Dr Vicky Lewis Clinical Psychology and Counselling Services

09/10/2025

Today marks the start of Baby Loss Awareness Week.

Baby Loss Awareness Week is an opportunity to bring us together as a community and give anyone touched by pregnancy and baby loss a safe and supportive space to share their experiences and feel that they are not alone.

During last year’s (planned to take place on the 15th October this year) messages of remembrance and hope brought many people together. Take care of yourselves and know that you are not alone.

08/10/2025

Dyspraxia Awareness Week aka Developmental Coordination Disorder

Dyspraxia can affect all elements of coordination between the brain and the body. It can impact both fine motor skills, such as grip and dexterity (which can sometimes make writing or operating machinery difficult, for example), as well as gross motor skills, such as balance and body awareness.

Other areas beyond motor coordination that we should be aware of:

1. Executive Functioning:
Dyspraxia is known to impact executive functioning skills i.e. the ability to prioritise and switch between tasks, and plan and carry out individual tasks.

2. Concentration and Memory:
Dyspraxics can find it difficult to maintain attention and focus, especially when there are distractions and interruptions.

3. Emotional Wellbeing:
Dyspraxia can cause an increase in daily stress and anxiety.

4.Speech, Language and Visual Perception: Dyspraxics can experience difficulties with: • Pronunciation • Reading speed • Copying and proofreading • Misreading or misunderstanding information • Focus

5. Sensory Differences:
Many dyspraxics experience sensory processing differences i.e. heightened sensitivity to light, temperature, sound or touch.

6. Strengths:
Dyspraxics can bring a number of key strengths and skills to school and the workplace: • Creativity, imagination and original thinking • Strategic thinking • Visual thinking • Inventiveness and good problem-solving skills • An ability to work methodically and identify patterns, links and inter-relationships • Good analytical skills and attention to detail • Thoroughness • Determination, resilience and motivation • A high level of empathy and patience with others • An ability to develop their own strategies to overcome difficulties.

02/10/2025

It's time to change the misperceptions in society and to begin to understand and embrace this neurodevelopmental condition

FACTS:

ADHD is not something that just children have that can be outgrown

ADHD is caused by brain differences, not bad parenting

ADHD isn’t a problem of motivation or laziness; people who have it are often trying as hard as they can to pay attention

Not everyone with ADHD has hyperactivity as a symptom

It's true that ADHDers usually have trouble focusing but they may also focus on something intensely - this is called hyperfocus

ADHD symptoms can get in the way of learning, but it is not to do with intelligence

30/09/2025

As Su***de Awareness month comes to a close here are some important things to consider all year round...

Every 90 minutes, someone in the UK or Ireland dies by su***de and 1 in 4 of us has had suicidal thoughts.

Suicidal thoughts can be interrupted.

Research carried out by Samaritans who surveyed people with lived experience of su***de found that many people said their suicidal thoughts have been interrupted.

60% said their suicidal thoughts had been interrupted by someone close to them, like a friend or family member.

14% said their suicidal thoughts had been interrupted by a stranger or someone they didn’t know.

Please spend a few minutes looking at the Samaritans website for advice about interrupting suicidal thoughts.

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/if-youre-worried-about-someone-else/how-to-interrupt-someones-suicidal-thoughts-guide/

***de

25/09/2025

It's School Avoidance Awareness Week.

School avoidance is not simple. There are so many reasons why children may struggle to attend.

What we might see (exposed portion of the iceberg):
Big feelings
Poor sleep
Disrupted sleep
Feeling sick
Crying
Becoming withdrawn
Meltdowns

What might be underneath (unexposed portion of the iceberg):
Struggling academically
Undiagnosed learning difficulties
Possible neurodivergence
Executive functioning difficulties
Masking
Sensory overload
Fear
Frustration
Exam stress
Environment not well suited to the child
Low mood
Friendship difficulties
Mental Health

Important things to know about school distress:

Forcing children and young people to conform to adult expectations can lead to fear and distress.
Refusal is a symptom and not poor behaviour.
The term school refuser is unhelpful because it suggests that being unable to attend school is a wilful choice.
Framing the difficulty as just 'behaviour' or 'anxiety' is really unhelpful.
Parents are not to blame.

23/09/2025

19/09/2025

In the last three years, the likelihood of young people having a mental health problem has increased by 50%.

