JD Psychotherapy - LGBTQ Affirmative Therapy

17/10/2025

Introduction
I was recently discussing with a colleague some new offices that they are considering. Part of the scenario was that they are hoping to offer late evening, face to face sessions. This got me thinking about the potential dangers of working alone. So I put together some thoughts about a lone working policy.
This article outlines some considerations for a lone working policy suitable for psychotherapists in solo practice.
Purpose
To protect the safety and wellbeing of the psychotherapist when working alone with clients, whether in person, online, or by telephone, and to ensure reasonable steps are taken to manage risks associated with lone working.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

10/10/2025

Therapy for the Overwhelmed: How to Begin When Everything Feels Too Much
When life feels unmanageable, even the thought of starting therapy can seem overwhelming. It can feel like justonemorething on top of a heap of things that are not getting done. So is not unusual for people to delay seeking help because they feel stuck in a cycle of exhaustion, stress, and uncertainty. Yet, therapy can provide a safe place to begin unravelling these feelings. This article offers guidance on how to take those first steps when everything feels too much.
Understanding Overwhelm
Overwhelm often arises when external pressures, internal demands, or unresolved trauma exceed our ability to cope. Signs may include:

- Difficulty concentrating or making decisions

- Feeling paralysed by even small tasks

- Heightened anxiety, irritability, or emotional exhaustion

- A sense of being “stuck” or unable to move forward

Acknowledging overwhelm as a legitimate emotional state is a vital first step.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

03/10/2025

Is the Flow State a Form of Dissociation?
The flow state, described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake,” is often hailed as the pinnacle of human productivity and creativity. But from a psychotherapeutic perspective, it prompts a deeper question: is flow a form of dissociation? And if so, when might it be beneficial — or potentially harmful?
What Is the Flow State?
The flow state occurs when a person is fully immersed in a task, experiencing a sense of timelessness, focus, and diminished self-consciousness. Commonly reported in artists, athletes, and writers, flow is associated with deep engagement, intrinsic motivation, and a seamless merging of action and awareness (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
Flow is typically described as:

- Highly pleasurable
- Goal-directed
- Involving complete absorption
- Accompanied by a loss of awareness of time or bodily needs

What Is Dissociation?

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

26/09/2025

Overview
John Burnham’s chapter Developments in Social GRRRAAACCEEESSS: visible–invisible and voiced–unvoiced extends the familiar Social GRACES mnemonic (originally with Alison Roper-Hall) and explores how aspects of identity/difference can be visible or invisible and voiced or unvoiced in therapy, supervision, and training. Burnham distinguishes Personal and Social GRRRAAACCEEESSS and offers exercises (e.g., the “collide-scope”) to support reflexivity and curiosity in practice.
What GRRRAAACCEEESSS covers (and why it matters)
Over time the list has expanded (e.g., Gender, Geography, Race, Religion, Age, Ability, Appearance, Class, Culture, Ethnicity, Education, Employment, Sexuality, Sexual orientation, Spirituality). The aim is not a checklist but a lens for noticing which aspects are foregrounded or backgrounded in context, and how power and privilege flow through those shifts.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

23/09/2025

Addicted to Anxiety by Owen O’Kane: A Balanced Review
Overview of the Book
Owen O’Kane’s Addicted to Anxiety: How to Break the Habit (2025) proposes that anxiety functions like an addiction. Behaviours and thought patterns that initially feel protective become cyclical habits that reinforce fear and avoidance. His framework is structured into three main stages: recognising anxiety’s hold, tackling the habitual patterns, and building resilience to prevent relapse (O’Kane, 2025).
Strengths

- Fresh metaphor – Casting anxiety as an addiction highlights the compulsive, repetitive nature of anxious thinking and behaviour.
- Accessible and practical – Tools are presented in clear, digestible language with practical exercises.
- Warm and empathetic tone – O’Kane draws on his personal and clinical experiences, making the book relatable.
- Holistic scope – Covers thinking patterns, behaviours, lifestyle stabilisers, and relapse prevention.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

