Healthy Mind Psychology

Healthy Mind Psychology A personalized approach to therapy and neurorehabilitation.

Who is ready for some more positivity?! 👏🏼✨Just a few of many success stories from April: ✨Scientists have discovered th...
01/05/2026

Who is ready for some more positivity?! 👏🏼✨

Just a few of many success stories from April:

✨Scientists have discovered that an existing drug may help protect the brain’s blood vessels, according to Good News Post. Early findings suggest it could play a role in reducing damage linked to conditions like stroke and dementia, offering a promising step forward in protecting long-term brain health.

✨ A personalised mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer is showing early promise in clinical trials, with seven patients currently in long-term remission.

✨A six-year-old child has regained sight following a pioneering NHS gene therapy treatment, according to MSN News. The breakthrough procedure targets a rare genetic condition and has successfully restored vision, marking a promising step forward in the use of gene therapy to treat previously untreatable forms of blindness.

✨ New research in mice suggests a nasal spray could help reduce brain inflammation associated with ageing and support memory restoration.

(Stories taken from goodnewspost.co.uk, sciencealert.com and msn.com)

And now one of my own....

It was H***y Tonk Bingo night down in my home state of Texas! I got to return home this Easter back to my old digs to enjoy some time in my previous life. It always makes me reflect on my identity that can feel at polar opposites at times - a professional clinician in England vs the flip-flop toting girl of the Deep South. These identities have merged into one being but shape how I see my world, wherever I am within it. It's lovely to take my children home to indulge in a culture quite unlike what they know, and it warms my heart to see their fondness of the foreign. Oh, and the food! My son won a dog bed at Bingo, as you do, which we dutifully brought 5000 miles home to England as a souvenir for our pup. The indulgence in some of the old with my family of new is a special experience, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to still go back.

How do you consolidate your identity over time and place?

Have you ever walked into a place and been instantly taken back to a memory you hadn’t thought about in years because of...
29/04/2026

Have you ever walked into a place and been instantly taken back to a memory you hadn’t thought about in years because of the smell?
Similar to my experience last month when I shared about how much nostalgia a drink brought back to me...

In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart talks about how our sense of smell is deeply connected to memory, emotion, and even the way we form relationships.

It’s one of the fastest routes into the nervous system.

Which might explain why certain places, people, or moments feel so familiar — even before we can explain why.

I’m curious - is there a smell that instantly takes you somewhere else? I'd love to hear!

Have you ever felt disconnected from your body… but not quite known how to reconnect?In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart talks a...
27/04/2026

Have you ever felt disconnected from your body… but not quite known how to reconnect?

In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart talks about how much information our body is constantly gathering — far beyond the five senses we’re usually taught about.

I’ve created a short guide called Reconnecting With Your Senses as a gentle way to begin noticing some of those signals again.

It’s not a routine or a practice to get right.

Just a few small ways to pause and pay attention to what’s already there.

If that feels useful, you can download it from the website:

https://www.healthymindpsychology.co.uk/healthy-mind-psychology-freebies/

Have you ever noticed how different your thinking feels when you’re relaxed compared to when you’re stressed?In The Sign...
24/04/2026

Have you ever noticed how different your thinking feels when you’re relaxed compared to when you’re stressed?

In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart explores how creativity and exposure to beauty can shift the nervous system out of a threat state and into one that supports openness, flexibility and problem-solving.

It’s not about forcing new thoughts.
It’s about creating the conditions where different thoughts can emerge.

I’m curious — what activity helps you feel that shift, even slightly?

Pain is never just sensation.It carries meaning.Meaning shaped by experience and learning.Two people can experience the ...
22/04/2026

Pain is never just sensation.

It carries meaning.

Meaning shaped by experience and learning.

Two people can experience the same physical input,

and the system responds very differently.

Not because one is stronger or weaker, but because the architecture is different.

The wiring has been shaped differently.

Some systems learned:

this is safe, it will pass.

Others learned:

this must be managed, controlled, looked into, pushed through.

Neither is wrong, and both are protective.

But those meanings continue to influence how the system responds long after the original moment has passed.

Understanding that doesn’t invalidate pain - It gives it context, and context is often where change begins.

I wonder, what meaning has your system learned to attach to pain?

Have you ever felt “disconnected” from your body?In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart highlights that we have far more senses tha...
20/04/2026

Have you ever felt “disconnected” from your body?

