EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured psychotherapy method designed to help people heal from distressing memories and trauma-related symptoms. Developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s, EMDR is widely recognized as an effective treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other mental health conditions. How EMDR Works The core idea of EMDR is that unprocessed traumatic memories are stored in a way that causes emotional distress when triggered. EMDR helps “reprocess” these memories so they […]
Tags: Addiction, Anxiety, Brain, children, Depression, EMDR, EMDR and Hypnotherapy, PTSD, Stress
As a parent, how often do you find yourself saying to your teenage daughter “for heaven’s sake – will you put that phone down!” Or hear yourself remarking on the fact that “we didn’t even have mobiles or laptops in our day!” And indeed we didn’t. We had the luxury of going home and shutting the bedroom door on what might have been a dreadful day at school, burying ourselves under the blankets until we were ready to face the outside world again. […]
Tags: Brain, Girls, Teenage, teenagers, Vulnerable
Having worked with a few twins who have experienced their parents divorce, I’ve noticed they can sometimes be labelled as the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ twin. But just because they were once ‘wombmates’ doesn’t mean they’re identical. If anything they represent the ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ and are bound to display their unique characters and have different reactions – but perhaps not quite as polarised as on first impression. Twins have their own distinctive personalities. Although they have the same genetic […]
Tags: Brain, Parent, parental separation, Stress, Twins
Much has been written about teenagers and the brain and indeed, the brain does go through a revolutionary overhaul during the adolescent years. One could describe this overhaul as the second brain ‘reboot’ beyond the toddler phases and some parents will say they observe the similarities. The Limbic system is hugely influential and key during the teenage years, being very active and often over-reactive. This emotional engine, or motor system, located in the core brain is responsible for survival, memory […]
Tags: Brain, Limbic system, Teenage, teenagers
The standard of exams seems to have gone sky high! I remember when an A was a great grade and was a real achievement. But now young people have to get an A* and lots of them. Getting a mere A is just not good enough! Young people and children are under ridiculous amounts of pressure these days. The number of cases where young people are suffering from acute anxiety has risen dramatically in my practice. More and more frequently, […]
Tags: Anxiety, Babies, Brain, Depression, exams, Girls, Stress
Previously deemed a moral failure, scientists and researchers are now delving deeper into understanding and explaining the trap of addiction and its withdrawal effects. An alarmingly high percentage of people are at the mercy of addictions such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, sex, etc.,. And there are an increasing number seemingly more innocuous, addictions also under debate – from obsessive gaming, mobile phone usage, social media interaction, to the simple buzz of one’s daily caffeine intake. So what exactly is […]
Tags: Addiction, Brain, Vulnerable
Concerned about your child who seems fatigued, frazzled and lacking in motivation? This could be linked to their cortisol levels and over exposure to stress when they were younger. Research has discovered a link between child behavioural issues, high cortisol levels and poor performance at school. Cortisol is the steroid hormone produced by the cortex of the adrenal gland that helps in responding to and coping with stress, trauma and environmental extremes. It regulates our blood glucose, the immune system […]
Tags: Anxiety, Brain, children, Depression, exams, Stress, teenagers
Modern living and separation feels incredibly stressful and one issue I have noticed is how we can all give ourselves a hard time and worry too much. We are the descendants of finely tuned anxious people and needed to be so in order to survive. In order for the modern form of humans to have survived 200,000 years we have needed to be ready for action depending on what we were faced with. Our amygdala (the alarm system that warns […]
Tags: Anxiety, Brain, separated parents, Stress, Vulnerable
Why is it once you separate from your ex-spouse or partner that you may seem to disagree on everything you believe is good for your child? When you’re no longer in love, a part of that compromising ‘glue’ that helped you reach mutual decisions has apparently dissolved. In fact, that one part of the brain that often makes us see the other person through ‘rose-tinted glasses’ no longer operates the same way. And so you may be more inclined to want to ‘stand your ground’ […]
Tags: Brain, children, Parent
The right hemisphere of the brain has a considerable growth spurt in the first year. It is in charge of recognising faces, experiencing and coding emotions, colour recognition, images and more intuitive, thoughtful and subjective thinking. As mentioned previously the amygdala is linked to the visual-affective interactions in basic proto-conversations (basic ace and eye contact) and is reliant on pleasant eye to eye contact. If the amygdala is, so to speak, stroked with frequent and gentle interactions the right hemisphere […]
Tags: Babies, Brain, Parent
One of the reasons why human population has increased so prolifically is by the learning of ‘cooperation‘. In fact the reason why humans have been so successful is because neonates are ready to participate in any culture. By imitating parental heritage, supports greater integration, stronger identity and the creation of secure reference points, As if parents are installing a software in the brain of the baby, they define their child. Babies are primed for imitation as soon as they are born. Given […]
Tags: Babies, Brain, Parent
The most important and yet simple interaction between a parent and child is in the visual communication. Babies respond to the loving gaze of their mother and father. A parent falling in love with their baby feeds into the baby falling in love with the world and this is the basic structural paving stone for curiosity particularly later at 10 to 18 months. So seeking or appreciating eyes and facial features are encoded within babies preferences, they prefer to see […]
Tags: Babies, Brain, Parent, Stress
