ACT

Understanding the Stress-Anxiety Relationship

by John Nolan
8th December 202418th March 2025

There is a strong connection between stress and anxiety, both anxiety and fear are natural human responses, often triggered by perceived threats or dangers. Anxiety, however, is future-oriented, stemming from anticipation of potential threats and often leading to worry, while fear is a response to a present and immediate danger. The body’s stress response is… Read More »Understanding the Stress-Anxiety Relationship

The Connection Between Trauma and Anxiety

by John Nolan
5th December 202425th December 2024

Trauma can lead to several physiological changes, such as changes in brain wave patterns and an increase in stress hormone activity. These changes are the result of the brain’s attempt to protect itself from further harm. However, they can also lead to several problems, including anxiety. Trauma changes the way a person experiences the world.… Read More »The Connection Between Trauma and Anxiety

Supporting Wellbeing: Coaching for Stress Management at Work1st April 2025
Coaching for stress management at work is a collaborative process focused on helping individuals within a professional context to better understand and handle workplace pressures. It involves techniques like solution-focused questioning, exploring past successes, developing coping skills, and setting boundaries to enhance wellbeing and performance.
Coaching Beyond the Shadows: Embracing a Future-Oriented Path from Depression1st April 2025
Depression coaching centres on empowering individuals to move beyond current difficulties by focusing on their strengths and future aspirations. Key principles include fostering hope, leveraging strengths, setting achievable goals aligned with values, and cultivating acceptance. A future-oriented approach proves particularly effective by shifting focus from problems to possibilities, generating hope and motivation, creating clear goals, breaking rumination cycles, empowering agency, and building resilience. By illuminating a path forward, depression coaching supports individuals in actively creating the fulfilling lives they desire.
Sensory Pathways to Healing: The Rise and Integration of Psychosensory Therapy31st March 2025
Psychosensory therapy, with origins in traditional practices and modern neuroscience, is increasingly effective in mental health by directly influencing neurobiological states through sensory input. Techniques like Havening, EFT, and EMDR target the amygdala and can facilitate the processing of trauma and reduce anxiety. These therapies offer rapid, gentle, and empowering approaches for issues such as panic attacks, phobias, PTSD, chronic pain, and addictions. Psychosensory therapy integrates well with future-oriented modalities like SFBT, coaching, and NLP by quickly reducing distress, fostering self-empowerment, and creating a more receptive state for change and goal achievement.
Embracing Experience: Understanding and Moving Beyond Avoidance30th March 2025
Experiential avoidance, the attempt to evade unwanted inner experiences, plays a significant role in various mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, stress, and trauma, leading to restricted lives and intensified distress. Overcoming this pattern involves cultivating awareness, acceptance, willingness, cognitive defusion, present moment contact, value clarification, gradual exposure, and self-compassion, enabling individuals to engage with a full range of experiences and move towards a more fulfilling life.
Steps to Overcoming Dread: Calming Your Mind and Building Resilience with Self-Help Techniques29th March 2025
Feelings of dread often involve activation of the brain's threat system (amygdala) and an overwhelmed cortex, accompanied by negative thinking patterns, anticipation of threat, and negative self-talk. To overcome dread, techniques such as CPR for the Amygdala (combining self-havening and brain games), self-havening alone, challenging negative self-talk, practising mindfulness and acceptance, focusing on solutions, ACT-based defusion, applied relaxation (breathing), cultivating self-compassion, and the LLAMP approach can be effective. These methods work by calming the nervous system, redirecting attention, creating psychological distance from negative thoughts, promoting self-acceptance, and shifting focus towards positive possibilities and values. Consistent practice and patience are key to building resilience and reducing the impact of dread.