21/09/2025

Is Computer Programming a Form of Dissociation or Avoidance?
These days our minds and machines intertwine more than ever. Computer programming is often celebrated for its creativity, logic, and problem-solving elegance. But what happens when our immersion in code becomes so complete that it detaches us from our emotional or relational lives? Could it be that programming is, at times, less about building systems and more about escaping them?
The Nature of Immersion in Code
Programming creates a self-contained world governed by internally consistent logic, well-defined rules, and clear cause-and-effect outcomes. Unlike the complexities of human relationships or emotional life, programming offers structure and predictability. It’s no surprise that many programmers describe their work in terms reminiscent of a meditative or flow state (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
However, such immersive states are not always benign.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

07/08/2025

This was the shop next to my 'Swansea Office' - the wooden door to the left.

03/08/2025

Understanding the Window of Tolerance in Trauma Therapy
The concept of the Window of Tolerance, developed by Dr. Dan Siegel, has become an essential framework in trauma-informed psychotherapy. It describes the optimal zone of arousal in which a person can function effectively, think clearly, and engage socially. For those who have experienced trauma, this window is often narrowed, resulting in frequent episodes of hyper- or hypoarousal. Therapists working with trauma clients find that teaching and referencing this model provides a powerful tool for co-regulation and self-awareness.
What Is the Window of Tolerance?
The Window of Tolerance represents a range of emotional intensity within which a person can remain regulated and responsive.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

31/07/2025

Introduction
In Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, Firefighter parts are protective subpersonalities that react quickly and often dramatically when a person is overwhelmed by emotional pain. Their goal is not to cause harm, but to prevent further suffering—usually by distracting the system through compulsive behaviours, dissociation, rage, or other urgent defences.

Rather than trying to control or suppress Firefighters, IFS invites us to understand, befriend, and listen to them. This article offers a list of therapist-friendly questions designed to help build a respectful, trusting relationship with Firefighter parts.
What Are Firefighter Parts?
Firefighters typically emerge in response to Exiles—parts that carry deep burdens like shame, fear, or grief. When those Exiles become activated, Firefighters jump in to shut the emotional experience down.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

23/07/2025

Introduction
In Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, Manager parts are proactive protectors that work to prevent emotional pain from surfacing. They strive to keep the system in control by managing behaviour, emotions, relationships, and external impressions. Unlike Firefighters, who act reactively in crises, Managers operate in the background—structuring lives, enforcing rules, and avoiding risk.

Engaging Manager parts requires patience, respect, and a commitment to non-pathologising their strategies. The questions below are designed to help therapists begin a dialogue with these often highly responsible and burdened parts.
What Are Manager Parts?
Managers are tasked with maintaining control and avoiding situations that might activate vulnerable Exiles—those parts holding unprocessed pain.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

18/07/2025

The Dangers of Using AI as a Therapist: When Speed Becomes a Threat
AI is being used in increasingly sophisticated ways to simulate human conversation and provide mental health support. While some apps and chatbots can offer valuable companionship or coping tools, using AI as a substitute for human psychotherapy carries significant risks—especially for clients with trauma histories. One emerging danger is that AI moves too fast, pushing clients into emotional content before they are ready, which can lead to re-traumatisation.
AI and the Absence of Attunement
Human therapists are trained to listen not just to the words but to the body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and pauses of the client. They are also trained to feel into the client’s experience—what Daniel Stern (2004) called “affective attunement.” In contrast, AI models, no matter how refined, respond only to textual input and cannot perceive or respond to the client’s non-verbal cues or embodied state.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

14/07/2025

Panic in the Therapy Room: Grounding vs. Internal Family Systems
When someone experiences a panic attack during therapy, the typical response is to help them “ground” — reconnecting with the present moment through the five senses, breathwork, or body awareness. This somatic approach often offers vital immediate relief. However, the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model invites a different, more curious stance: rather than soothing the panic directly, IFS encourages us to relate to the part that is panicking — or more often, to the protector trying to manage overwhelming emotions.

This article explores the contrast between traditional grounding and the IFS response to panic, and how each holds value depending on context and therapeutic intention.

Traditional Grounding: Reconnecting with the Present
Grounding is a widely used strategy in trauma-informed care. It works by bringing the client’s attention away from overwhelming inner experiences and back to the external, present moment.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.