Alys has been a qualified integrative counsellor since 2014 with a strong focus on psychodynamic therapy. She works with primary and secondary school children as well as adults in private practice. She is currently doing a second degree to pursue her passion to carry out social psychological research, with a particular focus on obedience and conformity, in the hope to publish work in the future and to eventually lecture. In her spare time Alys likes to read, study and run/cycle.
Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day: Understanding the grief of pet loss
As all pet owners know, we love our animals as family. So when that sad day comes, as we know it must, and we have to say goodbye to our beloved pet, we lose a member of our family.
Covid-19 Day of Reflection 2021
23rd March 2021 marks one year since the start of the United Kingdom’s first lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s no overstatement to say that the pandemic has had devastating consequences on how we grieve.
How do I Opt Out of Mother’s Day?
Maybe you’ve received one of these messages recently, from flower or card companies trying to sensitively acknowledge – while holding onto your business, of course – that Mother’s Day isn’t an occasion everyone wants to celebrate or even think about.
Baby Loss Awareness Week 2020: Remembering Together
We are coming to the end of another Baby Loss Awareness week, an important annual event which aims to improve understanding of prenatal and baby death.
How do I support someone who has lost their baby?
This week is Baby Loss Awareness Week, which aims to raise awareness of pregnancy and baby death in the UK, and this year the campaign is focussing on isolation.
Losing them twice: the Alzheimer’s grief journey
Today is World Alzheimer’s Day, created to raise awareness of the disease as well as to introduce a conversation for those affected. If you’ve lost a loved one to Alzheimer’s, you may also find this to be a day of reflection for you.
Grief after suicide
Thursday 10 September is World Suicide Prevention Day 2020, which is inevitably going to cause a peak in discussions around suicide across the world wide web.
Coming out, or staying in? How to navigate ‘post-lockdown’ relations
It started even before so-called ‘super Saturday’. Invitations to meet up, sometimes clearly signposted as ‘socially distanced walks’ but sometimes more vague: a gathering in someone’s garden, or was that their house?
National Counsellors Day: Looking After You
2020 is a year like no other for everybody; counsellors and therapists are no exception. The Covid-19 pandemic has necessitated a change in ways of working that have been dramatic for many.
Old wounds: ongoing grief in the time of COVID-19
Those of us working in bereavement support are, sadly, like healthcare workers and funeral directors among others, very busy at the moment. At the point of writing, in 2020 to date the UK death toll is 20% higher than the average of previous years.
Gardening in a time of grief
Today we’re welcoming a guest blogger, Mary Walsh, whose dad sadly died recently. This Mental Health Awareness Week we’re grateful to Mary for encouraging us to focus on allowing ourselves to grieve in the ways that feel right for us – and for Mary, in nature.
Be kind… it starts with you
One of the most effective questions I’ve found to ask clients who present with a scenario on which they want advice is, “What would you say if your best friend asked you the same thing?”
Grief in isolation
Grief is, for many people, a lonely and isolating experience. No-one knew your loved one quite like you did; no-one had the exact relationship with them you did; therefore there is no-one who can fully understand your loss.
You say it best… when you say something.
Sadly, many of us are searching for words at the moment. In these times of social distancing we find ourselves needing to find alternatives to the many non-verbal forms of communication that we usually rely on.