SCT Therapy

Just sharing my latest article about the power of Testimonials in LinkedIn... I hope you enjoy it.

One of the goals of undergoing therapy should always be around improving our quality of life, daily.

So, what are you doing today to improve your quality of life? I’m meeting a new client, working with a current client then off for a weekend of gardening – my happy place.

Have a lovely day and a great weekend # # #.

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Here’s a thought – what happens when a person has therapy and makes the changes they want to make, to overcome the difficulties they’ve endured for months or even years?

What happens when years of stress and anxiety, or trauma, or even patterns of burnout are processed and desensitised, to the extent they no longer cause distress and disturbance to that person?

Is that person still the same person? Absolutely – but perhaps with some safer boundaries in place, a greater knowledge of living autonomously, self-belief, ability to self-care and improved resilience.

Are the people around them impacted by the changes? Highly likely – change is a natural part of any relationship, whether familial, intimate, social, or work-related, and as it evolves, so do the dynamics of that relationship.

Check out my blog post to learn more about the challenges and adjustments that surround this transition of change and new behaviours/dynamics in relationships: https://wix.to/y34FtNL

Navigating the Changes after Therapy Here’s a thought – what happens when a person has therapy and makes the changes they want to make, to overcome the difficulties they’ve endured for months or even years? What happens when years of stress and anxiety, or trauma, or even patterns of burnout are processed and desensitised, to the...

As well as being generally wonderful, Tracey Tait ☕ is a menopause expert who runs the incredible Menopause Training Company:
https://menopausetrainingcompany.com/menopause-workshop-newcastle-gateshead-waitlist/?cn-reloaded=1

Tracey runs lots of menopause workshops for women to help them understand and manage their menopause symptoms.

It’s safe to say these menopause workshops are hugely needed and Tracey is just the person to deliver them as she uses her own experience, a considerable knowledge and a barrel full of humour to keep this life impacting and often emotive subject as light as possible.

Even though we are well into the 21st Century, there is still a distinct lack of understanding in this area and we really need to lift the taboo.

So, the purpose of this message is to share the page for women who are interested in the workshops with Tracey and The Menopause Training Company, to join a waiting list. Y

Everyone is impacted by menopause – learning about it is half the battle. Get signed up - you won’t regret it. # # #.

Menopause Workshops Gateshead Newcastle Do you live in the Newcastle and Gateshead area and looking to understand your menopause, ease your symptoms with a small group of like-minded women?Join our waiting list for future workshops.

And here we are at Friday again.... over half way through April 😲.

🤔Has your week been overwhelming?

🤔Does it feel like it's taken a month to get to Friday?

If so, this ones on me... enjoy! ☺️

Take a few moments to ground yourself ready for the weekend and some relaxing down time.

Let's start by noticing your posture... if you feel you are slouching, correct this by sitting up straight. Perhaps use an imaginary piece of thread to pull yourself up from the top of your head. Let your shoulders drop (give them a roll even) and notice that instant reduction in discomfort.

Notice your breathing and perhaps close your eyes (not whilst driving please 😉) and imagine the waves of the sea gently ebbing in with your in breath and drifting out again with your out breath. Repeat this 4 or 5 times and notice how calm you feel already.

As you focus on your breath try this helpful technique that I use regularly with my clients. 54321 Grounding is a resource that uses your senses to regulate and help you to remain present in the moment. When we are present (in the here and now, grounded and regulated) we can overcome acute stress and reduce anxiety.

Look around you and find 5 things you can see - focus on 4 things you can feel - name 3 sounds you can hear - notice 2 things you can smell and think about 1 thing you can taste (maybe it's that delicious coffee you're about to treat yourself to ☕).

And now we're ready for the weekend. Have a great one 😊.

How will you choose to activate your happiness chemicals today?

Doing some simple activities like going for a walk in nature, cooking (and eating) lovely food, listening to your favourite music or catching up with good friends, will always boost the production of your feel-good hormones and regulate your mood.

Happiness chemicals will help you to feel positive, happy, confident and find joy in life.

Dopamine (the feel good hormone) is a neurotransmitter that activate the brains reward system. It's associated with pleasurable sensations, learning and memory. When we complete a task and celebrate we get a feel good feeling.

Serotonin (stabilises mood - the happy hormone) helps regulate sleep, appetite, digestion, learning ability and improve memory.

Oxytocin (the love hormone) helps promote trust, empathy and bonding in relationships. Levels of oxytocin increase with physical affection and is especially important for childbirth and parent-child bonding.

Endorphins (the pain reliever) are produced in response to stress or discomfort. Levels of endorphins increase when you engage in reward-producing activities including laughter, exercising and eating.

I'm off to walk my dogs - always makes me happy. Have a great day # # #.

Stress Awareness Month 2024 takes place every April, with the aim of looking at what contributes towards overwhelming stress and sharing solutions.

There's still a stigma attached to stress and mental health, so the theme this year is to focus on small, consistent and positive actions for improving wellness and well-being.

Even the smallest steps taken each day toward self-care and stress reduction can improve mental health wellbeing over time. So, here's a nice and easy resource that'll take you a few minutes to reduce your stress and restore your nervous system to a state of calm and regulation. Try 5 deep relaxing breaths using the Box Breathing Technique.

If you need a little more help, then please get in touch - the kettles always on at # # #.

People can be apprehensive, or scared even, of starting therapy for a number of reasons, including a fear of being judged, fear of change, the unknown and perhaps what they might discover during therapy.

Pride may play a part too - it takes a lot to admit needing help.

Sometimes past experience of therapy or counselling may prevent them too.

I help people to overcome this fear and enable them to go on to realise and overcome their difficulties and relearn/learn how to feel calmer, stronger and more resilient, with some practical, bespoke therapy sessions, life skill tools and resources.

