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Enmeshment

Do You Recognise Enmeshment?

Enmeshment describes family relationships, particularly between parents and children, that are intertwined in unhealthy ways. Enmeshed families may appear very loving from the outside, but that love is often based on a sense of guilt and obligation. Generally, we can…

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Childhood Emotional Neglect

What is Childhood Emotional Neglect

While not an official diagnosis, Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN) is becoming a more common term within the psychological sphere. It is different from childhood abuse in that there is no overt trauma, no physical involvement, no verbal abuse and name…

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Self-compassion

How to Develop a Self-Compassionate Response

Self-esteem is built on a sense of compassion towards ourselves. When you can understand and accept yourself, you can see yourself clearly and stop rejecting parts of yourself or repeatedly criticize yourself for perceived inadequacies. When you make a mistake,…

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Toxic Parents

How to Deal With Toxic parents

Many people grow up in families with less than ideal parenting. While abusive parental behaviour is relatively easy to identify, often the emotional damage may come from less obvious behaviours such as parental neglect, unrealistic or developmentally inappropriate expectations put…

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Do You Know How To Set Healthy Expectations?

Very often in therapy I find myself discussing with clients the disappointment and self-blame they experience when their personal expectations are not met. In addition, many people have a lot of difficulty discriminating what is and what isn’t a realistic…

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Boundary Setting

How To Say NO

Saying No is one of the main ways through which we delineate and maintain our personal boundaries. The concept that we can refuse something is central to maintaining healthy relationships and to our understanding of what we are and aren’t…

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Relationship-Triangle

Breaking Out of the Relationship Triangle

Very often clients come in to deal with relationship difficulties. Even though we obviously cannot do relationship counselling when there is only one individual in the room, there are many things we can discuss about the nature of relationships, communication…

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Why We Struggle with Healthy Self-Esteem

Others will only respect you to the degree you demonstrate respect for yourself Self-esteem refers to the way we view ourselves, our subjective perception of our worth as a person, our competence and our ability to succeed in life. It…

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