ADADSU eNews (March 2024): Getting Ready for Spring
Another year has passed since the last newsletter. So much has happened in all our lives. The darker months of the year in the Northern Hemisphere are about to come to a close and we will soon enter the new season of spring. Now is the best time to nurture and take care of ourselves. It is the easiest time for an emotional and physical clean-up to be ready to meet the year – to allow flow for creating something new. This month’s blog topic is “How to Change Your State of Mind“. In the newsletter you a few helpful tips including recommended films, books, podcasts and apps to help us along…Read more…
ADADSU eNews (December 2022 / January 2023): Year-End Reflections and Stories with Heart
This newsletter is a little winter ‘treat’, as a “Thank You” to everyone, offering a collection of some good movies, documentaries, books, this time even some ‘audio-cinema’, podcasts, apps and food recipes for ideas to nurture yourself and self-care this winter break. Here are some of my year-end reflections to 2022 and some stories with heart for more connection and a smooth entry into 2023!…Read more…
ADADSU eNews (February 2022): Psychotherapy and the Climate Crisis
These last two months a lot has been happening in the world. A major global study has come out showing latest findings about mental health effects in relation to the climate and nature crisis we are facing. With political and economic systems getting more disruptive; the third year of the pandemic and all the knock-on effects on our personal lives. With so much fear-based thinking heightened around the world, how can we transmute this to feelings of hope, compassion and still experience joy, while being in the middle of all this?…Read more…
ADADSU eNews (December 2021): Finding ourselves
Last week when planning for the Christmas break I realised in a bit of a shock that my last newsletter was exactly one ‘entire’ year ago. This year seems to have flown by in a daze, with many difficult and diverse challenges. Many of us can probably related to this and my clinic seemed full of shared experiences particularly around the aftermath of the pandemic. Trying to recover in these uncertain times is still a challenge, while others are amid their own personal storms and winters…Read more…
ADADSU eNews (December 2020): Year-End 2020 and Facing a Changed New World in 2021
This year has been a strange year to say the least. When I wrote the newsletter at the end of last year entitled “Endings for New Beginnings: Meeting 2020 with Horns” I didn’t realise how much we would need them, considering what we have all gone through this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple lockdowns on a global scale. This newsletter is a little round-up of this year here in my psychotherapy practice as well as exploring different topics like how to cope with loneliness this lockdown Christmas, and the new trend of ‘desocialisation’, – and there are some film, music, book and other tips for the break…Read more…
ADADSU eNews (September 2020): Two Spaces Left! Creative Self-Therapy weekend workshop retreat
This coming weekend – we still have two spaces left! Are you ready for your next chapter? This creative and therapeutic writing retreat in sunny Somerset may just be what you need to get ready for the next season. Come to pause, reset, reflect, write, meditate, heal and connect with your inner creative wisdom in nature…Read more…
ADADSU eNews (September 2020): Creative Self-Therapy – starting out on the next chapter
In this newsletter we will look introducing the topic of self-therapy as part of the self-care process. After a challenging few months around the globe, things have started up and many of us seem to consider a change of life-style or environment or ‘change’ full stop. Any change process is also a grieving process, something has been lost or there is a sense of loss that needs to be digested before something new can grow. If you follow some of my newsletters you will know that I have written a few blog articles on the topic…Read more…
ADADSU eNews (May 2020): Grief Work: New Things Can Grow out of Our ‘Compost’
This newsletter looks at CHANGE (clearly a theme this year!). In and outside of sessions various losses and grief – and ‘stuff’ (old and new) has been coming up for many of us, particularly in these current strange lockdown times. Perhaps we have been more available for these to come up now. In all their different forms so that they can be transformed into the rich ‘compost’ it is meant to become: to allow new things to form and grow from it. Compost needs to be digested properly, slowly broken down, over time – so it can become a rich base for new life to appear and new growth to occur. New things which we cannot yet see… A book recommendation on the topic is included, which I may have already suggested to some of you, and a couple of seasonal recipes are included… Happy May Start and May Spring Begin!…Read more…
ADADSU eNews (March 2020): Staying Grounded – Free Course – Yoga at Home (Correction of Details)