20% of adolescents experience a mental health problem in any given year.

55% of 16-25 year olds said they had seen their GP about mental health at some point in their lives.

Today is Youth Mental Health Day (YMHD).

The aim of this day is to encourage open conversations, break the stigma, and improve mental well-being in young people.

focuses on young people connecting and supporting each other.

Don't be afraid to ask for help, to reach out and to talk

16/09/2025

Does your child come out of school and scream, shout, lash out, act generally out of character and experience an outburst of their emotions?

This is known as 'after school restraint collapse' and is not unusual - think about a coke bottle being slowly shaken all day and having to keep everything inside until leaving the classroom

When they are back with you, you are their safe space to let it all out!

The after-school ‘meltdown’ is an expression of emotion that often comes out physically. As parents you can recognise and label it so your child can see it for what it is.

Think about what they might need, it will be different for everyone but try to consider:

Decompression timeA snack and a drinkA run around the park/some movementQuiet time without questions about their dayTime infront of their favourite TV show A hug or snuggle up together on the sofa

Connect with your child. Not by asking ‘how was your day? etc’ but through genuine emotional connection. You could say something like ‘I’m so happy to see you, I’m glad we get to go home together. Being calm/keeping regulated and using supportive words is so important.

Connection is a great way for your child to know they’re loved and that you’re there for them, no matter what.

11/09/2025

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is being aware of or bringing attention to this moment in time, deliberately and without judging the experience. So, when we go for a mindful walk we really notice every little detail and all we encounter - trees, cars, flowers growing out of small cracks, or a cat crossing the road - rather than creating to-do lists.

By reconnecting with these simple moments in life, by truly living moment by moment, it is possible to rediscover a sense of peace and enjoyment.

09/09/2025

“Help! My child has turned into a demon at home, but school say they are brilliant all day and behave really well, what have I done wrong?”.

The presumption here is that the parents must have done something wrong to cause the poor behaviour, because school aren’t having the same issue.

This actually happens because parents have done everything right!

When you make your child feel loved, safe, supported and respect with you, they feel comfortable enough to be their authentic selves with you, or in other words, they don’t have to pretend or ‘be good’ anymore.

They have spent all day, at school, holding in frustration, fear, anxiety, anger and other uncomfortable emotions, because they know that it is “naughty” to let them out at school. When they get home to you however things are entirely different. There’s a massive release. Imagine your child at school and everything they have to deal with as being a bottle of fizzy drink. They have spent all day being shaken, building pressure, but have ‘been good’ and managed to keep their lid screwed on tightly.

When they see you, the need to release is huge, pop, off comes the lid and the ensuing spray of all that has been bottled up inside. The technical term for this is restraint collapse, but I much prefer to think of that bottle finally releasing its pressure.

This is all a wonderful compliment of your parenting skills. If you hadn’t made your child feel secure enough to be authentic with you, when they were feeling happy and otherwise, then they would continue to bottle up the feelings and the release (and subsequent mess) would likely happen at school. Causing far more problems.

Many children sadly get into the cycle of not being able to release to their parents, perhaps because their parents have raised them to not share how they feel with them through constant punishments and exclusions, or perhaps because the parents have been too busy, or absent, to listen. The result then is constant difficulty and poor behaviour at school, as they struggle to keep a lid on things and erratically explode, without the safe release of home.

09/09/2025

Starting school for the first time or transitioning into a new school year can be a time of lots of ups and downs and big emotions. If your child is struggling, be kind and compassionate and look after yourself if you're finding it upsetting or hard yourself.

Snacktime - offer a snack and drink as soon as you meet with them or on the way home
Wait - as tempting as it is, try to hold back so they've got some time to decompress and relax
Reconnect - when you get home prioritise doing something together to reconnect e.g. a hug, play a game, watch something together
Model - tell them about your day, how you've missed them and what you've been up to
Questions - aim for gentle, open ended questions, try to make things fun and relaxed
Be patient - they are most likely very tired and settling into a new school year takes time

04/09/2025

We lose over 800,000 people each year to su***de.

It is the 10th biggest cause of death worldwide.

Two of the leading factors that contribute to su***de are isolation and feeling like a burden.

Speaking up when suicidal isn't attention seeking.

Having mental health issues doesn't make you "weak".

Please share to raise awareness.