Healthy Mind Psychology

Healthy Mind Psychology A personalized approach to therapy and neurorehabilitation.

Do you feel your pain more intensely when you’re lonely or disconnected?There’s a scientific reason.The same brain regio...
23/01/2026

Do you feel your pain more intensely when you’re lonely or disconnected?

There’s a scientific reason.
The same brain regions involved in social pain (rejection, isolation) light up during physical pain too.

Loneliness is a nervous system threat.
It increases cortisol, inflammation, sleep disruption, and emotional overwhelm — all of which intensify pain.

Connection isn’t optional for healing. It’s biological.

Who helps you feel a little more grounded, a little more human?

Have you ever wondered why your pain feels worse when your stomach is unsettled, your stress is high, or your mood feels...
21/01/2026

Have you ever wondered why your pain feels worse when your stomach is unsettled, your stress is high, or your mood feels low? 🌿

So many people living with chronic pain don’t realise just how closely the gut and the nervous system are connected.

Inflammation, stress hormones, gut bacteria, and even our emotional state can all amplify pain signals — often without us noticing the link at all.

This month, I’ve created a gentle new freebie:

✨ The Gut–Pain Connection Mini Guide

A simple, compassionate resource to help you understand

• how your gut talks to your brain
• how stress and inflammation shape your pain
• and small daily steps that can soothe your system rather than overwhelm it 💛

There’s also space to reflect on what your body might be trying to tell you — without judgement, pressure, or rules.

If you’d like a copy, you can download it for free here 👉 https://www.healthymindpsychology.co.uk/healthy-mind-psychology-freebies/

Have you noticed your pain or mood shifting after certain foods?Your gut isn’t just a digestion centre — it’s a major re...
19/01/2026

Have you noticed your pain or mood shifting after certain foods?

Your gut isn’t just a digestion centre — it’s a major regulator of inflammation, hormones, and nervous system signalling.

A disrupted microbiome can increase pain sensitivity, heighten stress responses, and affect mental clarity.

Nourishing your gut isn’t a cure-all — but it’s a powerful part of supporting a calmer, less reactive body.

What’s one small thing you could add this week to support your gut?

What if your pain isn’t just in your body — but in the way your brain is trying to protect you?Neuroinflammation happens...
16/01/2026

What if your pain isn’t just in your body — but in the way your brain is trying to protect you?

Neuroinflammation happens when immune activity affects the nervous system.
This can heighten pain, fog thinking, disrupt sleep, and amplify emotions.

It’s not “in your head.”
It’s in your neurobiology.

A sensitised brain becomes quicker to sound the alarm — even when danger has passed.

Ever felt like your brain is “on high alert” even when you’re trying to relax?

Did you know inflammation can continue even when an injury has healed?At the cellular level, chronic inflammation keeps ...
14/01/2026

Did you know inflammation can continue even when an injury has healed?

At the cellular level, chronic inflammation keeps the body in a “threat” state. Immune cells stay switched on. Healing slows. The nervous system becomes more sensitive.

Inflammation isn’t just in the joint or muscle — it shifts hormones, affects sleep, disrupts mood, and lowers stress tolerance.
And all of these changes can amplify pain.

Have you noticed your whole body feels different during flare-ups — not just the painful area?

👋 Meet the Team 👋Dr Laura Flower has worked in the NHS since 2006 in a range of settings, including primary and secondar...
12/01/2026

👋 Meet the Team 👋

Dr Laura Flower has worked in the NHS since 2006 in a range of settings, including primary and secondary care, mental health services, and within medical teams. She has experience unpacking the emotional impact of long-term health conditions, medically unexplained symptoms, depression, anxiety (including phobias, agoraphobia, and health and social anxiety), obsessive compulsive disorder, trauma (including symptoms of PTSD), bereavement, relationship difficulties, and low self-esteem.

She draws on a range of therapeutic approaches, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, Compassion Focused Therapy, and mindfulness practice. She also provides specialist supervision and teaching for a range of health care professionals.

Have you noticed how your pain flares when life feels too much?There’s a reason.Thoughts and emotions aren’t just mental...
09/01/2026

Have you noticed how your pain flares when life feels too much?

There’s a reason.
Thoughts and emotions aren’t just mental — they change the physiology of the body.

When we’re lost in stressful stories, the nervous system shifts into survival mode.
Cortisol rises. Muscles tighten. The brain becomes hypervigilant.
Pain circuits become more reactive.
And round and round it goes.