Correction of details from the last newsletter for the free 21-day Yoga Course – there is still time to join! In the last newsletter covering the theme of our current situation…Under the ‘Yoga at Home’ resources of the last newsletter for ‘How to stay grounded and keep a calm head’ I shared details of a good friend of mine who is running a free online yoga course for 21 days (which started last weekend and will run until 19th April 2020). Some of the details have changed…Read more…
ADADSU eNews (March 2020): How to Stay Grounded and Keep a Calm Head
After the recent events and the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic many of us have become concerned. It has plunged our world into uncertainty as we know it and we don’t know how each day or week ahead will be.It can be challenging to stay centred and calm in this turbulent time with relentless news reporting and social media posts. This newsletter will provide some general tips and useful links to help you manage and cope during this testing time…Read more…
ADADSU eNews (December 2019): Meet 2020 with ‘Horns’
In this newsletter we will look a bit at a roundup of 2019, what to expect ahead, a bit about transitions and change, the paradox of opposites, a trailer clip for a film I was recently interviewed for, and a few book recommendations for the Christmas break. [Disclaimer: this is not about NY resolutions, as they don’t really tend to work, right; more ‘anti-resolutions’ and ‘intentions’ to create more successful change. Get your horns ready.] I haven’t written a newsletter for a while. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind year full of challenges…Read more…
ADADSU eNews (June 2019): Nature as Therapist
Moving on from the last newsletter on the theme of “boundaries and trust” and letting go, this week’s newsletter is looking at ways to manage symptoms of prolonged stress and how “Nature” can come become a healing element. We probably all know that prolonged stress isn’t good for us. It can lead to burnout, anxiety, depression, insomnia, fatigue and many other symptoms. “Stress” doesn’t just mean having a lot to do or being too busy to see friends or go on holidays. Although yes, a long-term imbalance between work and play can create burnout symptoms. However, stress is also created by continuously doing things we deep down don’t like or don’t really want to do – but feel we have to, or feel we have no choice or power to change them… Read more…
ADADSU eNews (February 2019): Boundaries & Trust
Moving on from last year’s and our theme of “letting go” to be able to renew and “letting in” again, these workshops may be right for you! If you happen to be near Cape Town in South Africa this March, and would like to visit the beautiful wine country of Stellenbosch, come and join us. Letting go was covered a little in the last newsletter. We also need to let go of old beliefs, no longer useful thoughts that we hang on to, to make room for the new and ‘letting in’ again. This requires trust. To trust ourselves and others, we must also trust our own boundaries when others might challenge or invade them. Our boundaries can be transgressed on many different levels: physical, emotional, mental/intellectual, and spiritual, and this can be understood in different ways. Understanding them on the most basic physical level with the horses can be a helpful metaphor to understand what it means to have boundaries on the other levels. Horses often like to challenge our boundaries, especially if they sense that they are not strong enough in a person… Read more…
ADADSU eNews (December 2018): Letting Go
This month’s newsletter may be a slightly different and more personal update to the usual past eNews letters. These will still exist with all their book tips and TedTalks and specific themes, but less frequently. However, I’d like to create some more updates that show a little more of what I am up to and connect more personally… For the last few months of this year I have been working from South Africa. The beauty of the diverse and colourful nature, the sunny bright smiling faces and slower pace of life leave their mark in our hearts every time. Leaving the brightness of summer in the Southern hemisphere I just got back to greet the cosy winter chill of the Northern hemisphere again. Reaching the end of another year also brings up thoughts of endings, re-evaluation and taking stock. A necessary aspect to help us leave behind what needs to let go off and to get ready to greet the New Year’s wonderful challenges and surprises that are yet unknown… Read more…
ADADSU eNews (September 2018): Taking Therapy Outdoors – more than ‘just’ walking and talking
This month’s newsletter topic is to include more of the ‘earth’ and to understand what it means to take psychotherapy to the outdoors. We can no longer ignore witnessing the impact the environment, our artificially constructed societies and time-poor life-styles with its many crises across the planet have on each of us on some level. Our personal and private issues and traumas are not only in our heads or as a result of our family issues, but they are also connected to the larger systems (and their traumas) we live in. The reality hits home every time we switch on the news – if we can still bear it – or see it on other social media communications. And what can we really do about it? If we opened up to look deeper… Read more…
ADADSU eNews (May 2018): Relationships for a reason, a season or a lifetime?
