Brightside Psychology

24/08/2025

Over the last few months I’ve been busy refining my health anxiety model…and yes, it looks like a house!

Why? Because health anxiety has layers:
- the foundations you don’t always see (early experiences)
- the rooms you wander between day-to-day (the cycles of ruminating, checking, avoiding, reassurance seeking)
- the overarching attic where the bigger stuff gets stored (family, healthcare systems, wider society)

Whether you have lived experience with health anxiety or work with it clinically, stay tuned as I share more about the model over the coming weeks!

03/06/2025

01/06/2025

🎉 Brightside Psychology turns 9 today! 🎉

What began as a single psychologist one day a week, has now become a thriving practice with the most amazing and talented team of 6!

Over the last 9 years we’ve moved locations 3 times, grown in size and scope, and remained true to our core values: compassion, clinical integrity and human connection.

Our website has had multiple revamps, but our logo has remained true to the original designed by my late friend Ben, whose encouragement and belief in what Brightside could bring will always live on 💛

I am incredibly proud of my team and the services that we offer, which include:

🔷 At least 8 proven therapies for a range of mental health issues
🔷 Low cost therapy options for those on lower incomes
🔷 Training delivery to a range of healthcare professional groups, developing psychologically-based care across the healthcare system
🔷 Free community-based therapy groups to bring people together
🔷 Clinical Supervision to both NHS and non-NHS clinicians, allowing them to practice safely and effectively

And we’re not stopping there…

We’re busy further developing our health anxiety and health trauma services, with new specialist workshops on the way for healthcare teams.

✨Thank you for being a part of our story
💛 Follow along to see what’s next!

17/05/2025

👋 Hi, I’m Dr Sophie Gwinnett.

Clinical Psychologist. Health anxiety specialist.
Also: human, deep thinker, and former late-night Googler of symptoms.

I work with people who feel stuck in the loop of health anxiety. Checking, avoiding, overthinking, ruminating and wondering why they can’t just relax about their health like everyone else seems to.

Here’s the thing:
Health anxiety isn’t just about catastrophic thoughts.
It’s often the legacy of too much responsibility too soon, or not enough care when it was most needed.

It’s a nervous system doing its best to protect you, just a little too loudly.

My approach is trauma-informed, compassionate, and grounded in real clinical expertise (and yes, some lived experience too).

If you’ve ever felt like you should be able to snap out of it but can’t, you’re not alone.

Follow me for serious support, without the scary vibes. I can help you to start feeling safe again. Bit by bit.

12/05/2025

Health anxiety isn’t an individual issue. It’s often a response to past relational experiences and it can sometimes be reinforced by our healthcare system. Contact us if you’d like to learn more about our trauma-informed approach to working with health anxiety.

23/04/2025

Delighted to have our work with The Codsall Hive feature in the Express and Star and the Shropshire Star! This group was a passion project for me, and one that I’m really keen to repeat in the future given the fantastic feedback from participants!

Thank you to the team at the Codsall Hive, and to my brilliant team at Brightside Psychology, for working with me on this 🌟

Two Codsall well-being organisations have successfully joined forces to create a ground-breaking new project to help local people deal with grief.

17/04/2025

Health anxiety is overwhelming, terrifying, all-consuming.

If you’re interested in taking that next step towards change, please do get in touch.

At Brightside Psychology we take a compassionate, trauma-informed, evidence-based approach.

Our therapies are always delivered by highly experienced and highly trained clinicians.

14/04/2025

As a clinical psychologist, I’ve supported many people through grief but there was something uniquely powerful about this group.

We talked, created, reflected, laughed and cried. This group offered more than just support, it created a sense of belonging.

I’m incredibly grateful to the warm and welcoming team at Codsall Hive, and to my compassionate and creative team at Brightside Psychology for making this possible. Your care helped to turn this vision into a truly meaningful experience.

01/04/2025

🌟Now offering evening and weekend appointments!

We’re delighted to welcome Dr Lauren King to the Brightside Psychology team. Dr Lauren brings a wealth of experience and can offer a range of evidence-based therapies. She is available to offer evening and weekend appointments - allowing you to fit your therapy around your work schedule.

To learn more about Dr Lauren please visit https://www.brightsidepsychology.com/dr-lauren-king

01/04/2025

🌟Now offering evening and weekend appointments! 🌟

We’re delighted to welcome Dr Lauren King to the Brightside Psychology team. Dr Lauren brings a wealth of experience and can offer a range of evidence-based therapies. She is available to offer evening and weekend appointments - allowing you to fit your therapy around your work schedule.

To learn more about Dr Lauren please visit https://www.brightsidepsychology.com/dr-lauren-king

22/03/2025

Suzanne and I are back from a brilliant couple of days in Liverpool at the EMDR UK conference. Fantastic speakers and topics, great to see lots of familiar faces and to meet some new ones, and new books bought!

16/03/2025

Grief isn’t just something that we think about, it’s something that we feel in our bodies and in our hearts. Our Creative Grief Group at Codsall Hive Craft Cafe is giving people an opportunity to explore their grief through creative experiences. This week we’re looking forward to getting messy with clay pottery!