

🫶You do not have to arrive here with the right words.
You do not have to explain perfectly.
You do not have to be fixed.

🫶Here, you are allowed to be heard.
In your quiet. In your questions. In your becoming.

🫶Your voice is safe. Your story is welcome.

As the week gently closes, I wish you rest, softness, and a weekend that holds you kindly. Be gentle with your heart.

Warm regards,
Rachel @ StressedToTheMax ✨🌸

📩Book in a free consultation with me here: StressedToTheMax.co.uk or complete the form on my website and Instagram page!

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03/12/2025

✨Person Centred Therapy ✨

Today I introduce not a service, but a space.

A space where you are not required to perform, explain yourself perfectly or be anything other than human.

So many people have spent a lifetime being strong for everyone else. Holding it together. Staying quiet with their own pain. Learning to survive in silence.

Person Centred Therapy offers something different.
It offers you a relationship built on safety, acceptance and compassion. A place where your feelings are not judged or analysed away, but gently welcomed.

You already carry what you need within you.
Sometimes you simply need someone to sit beside you while you begin to remember who you are beneath the noise, the pressure and the expectations.

If you have been waiting for a sign that it is safe to begin, let this be it.

Get in touch and book your free consultation ⬇️
📞 07970413120
📩 Rachel.oliver1@icloud.com
📲 StressedToTheMax.co.uk


 
 
 
 
MentalWellbeingUK

26/11/2025

💬3 reflections that shaped me as a Person Centred Therapist💬

☁️What inspired you to become a therapist?
This is an easy one….No matter where I was - shopping having, a walk, I would always find myself talking in depth to someone about their life and I started to think that maybe this was something that I could do as job. As there was clearly a need for a listening ear and empathy.

☁️ What personal value guides you through your practice?
As a person and therapist there is very little difference in my core values. I am a strong believer in fairness and therefore have a huge empathy for life’s injustices. I believe strongly that with time, challenging ourselves, we can change and have a better way understanding ourselves. I try to find joy in the simplest of things.

☁️ What is one moment when you learned something new about yourself?
Each day can throw up new challenges and learning experiences. I learn constantly from various aspects of my life. Within my work with clients I learn constantly the significance of being a part of an honest and open relationship. This is something that I endeavour to practice with my personal relationships. Life can be hard and sometimes in those times we lose sight of hope.

✨ These reflections continue to shape the therapist, and the person, I continue to become.

📩Book in a free consultation with me here: StressedToTheMax.co.uk or complete the form on my website and Instagram page!

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20/11/2025

Thoroughly enjoyed baking these!!

📸 Cedar + Co.