I was recently asked to write about five things I wish people knew about grief, by the wonderful lifedeathwhatever.com who are working to open up conversations about death and dying. Their campaign, #FiveThings is a collection of the five things that Life. Death. Whatever. collaborators want people to know about life, death and everything in…

Mother’s Day can be an unwelcome time of year for a lot of people. If you’re estranged from your mother or don’t have a good relationship; if you are having difficulty with fertility; and of course, if you are grieving the loss of a mother or a child, or supporting children who have lost their…

Written by Catherine Betley, MD of Professional Help and GriefChat® At the risk of seriously dating myself, I’ll admit to being a child of the early ‘90s. As a teenager, I had fairly eclectic musical tastes and considered myself to be something of a rock/indie chick. Growing up in a northern town just a stone’s…

Written by Joanna Barnard, Head of Counselling at Professional Help. If you’re feeling particularly blue this Monday, it would seem you’re not alone. Once upon a time, someone somewhere decreed that the third Monday in January was the most miserable day of the year. It’s not difficult to see the logic: post-Christmas, the lights have…

Every day in the UK, 15 babies die during birth or shortly after. As well as my role managing our GriefChat service, I am also a bereavement care trainer for Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity. I go to hospitals and teach midwives, neonatal nurses and other health professionals how they can best care…

As another World Mental Health Day draws to a close, with all its hashtags, messages of solidarity and support, and the UK government announcing its appointment of a minister for suicide prevention, I find myself thinking: OK, but what happens tomorrow? I welcome any initiative that breaks down the stigma that has for too long…

This blog was written by our Head of Counselling, Joanna Williams. Not only is she a fabulous therapist and manager, she is also a superb writer. Check out her author page at https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/joanna-barnard/1077155/    Let’s talk about death   I’ve been thinking about death a lot recently.   Just saying that to people has been…

This guest blog was written by Professional Help Associate Counsellor Amrit Sagoo; MA (Existential Psychotherapy), MNCS (Accred); MBACP (Reg). Vulnerability in therapy “What happens when people open their hearts?” “They get better.”  – Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood Opening your heart in therapy takes courage. It is not easy. It is not easy sitting in the client’s chair for your first…

This guest post was written by Professional Help’s Head of Counselling Joanna Williams; MA, Advanced Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy, MNCS (Accred), MNHS.   The Reluctant Hypnotherapist   Back in Autumn 2013, I found myself sitting in a circle of people in a hotel conference room, at the beginning of the thirty classes and three…

This guest post was written by one of our wonderful Associate Counsellors Amrit Sagoo; MA (Existential Psychotherapy), MNCS (Accred); MBACP (Reg). Bearing witness in the aftermath of violence I work with stories, stories that are often dark and despairing as they understandably would be in the aftermath of violence. Yet I know through my work…