Chronic pain is often a combination of two stresses:

The pain itself

The emotional distress surrounding the pain

When both loops run at once, the body never gets to stand down.

Are you stuck in a cycle where stress fuels pain — and pain fuels stress?

Do the stories you tell yourself about your pain help you — or quietly hurt you?Most of our thoughts come from unconscio...
07/01/2026

Do the stories you tell yourself about your pain help you — or quietly hurt you?

Most of our thoughts come from unconscious processes. We rarely question them because they sound true.

Thoughts like:
“I’ll never get better.”
“Nobody believes me.”
“I can’t do anything anymore.”

These aren’t facts — they’re fear-driven narratives shaped by past experiences, overwhelm, and nervous system threat.

When the mind fills the blanks with worst-case stories, the body listens — tightening, guarding, bracing.
And the pain intensifies.

What story about your pain have you been believing… without ever considering whether it’s true?

Have you ever wondered why your pain feels so real… even when tests say “nothing is wrong”?Pain isn’t just a message fro...
05/01/2026

Have you ever wondered why your pain feels so real… even when tests say “nothing is wrong”?

Pain isn’t just a message from the body. It’s a full-body, full-brain experience shaped by memories, beliefs, stress, immune activity, and even past trauma.

In psychology and neuroscience, we understand pain through many lenses:
• Cortical plasticity – the brain changes in response to repeated pain
• Pain memory (neurotags) – when pain becomes wired into neural networks
• Descending modulation – the brain can amplify or quiet pain signals
• Nociception vs pain – danger messages are not the same as pain
• Central sensitisation – the nervous system becomes “turned up”
• Peripheral sensitisation – injured tissues become extra responsive
• Neuroimmune activation – inflammation influencing the nervous system
• Stress neurobiology – how cortisol, adrenaline and fear amplify pain

Pain is always real, but it isn’t always about the tissue.
Often, it’s about the system.

Have you ever noticed your pain feels worse when you’re stressed, scared, or overwhelmed?

✨ Happy New Year from Healthy Mind Psychology ✨As we welcome a brand new year, I’m holding onto a lesson that quietly st...
02/01/2026

✨ Happy New Year from Healthy Mind Psychology ✨

As we welcome a brand new year, I’m holding onto a lesson that quietly stayed with me after last year’s Camino walk. The reminder that small, steady steps can lead to meaningful inner shifts. Nothing dramatic… just gentle movement in the right direction.

That’s the spirit I’m bringing into this year, and I hope you feel able to do the same. You don’t need a grand plan or a list of resolutions to begin again. Sometimes the most powerful change comes from softening a little, slowing down a little, and making space to hear yourself more clearly.

This year, I’m wishing you lots of calm moments, supportive connections, and the kind of clarity that grows slowly but stays.

What’s one intention or feeling you’d love to carry with you into this new year?

Have you ever noticed how focusing on pain can seem to make it worse? 🔄🧠In Back in Control, Dr David Hanscom describes h...
31/12/2025

Have you ever noticed how focusing on pain can seem to make it worse? 🔄🧠

In Back in Control, Dr David Hanscom describes how pain and negative thinking can form a feedback loop, each reinforcing the other until it becomes deeply wired into the brain. The good news? Awareness and new patterns of thought can begin to break that loop, one moment at a time 🌿

Do you ever notice how your body reacts before your mind catches up? 💭💓Maybe your chest tightens before a difficult conv...
29/12/2025

Do you ever notice how your body reacts before your mind catches up? 💭💓

Maybe your chest tightens before a difficult conversation…
Or you feel heavy and flat when life feels too much.

Our nervous system is constantly working to protect us, speeding up when we sense danger, slowing down when we feel safe. But without awareness, we can stay “stuck” in survival mode for longer than we realise.

This month’s free resource 'The Nervous System Regulation Toolkit' offers simple, research-informed practices to help you gently bring your body back to balance. 🌬️✨

Inside, you’ll find:
→ Calming techniques for moments of stress or overwhelm
→ Energising tools for shutdown or fatigue
→ Everyday grounding habits to build long-term resilience

It’s a space to reconnect with your body, understand your patterns, and practise regulation with compassion, not perfection.

🪷 Download it for free here: https://www.healthymindpsychology.co.uk/healthy-mind-psychology-freebies/

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