Inside and outside of my clinic in these last few month’s there have been some ‘themes’ becoming apparent for so many people (in areas of romance, work, friendship, family): RELATIONSHIPS! Relationships evolve over time in different ways. These changes can feel good or painful. If there are painful changes or endings, how can we help ourselves to get through these challenging transitions and how is it even possible to feel more excited about new opportunities again? Can we look at it in different ways for a shift perspectives for for more useful and productive ways of thinking (and feeling!) about them? In my blog and the selected TedTalks/videos and book selection (scroll to the end) we will explore why certain people might enter our lives at different stages of our lives and for different lengths of time. Read more…
ADADSU eNews (Mar 2018): Emotional agility and being able to move on
Easter! A time for a deep breath, a few days off work, a long weekend, the start of spring… And also a time to symbolise transformation, letting go, and moving on. With that in mind I have created a brand-new newsletter: a new face, a new format. There is a selection of topics that I felt were apt right now as well as sharing some happy and good news about some changes for this month. Let us know what you think about it and receive a Special Easter Offer! The first five people getting back to me with feedback, will receive 15% off your first walk & talk session – our new walk and talk therapy programme. Read more
ADADSU eNews (Dec 2017): A time for reflection…
As the year comes to an end, it is a natural time for us to reflect not only the year gone by maybe even more – our life and our happiness. Often the holiday season can bring a lot of stress too, finishing up with work projects, getting ready for the holidays, trying to get everything done for the holidays, etc. It is especially important at this time of year to take out some time for self-care and to take a moment to reflect. What resolutions did you make back at the beginning of the year and did you manage to achieve them? Most of us don’t! So you are not alone! Life can continually throw curve balls along the way that are unplanned, and sometimes we may also get positively surprised. Read more
ADADSU eNews (Apr 2017): Emotional Spring Clean – Are You Ready?
We hope you have enjoyed the Easter break. This time of year regularly invokes a need to spring clean – this could be our homes, our working lives or our own emotional intelligence so we thought this month we would look at detoxification and cleansing – both emotionally and physically. “Detox” was once one of those trendy words for diet fads, however, “detoxification” is a natural body process. Many organs are involved in this process and primarily our liver. It is basically a process of converting toxins to something less harmful to either re-utilise or to safely get them to the outside (via our excretory organs). Our bodies mainly do this when we are relaxed, particularly when we are asleep and our ‘parasympathetic’ nervous system is more active. This process does not work efficiently when we are stressed (‘sympathetic’ nervous system hyperactivation), have disrupted or too little sleep, or are too overloaded with a variety of toxins and other stress factors. Read more
ADADSU eNews (Mar 2017): Addiction – the Opposite of Connection and a Learnt Habit?
This month we came across and interesting animation film on the meaning of addiction. I thought it was very good and though this ‘new way’ of thinking about addiction has been around for a few years, it still receives quite a lot of controversy and misunderstanding. In this newsletter we will look at addiction a little, what it means, its challenges and what we can do about it. You can also read a more detailed article on the topic in our Blog section. We will include some Top Picks of the Month as usual, with a TED Talk by Johann Hari on “Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong”, a mindfulness (audio-)book to help with addiction recovery, and a yoga session and recipe of the month to nourish your body-mind senses. Enjoy! Read more
ADADSU eNews (Feb 2017): Online Therapy and New Ways of Working
We are delighted to announce that we have recently added a new service to the ADADSU offerings. After listening to our clients, we could see there was a need to offer an opportunity to seek online therapy at a time and location to suit them. Time is a vital commodity and often the barrier that stops us from asking for help and support when our lives are running at a 100 miles per hour. With this in mind, online therapy using the latest technologies, can give you the confidence to seek help at a time and place to suit you. Picks of the Month are also added as usual with Top Pick: Dr Irvin Yalom interview, renowned author and psychotherapist, on his evolving position on online therapy! Enjoy! Read more
ADADSU eNews (Jan 2017): A Time for Reflection…Round-up of 2016 – Our Successes
Last year has been a big year with various changes on all levels, in the political environment and for many of us on a smaller ll at home. At ADADSU Ltd. we have launched our Equine Assisted Somatic Intelligence (EASI) Programmes that have been going very well into the winter months. The changes and shifts that we have been privileged to witness by allowing our horses to do their therapy work with our clients, have been incredibly humbling and deeply touching. This and the feedback from our clients has given us even more confidence to continue expanding this service. Read more
ADADSU eNews (Dec 2016): Self-Care
The topic for this month is a about self-care. What does this actually mean?? Especially for Christmas when we are supposed to think of everybody else? And anyway there is just no time!! But hang-on we have some tips for you to make surviving this Christmas and New Year a little easier! The most important thing is finding a loving support system. Family, friends, pets and nature. If that is difficult, finding teachers, therapists and coaches you trust can form an integral part of this non-judgemental support system to help you make sense of it and help you “through” it. Talking about it with different people is often very helpful and yet most of us are worried about it, we don’t want to burden others or feel guilty of being repetitive to our friends. Read more