In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart highlights that we have far more senses than we’re typically taught, meaning your body is constantly gathering and communicating information.

The challenge isn’t that nothing is there. It’s that we’ve often learned to tune it out.

I’m curious, what signals do you think your body might be trying to send that you haven’t fully noticed yet?

đź‘‹ Meet the Team đź‘‹Dr Emily Gage is an experienced Clinical Psychologist, registered with the Health and Care Professions ...
17/04/2026

đź‘‹ Meet the Team đź‘‹

Dr Emily Gage is an experienced Clinical Psychologist, registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). She specialises in clinical and neuropsychology and is currently working as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in adult mental health services in the NHS. Emily has experience working therapeutically with people with a wide range of mental health and neuropsychological conditions, including depression, anxiety, emotional regulation difficulties, and trauma-related symptoms. She also has experience working with individuals who are struggling with physical health symptoms. Emily offers integrative interventions, drawing on various psychological models, including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT).

Emily is also trained in Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), and has experience of using this approach to work with individuals who are experiencing post- traumatic symptoms. Emily completed her undergraduate degree at Durham University, followed by a Masters from the University of York, and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of East Anglia. Emily later achieved a Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Neuropsychology from the University of Glasgow.

Have you ever tried to “stop” a thought… and noticed it comes back stronger?In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart talks about how ...
15/04/2026

Have you ever tried to “stop” a thought… and noticed it comes back stronger?

In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart talks about how we don’t remove neural pathways - we build new ones that gradually become stronger than the old.

That’s a very different approach.

Not fighting the mind or fixing it, but redirecting it.

With repetition, intention, and often with a bit of patience.

I’m curious - what would it look like to focus less on what you want to stop, and more on what you want to grow?

Have you ever had a feeling about something… and then talked yourself out of it?In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart describes in...
13/04/2026

Have you ever had a feeling about something… and then talked yourself out of it?

In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart describes intuition as a form of knowledge held in the body - shaped by experience, attention, and the patterns we’ve learned over time.

In my latest blog, I explore what it means to notice that quieter layer of information - and how stress, overstimulation, and habit can make it harder to access something that’s already there.

It’s not about finding answers, but more about learning to notice.

You can read more over on the blog if this feels familiar.

https://www.healthymindpsychology.co.uk/blog/

Have you ever had a feeling about something… and then talked yourself out of it?In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart describes in...
10/04/2026

Have you ever had a feeling about something… and then talked yourself out of it?

In The Signs, Dr Tara Swart describes intuition as a form of knowledge held in the body and subconscious — not something mystical, but something learned, stored, and communicated through our nervous system.

I often see how quickly people override that signal. Not because it’s wrong, but because it doesn’t always arrive in a way that feels logical or “certain”.

And yet, when we slow down enough to notice it, there’s often something there.

Not answers.
But direction.

I’m curious, how many times do you listen to your intuition, and was it right?

I often hear people say,“I don’t understand it.There’s no clear cause.”And that’s where the confusion begins.Because mos...
08/04/2026

I often hear people say,

“I don’t understand it.
There’s no clear cause.”

And that’s where the confusion begins.

Because most of us were taught to understand pain through a very specific lens.

Clear cause.
Clear injury.
Clear resolution.

But not all systems follow that architecture.

Sometimes the structure changes.
The wiring adapts.
The protective response outlasts the original need.

And when we keep asking the system to behave like it used to,
it can feel like something has gone wrong.

When often, something has simply changed.

Understanding that shift doesn’t fix the pain.

But it changes the relationship.

And that, in itself, can begin to create space.

I’m curious how this lands with you - does your experience of pain follow the rules you expected? When was the last time you thought 'I don't know what's causing it?'

Have you noticed how quickly we describe ourselves as “stressed”…without always stopping to understand what that actuall...
06/04/2026

Have you noticed how quickly we describe ourselves as “stressed”…
without always stopping to understand what that actually means?

Stress isn’t just something to reduce or manage.
It’s a signal.
A shift in the system that tells us something about load, safety, rhythm, or demand.

During Stress Awareness Month, I find myself less interested in how we eliminate stress,
and more interested in how we listen to it.

Not every stress response means something is wrong, but it does mean something is happening.

And when we begin to understand that rather than fight it,
the system often starts to feel less like a problem and more like something we can work with.

I’m curious - what has your stress been trying to show you recently?





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