Most mental health difficulties develop in response to us not knowing how to process difficult emotions. We distract ourselves, we reason them away, we tell ourselves not to be so silly, and to pull ourselves together.

Social support is one of the most powerful factors in helping someone overcome their struggle with depression. In this video, I explore what is happening for the depressed person, and what to do and say to help them.

Sex is about so much more than sex. If you want your partner to want to have sex with you more, there are a few things you need to know about how women are wired and what they need.

In this video we look at the number one need of women and how you can be strategic about meeting these needs, and in turn get her to want to have sex with you more.

Could you be depressed without knowing it? High functioning depression is a lot more difficult to spot than clinical depression, because people keep on functioning even though they are not okay on the inside.

Developed by relationship expert Gary Chapman, the idea of love languages gives us a concrete way of giving and receiving love in a way that is more effective. Speaking a different love language to your partner can feel like you are speaking Greek and they are speaking French and you are both wondering why you feel so frustrated and unseen.

The number one reason people lie awake at night is because of their thoughts. Our brains are wired to process emotions and experiences, and when we don't process them, they spill over when we least expect it - like when we want to go to sleep.

Emotional Intelligence is a key element to raising kids who can navigate the challenges of life. If I could teach all parents one thing, it would be this…

Anxiety throws you into a vicious cycle that is always difficult to break. Let’s take Sam, for example. Sam was riding the bus one day, and suddenly he started to feel a little claustrophobic. He noticed his heart racing, his hands sweating, and he suddenly felt dizzy, worrying that he might faint. The fact that he could not get off the bus at that moment made things worse.

I recently gave a talk to parents of teenagers. As I was describing the changes that take place in the teenage brain, it suddenly occurred to me that if you didn’t know I was talking about a teenager, you might think I was describing an entirely different species! One moment you’re having a perfectly pleasant conversation and the next moment they are in tears, telling you you’re the worst parent in the world, before retreating to their bedroom for hours, if not days! What it boils down to is a war between logic and emotion – and in the teenage brain, the odds are stacked against logic. Here is why.

One of the most common things I see in therapy is people battling with low self-esteem. This presents itself in many different forms. Sometimes it looks like a person very concerned with what other people think of them. Others constantly look for reassurance from people. Some constantly criticize themselves. Most of the people I see don’t even realize they are even doing this. Or if they do, they ask me how they can change it.

Bob (a fictional character) comes to see me for the first time, and reports that he constantly feels tired, struggles to sleep at night, has developed a number of physical symptoms, and is generally feeling more emotional and less able to cope in his every day life than usual. He adds that he experienced a panic attack for the very first time a number of months ago.

When I was a student, I wrote a dissertation on Child Sex Trafficking. I set out to discover what young girls who had been trafficked had experienced, how they survived, and what life was like once they got out. What emerged from the study was that girls who had at least one adult that they could trust and depend on coped significantly better with the aftermath of being trafficked than those who had nobody. If they had an uncle they could call when they didn’t know where to turn, or a teacher they could tell when they were in distress, their ability to move beyond their horror increased exponentially. Those who had nobody to turn to remained stuck. Those who were able to overcome did so because they were connected. 

We’ve all been there. That moment when something happens and your world is turned upside down. A loss, a pending divorce, a(nother) family feud, a diagnosis, a meeting with your child’s teacher…the list is endless. I guess that’s because crisis is inevitable. First comes the shock. This can’t be happening to me. This is not real. And after a while, it hits you. And it usually hits hard!