ADADSU eNews (Jun 2016): Loss and Grieving
The topic for this month is a about loss and grieving. It’s not normally a topic that gets talked about much though it is so important. When talking about loss, I am not just talking about losing a loved one, or a job, or a friend, or maybe money or other things. It can also be our sense of loss for our youth, our childhood innocence, our joy, vibrancy or enthusiasm for things. Or in fact the loss of the mother or father (or other family member) or partner that we expected or hoped they were – but we have realised that they no longer exist in that way. When talking about loss, it is also how we react to it and how we do this “grieving for that loss” which each person experiences in a different way (emotionally, mentally, and physically). We are also really talking about a change process. Read more
ADADSU eNews (Aug 2016): Equine Sessions Offer
We would like to introduce to you our new service: Equine Assisted Somatic Intelligence (EASI) Programme. If you have been following our newsletters and social media posts you already know that we have been busy working and practicing over the past year to introduce equine assisted psychotherapy and learning into our service offering. Equine therapy has become an innovative approach for lasting change and can work well together with existing room-based therapy, particularly when we reach places of stuckness. We are happy to offer any existing or past clients a special discount on top of our introductory prices depending if you go for the EASI programme packages or EASI stand-alone sessions if you book before 15th August. There will be a slight increase after 16th August 2016. Read more
ADADSU eNews (May 2016): Intimacy
The topic for this month is “intimacy”. What does intimacy mean to you? Does it mean being involved with someone romantically? Does it mean enjoying an authentic and fulfilling sex life? What does it mean to you to be intimate with someone? What I mean here is actually not just sexual intimacy. But intimacy in terms of connecting in an emotional, physical and even spiritual way with others, ourselves and life in general. Someone put it this way: “Intimacy is the act of connecting with someone so deeply, you feel like you can see into their soul.” However, I would say it is not just the act of connecting with someone else, it is also important that we can connect with ourselves first. Read more…
ADADSU eNews (Apr 2016): Nurturing
In this month’s newsletter we have added some suggestions for good yoga sessions to support our monthly theme of nurturing ourselves and dealing with overwhelm. This is in addition to the usual monthly meditation suggestions, recipes, and this month’s podcast and short YouTube video themes, which are on equine-facilitated psychotherapy and learning (EFP/L). So this month’s theme really follows on from last month’s “emotional spring cleaning”. It is about making promises to ourselves and making ourselves accountable for following through with these promises. Sometimes this can be difficult. In our modern hectic life, we will find umpteen excuses why we cannot make space, take more time for fun things, for nurturing ourselves or just to just “be” a little more. Read more
ADADSU eNews (Mar 2016): Emotional Detox
Last month we covered endings and new beginnings. With Easter coming earlier this year, we continue the theme of “emotional spring cleaning” in terms of detoxification and cleansing – emotionally and physically. “Detox” was once one of those trendy words for diet fads, however, “detoxification” is a natural process that our bodies physically do. Many organs are involved in this process and primarily our liver. It is basically a process of converting toxins to something less harmful to either re-utilise or to safely expose them to the outside (via our excretory organs). Our bodies mainly do this when we are relaxed, particularly when we are asleep and our parasympathetic nervous system is more active. This process does not work efficiently when we are stressed (sympathetic nervous system hyperactivation), have disrupted or too little sleep, or are too overloaded with a variety of toxins and other stress factors. Read more
ADADSU eNews (Feb 2016): Endings and New Beginnings
Last month we covered your goals for this year and exploring different ways of attaining them. This month the theme that has come up in my practice has been “endings” and “new beginnings and in a way the process of emotional “spring cleaning”. Often, endings are thrown at us unplanned, and we will have to find ways of dealing with this sudden change. On the flip side, having the courage to decide to end something, in a conscious and planned way, means we are starting to feel our power and embrace the possibility that we are in the position to change things. Read more
ADADSU eNews (Jan 2016): Goals and Plans
Happy New Year 2016! How was your start so far? And what are your goals or plans for this year? Are you a planner (doing person) or a “scanner” (being person)? Do you prefer to just go with the flow and let things happen, trusting good things will come to you, experiencing things you didn’t even know could happen? Or do you prefer to plan everything in minute detail to make sure everything will happen exactly as you wanted, no better no worse, as it would be too risky to leave it all to chance? Or perhaps you are worried that if you don’t plan, things would not turn out the “right” way? Or is it somewhere in between? Read more
ADADSU eNews (Dec 2015): Review and Reflect
Another year has gone by! Are you one of those people that wishes you could have done more? Finish off more projects to leave the old year behind and start the new one afresh? Do more fun stuff, travel more, change jobs, fulfil your dreams? You are not alone! The “festive season of love” easily becomes the haven of intense stress and overwhelm, especially when trying to please everyone around you. If this is you STOP NOW. Take a deep breath…take a moment to review and reflect on last year: If you could live 2015 again, what would you have done differently? Or would you have actually done the same with the resources you had? Read more