Clarity Thinking

16/04/2026

Sharing for any parent who may find this useful

I’m a trauma therapist, and I spend a lot of time thinking about how children come to feel safe, especially when the world around them feels unpredictable.

In this webinar, I talk about a research study where babies were placed in front of a “visual cliff”. It looked like a drop, but it was actually safe.

What the researchers found was that the babies did not decide based on what they could see. They looked at their mothers. If their mother looked calm, they crossed. If she looked worried, they stopped.

Children use the adults around them to work out whether they are safe.

This is one of the reasons I often suggest that the starting point is not only about the child. It is also about us.

When children are very distressed, it is easy for all of us to feel overwhelmed. But when we can stay alongside them, without becoming frightened of their feelings, it can change how safe things feel for them.

I sometimes think of this as being like an anchor in a storm. You cannot stop the storm, but you can help the boat to stay steady.

I will be talking more about this in my webinar on April 30th, along with other ways we can support children when they have had frightening or overwhelming experiences.

Helping Your Autistic Child with PTSD
Thu 30 April, 12pm
Recording available for 30 days

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/helping-your-autistic-child-with-ptsd-tickets-1985569311260?aff=fb4

Please share if you know parents who might find this helpful.

Image: “Visual Cliff Experiment” (Gibson & Walk, 1960), reproduced via NIH Open-i (PMC4569749). Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

30/03/2026

CONTAINING DISTRESS: How to help your baby even if you can’t stop the crying

🌿 Parents often say to us that there’s nothing they can do to help their crying baby. While you may not be able to stop the crying, there are absolutely things you can do – things to help your baby feel safe and reassured.

💛 Sometimes babies feel frightened, overwhelmed and out of control. It can be distressing for them to feel such powerful emotions when they are only beginning to experience the world.

💙 It can also be distressing for you to witness their distress – it is hard not to be affected by it.

✨ At these times, you are able to help your baby get her sense of meaning and contain her distress when you identify and reflect on her emotional state. Thinking about her experience provides containment and helps a baby feel safe. Of course, your baby will also need you to soothe her by holding her close, swaddling, speaking gently, rocking her and any other strategies that work to calm her. But in all of these actions, an attempt to reflect on her experience and empathise can be felt by her as containing.

🥹 Your efforts to ease the crying may not bring about a consoled baby – she may remain distressed. At these times, your understanding and hanging in there with her can be very reassuring, even when she remains distressed. At these times, she will experience that you do not leave her alone to deal with her difficult feelings.

🙌 Tolerating your baby’s distressing feelings, as well as your own, helps her cope. If she repeatedly experiences your ability to identify with her distress and to tolerate it, she comes to learn that distress can be tolerated. Containing her this way helps her learn to contain and soothe herself over time. She learns that it is possible to tolerate the distress she is experiencing which helps her feel safe. She learns that bad feelings pass and good feelings can return. Leaving yourself as open as possible to understand what she is communicating and then responding appropriately gives your baby the experience of being understood and comforted. This is containing for her.

✅ Download your own copy of this illustration from our website. Written, developed and created by Dr Bronwyn Leigh for the Centre for Perinatal Psychology,.

👉 Check out the full series of resources in our Speaking for the Baby campaign on our website:
Centre for Perinatal Psychology: https://www.centreforperinatalpsychology.com.au/resources/speaking-for-the-baby-campaign/

🫶 Original illustration by Jess Racklyft for the Centre for Perinatal Psychology

10/03/2026

Day one of Behavioural Family Therapy training with the Meridian Family Program, and of course I had to invest in a new note pad!!

Behavioural Family Therapy is psycho educational family intervention which has been proven to be effective when supporting families who have experience of psychosis, depression, anxiety, agoraphobia, Alzheimer’s, learning disabilities and addiction.

https://claritythinking.com/

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14/02/2026

Sometimes the best gift you can give someone this Valentine’s Day is to do your own inner work.

Oooph! Did we really just say that?

Yes we did, and here is why 👇🏻

Doing your own inner work enables you to show up in a way that is more helpful to your relationship. It’s helps you to communicate better, to be curious about your needs and experiences, as well as those of your significant other. It also helps you to be respectful when you both disagree.

Image credit: Linda and Charlie Bloom

14/02/2026

Whether you’re celebrating valentines, galentines or palentines, remember this 👇🏻

Your primary relationship is with yourself and all other relationships follow from there 🫶

06/02/2026

This is so true. When working with couples, families or even individuals we are always holding in mind the wider family and the ideas, patterns, values, meaning that are passed down through generations.

https://claritythinking.com/

04/01/2026

Sundays are the perfect day to ‘Hurkle-Durkle’
After our super early and very cold dog walk this morning, we will definitely be returning to bed to partake in hurkle-durkle 😂

Image description: a blob shaped person sitting in bed with a cup of something, a book and a phone, covers are blue and green stripes. Words read: Hurkle-Durkle - an old Scottish word meaning to lounge in bed, long after it’s time to get up!

Image credit: www.blobtree.com

01/01/2026

Many people will no doubt be thinking about changes they can make to improve their lives as we enter a new year.
We saw this recently 👇🏻 and it made perfect sense. We always say that your relationship with yourself is hugely important because all other relationship flow from there.
So don’t worry if you haven’t made any goals, plans or resolutions, bring the focus back to you, go inward, get to know yourself better, heal any parts of you that need healing, take small steps to nurture yourself.

https://claritythinking.com/

Image description: purple and blue background with white writing which reads: uncommon advice: if you don’t know what to pursue in life right now, pursue yourself. Pursue becoming the most healthiest, happiest, most healed, most present, most confident version of yourself. Then the right path with reveal itself.

Image credit: unknown

28/12/2025

We thought this was quite apt during the chrimbo limbo period. And just in case you’re wondering…….its Sunday 🙃

Image description: whites background with black writing which reads, I’m not much on seizing the day. I just kinda poke it with a stick.

Image credit: unknown

25/12/2025

24/12/2025

The most precious gifts can't be wrapped.

This season, what we're really looking for isn't found in any store. It's presence, not presents. It's being fully with someone and showing them "I'm glad you're here." It's creating a secure base where they can simply be human.

These gifts cost nothing and mean everything.

What gift of presence will you offer this season?

Read our latest blog for more on the gifts that truly matter: https://zurl.co/fZ2HR

24/12/2025

For anyone who might need support over the festive period.

Image credit: Mental Health Believe Uk