Shaun & Ellie Gray Counselling Weston-Super-Mare #grayscounselling

07/02/2026

Something many of us are not aware of

09/01/2026

Definitely worth watching. Very important messages.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee asks: can you overcome a chronic condition without medication?

25/12/2025

Happy Christmas! 🌲
Finding space, even on Christmas day is important.
This mornings sunrise walk was a different location (finding somewhere to buy a coffee on Christmas day means travelling somewhere new 😁).
Our hope is that today is a blessed day, and that you find space for both peace and joy 🙏
With love,
Ellie and Shaun

23/12/2025

As we head towards Christmas, I want to offer a gentle reminder.

No one has a perfect family. Not behind closed doors. Not even the ones who look beautifully put together on Instagram, on television or in films. If anyone tells you they do, it’s rarely the whole story.

So please don’t use this time to turn on yourself. To compare. To wish your life looked different, smoother or easier. Families are messy, complicated, loving, infuriating, funny, exhausting and precious all at once. That chaos is part of the deal.

There will come a time, often sooner than we expect, when these moments aren’t there in the same way and it’s usually then that we realise what we miss...The chaos. Someone dropped the turkey. The potatoes that never quite work. The old argument that resurfaces over nothing and everyone knows exactly how it ends. The joke that goes that bit too far and briefly threatens World War Three. The ordinary mess of people, imperfectly, trying to be together.

December is tough for many reasons and I’ve written about some of them over the past few weeks and I know this season can stir up a lot. So be kind to yourself over the next few days. Take a pause where you can. A long bath. A walk on your own. Listen to music. Light a candle. Read that book you have been wanting to read all year. 

Take a quiet moment to breathe, even when you don’t think you have a moment; it will enable you to regroup and reconnect  when everything gets too much. 

Sending love to you all. Julia x

18/12/2025

17/12/2025

Bit late sharing this for December, but it's not too late to start.
Today:
Give thanks. List the kind things others have done for you.

This morning I have been thankful for beautiful sunrises. The colours this morning were spectacular. Who needs the northern lights?

Kind things - my husband got the patio chairs out and table, and suggested coffee outside to watch the sunrise.

I will ponder todays kindness at the end of the day too, and be thankful as I go to sleep.

Ellie

Every act of kindness makes a difference. Help create a happier world this December with our Kindness Calendar. Please use & share 💕🌍🎄🙏 https://actionforhappiness.org/do-good-december

15/12/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BAmT5wUni/

It would be so much simpler if we started therapy and then made steady progress each week. But it doesn’t work like that. Sometimes we make quick progress, but a lot of the time – for me at least – it can be frustratingly slow. Many times I seemed to take one step forward and two steps back. And there were long periods when nothing seemed to be happening at all: times of ‘winter’.

In this short video I explain that, just because it’s ‘winter’, it doesn’t mean to say that there’s nothing happening under the surface …

Watch this 2-minute video to find out more:
https://youtu.be/-HV1MnG5f7A

01/10/2025

We can't control what happens, but we can choose to stay hopeful and take positive action. Join us for Optimistic October!

01/09/2025

Self-care isn’t selfish - it’s the foundation that helps us show up with more energy, kindness and resilience for the people and causes we care about.

21/08/2025

Relationship counselling tips:
(Please contact Grays Counselling for couples or family counselling)

Stop Defending and Start Listening

In relationships, not every complaint is an attack. Sometimes it’s a cry for help. Stop defending yourself right away. Listen first. Understanding grows when you hear before you speak.

Defending shuts the door. Your partner feels unheard. They stop talking. Silence replaces honesty. And when silence takes over, connection fades. Listening keeps that door wide open.

You don’t have to agree with everything. But you can still listen with respect. Let them finish. Breathe. Then speak. This builds trust and makes hard talks easier.

Listening is love in action. It says, “You matter more than my ego.” It says, “I want to understand.” Defensiveness only proves you’re focused on winning, not healing.

Next time, pause. Hold back your defense. Lean in. Hear the pain behind the words. You’ll be amazed how many fights end - not with defense, but with understanding.

(Original post Dr. K. N. Jacob)

23/06/2025