Navigating the Journey Through PTSD: Evidence-Based Strategies for Recovery

If you've experienced a traumatic event, it's essential to recognize that your feelings are normal responses to an abnormal situation....

Dr Jo Stuart

3 min read

Understanding Trauma and PTSD: Insights into Healing

Trauma is not a one-size-fits-all experience. It affects everyone differently and can manifest in various forms. Broadly, trauma can be...

Dr Jo Stuart

3 min read

Phobias

What are phobias and how to overcome them.

Dr Jo Stuart

7 min read

Parenting Tips and Advice

The Difficulties of Being a Parent A child arriving into the world is a wondrous thing. But often times we are not prepared for how life...

Dr Jo Stuart

5 min read

Overcoming Physical Symptoms of Anxiety

Please click the images below to see the individual blogs to help in overcoming physical symptoms of anxiety Relaxed Breathing When we are anxious we breathe more shallowly and do not breathe out a full breathe. Square or Box Breathing Breathing is a fundamental element of our anxiety/calming system in the body Body scan A body scan is a relaxation technique that can help us to control anxiety or unhelpful emotions. Progressive Muscle Relaxation A very important component

Dr Jo Stuart

1 min read

Exercise and Stress

The link between exercise and improved mood, concentration, health and wellbeing is strong, clear and consistent. Exercise increases bodies production of endorphins Exercise clears the mind of repetitive thoughts and worries Exercise raises your mood Exercises improves the quality of your sleep Exercise provides a productive, effective activity which is often lacking in other environments. It facilitates social engagement and structures free time. There is evidence that

Dr Jo Stuart

2 min read

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

A very important component of stress is the physical tension we carry around. In fact people who experience high levels of stress and anxiety can be so physically tense much of the time that it becomes their normal physical state. This exercise has two parts. The first part involves tensing each muscle group so that you become aware of holding physical tension. The second part is a progressive relaxation of each of these muscle groups so that you have the experience of purpos

Dr Jo Stuart

2 min read

Body Scan

A body scan is a relaxation technique that can help us to control anxiety or unhelpful emotions. It works in two ways: firstly, it helps us to reduce the physical symptoms of anxiety but also, because we are focusing on something, it helps by providing the mind with a focus other than worrying or stressful thoughts. When we first start doing body scans, it is sometime difficult to feel anything inside of our body but with time and practice, we realise that we can actually fee

Dr Jo Stuart

7 min read

Four Square or Box Breathing

Breathing is a fundamental element of our anxiety/calming system in the body. Here we will discuss how 'box' breathing can help to calm the body. The systems involved in this process are known as the Parasympathetic and the Sympathetic nervous system. All we really need to remember is that we can not be completely relaxed and highly anxious at the same time...the two systems in the body work in opposition to each other. If you imagine an on and off switch. When one is switc

Dr Jo Stuart

2 min read

Relaxed Breathing

When we are anxious we breathe more shallowly and do not breathe out a full breath. The idea when learning how to breathe properly, is that it should be a natural and relaxed breath in and breath out. There are many suggestions about how to relax your breathing but our aim is to just understand how to lower anxiety through breathing using a full natural breath. We need to be able to do this anywhere - if we are sitting in a meeting or at a social event. We need to practice th

Dr Jo Stuart

2 min read

The Physical Symptoms of Anxiety

Demystifying the physical symptoms of anxiety.The ‘fight and flight’ response enables humans to become much stronger, and was useful, for example when a human needed to fight off a wild animal or be able to run away. There are stories where someone was able to show super human strength, when their child was in danger – that is the ‘fight and flight’ response at work. The Brain mechanism: In the brain there is the amygdala. The amygdala is a central part of the limbic syste

Dr Jo Stuart

2 min read

Understanding Anxiety

Anxiety is something that all humans experience. In fact, if you did not experience any anxiety you would be considered to be abnormal! Our anxiety system developed in Hunter-Gatherer years and at that time it was a very useful system in helping us to survive and thrive into this day and age. The problem with the anxiety system is that although it was useful in hunter-gather times it really is not very useful today.

Dr Jo Stuart

1 min read

The 5 Area Model

The 5 area model is a model of how human’s function. If we can develop the ability to notice the connections between how we feel, think, our physical reactions and what we do then we can bring small changes to these areas and influence the whole system. Thoughts: We all think about things. When we wake up in the morning we begin to think and we rarely stop thinking until we go to sleep at night. Our thoughts can be either useful to us or not useful to us. We may worry continu

Dr Jo Stuart

3 min read

What is CBT?

You have probably heard of CBT and if you have not, it is something that has been found, time and again, to help individuals overcome certain difficulties. There are actually four elements to it. The 'cognitive' element focuses on our thoughts and how they can be helpful and unhelpful to us. The 'behavioural' elements looks at what we do or do not do, depending on how we see ourselves, others and the world. There are two other elements, which are not apparent in the phrase: t

Dr Jo Stuart

1 min read