It all starts with a call or a message via https://www.scttherapy.com/. At SCT Therapy, changes are made, difficulties are overcome and goals are achieved.

I fell in love with Helen Aitchison Writes writing and extraordinary gift of bringing characters to life, after reading The Dinner Club. Derek and his friends still hold a bit of my heart, as does Kitty in The Life and Love (Attempts) of Kitty Cook, but May, the character in this her third book, The 31 Days of May, brought out every emotion and I didn’t want the book to end. I became immersed, as is standard with Helen’s books, including her other publications and no doubt I will with her next upcoming project.

But May has become my favourite character to date, and I felt a real connection to her, as she reminded me of so many of the beautiful people I know and work with. In this book, Helen gently touches on many complex and extreme mental health topics, including trauma and suicidal thoughts, both of which are often misunderstood and unless someone is facing these difficulties, people often avoid these subjects at all costs. Any other writer may unnerve the reader given some of these difficult subjects, but Helen has considerable knowledge and understanding in this area. She writes sensitively and responsibly, whilst mesmerising the reader, which will enable them to continue the journey with May without wanting to run away from the issues covered.

Humans are social animals and need to be part of a tribe to survive, especially when tragedy occurs, and this is what Helen manages to portray through May throughout the book.

I feel this is a huge breakthrough as so many readers can learn about such issues, including the impact of Alzheimer’s and the amazing therapy that is EMDR, as they become captivated by May, her friends and family and the beautiful Alexander (the stray cat) who makes her his human.

I read this book in 2 sittings and struggled to put it down, reading until 1:22am on the second sitting and I loved, loved, loved it. A beautiful read of love, loss, finding your tribe, trusting the universe, curiosity and hope.

I am extremely honoured that Helen used me and SCT Therapy to be the therapist mentioned in the book that May contacts to commence some EMDR therapy.

If you're looking for a good read then I can't recommend this book highly enough. If you or anyone you know wants to know more about the incredible EMDR therapy, then please get in touch.

There's still time to get booked onto this free Webinar with Joanna Taylor https://www.seeds-of-happiness.org/a/2147832091/5oo5ZkhV

You'll gain so much from it (see below for more details).

My lovely friend and professional supervisor, Joanna Taylor, is presenting a new, free webinar soon. It’s call The Secret Alchemy of Presence – : https://www.seeds-of-happiness.org/a/2147832091/5oo5ZkhV

If you’ve ever wanted to:
• Move away from feelings of overwhelm, anxiety and disconnection.
• Truly discover you.
• Transform your relationships.
• Connect more fully with others – and more importantly with yourself.
• Discover who you truly are.
• Become more grounded, authentic, congruent, and empowered.
• Discover a new peaceful way of being.

…then Joanna and this webinar will help you to discover how to do just that.

I’ve attended many of Joanna’s courses and during these events I learn more about me and how I want to live my life than ever before. Joanna is a truly wonderful and inspiring person. I learn so much from Joanna and now you can too # # #.

Ah, here we are at Monday again. Whatever happened to the weekend?

Monday may not be the most popular day of the week but let's agree to smile before 11:16am. Remember there are 53 Monday's this year - so we can either moan 53 times or be thankful 53 times.

Let's make this a great day, smile wide and have a great week. Here's a few reminders from Cookie and Biscuit (my canny pooches), good old Charlie Brown and PP of reasons to love Monday's.

What do you love about Monday's?

⭐I love the start of a new week because I can use whatever I learned from last week.
⭐I love the chance to have 5 whole working days to get things done and work through my to do list.
⭐I love the fact that next Monday is Easter Monday, so we're off 😉.

My lovely friend and professional supervisor, Joanna Taylor, is presenting a new, free webinar soon. It’s call The Secret Alchemy of Presence – : https://www.seeds-of-happiness.org/a/2147832091/5oo5ZkhV

If you’ve ever wanted to:
• Move away from feelings of overwhelm, anxiety and disconnection.
• Truly discover you.
• Transform your relationships.
• Connect more fully with others – and more importantly with yourself.
• Discover who you truly are.
• Become more grounded, authentic, congruent, and empowered.
• Discover a new peaceful way of being.

…then Joanna and this webinar will help you to discover how to do just that.

I’ve attended many of Joanna’s courses and during these events I learn more about me and how I want to live my life than ever before. Joanna is a truly wonderful and inspiring person. I learn so much from Joanna and now you can too # # #.

Self-validation - sound good? It's something I do now more than ever. So here's my take on it.

There’s sometimes a misguided belief that when a friend or a loved one is going through a difficult time, they want us to help them to find a solution, or at least give an opinion or even give an excuse for the actions of others. But what if simply showing up, being fully present without judgement, listening and hearing what they have to say and how they feel was what they needed? This is validation. Validating someone’s feelings, even if you don’t agree with their thoughts or decisions, is priceless for that person.

What if at times when you are going through a difficult time you were able to show up for you, without judgement, without interruption or dismissing or excusing the actions of others, and feel your feelings? This is self-validation.

Validating your own feelings is powerful beyond measure for maintaining mental and emotional wellbeing. When we self-validate, we are in effect recognising and accepting our feelings and strengths as well our limitations.

Knowing what to do with our feelings is the tricky bit. Sometimes we like our feelings and sometimes we don’t, but it’s important to always pay attention to them. Feelings let us know how important things are, what to watch out for and what makes us happy or sad.

It’s helpful to remember that it’s the events in our life, or our beliefs that activates our feelings. For example, if we feel sad and don’t feel the feeling, we don’t know why we feel sad. If we sit with the feeling, establish why we feel that way by exploring what has happened or what did happen, then we can reprocess and desensitise the experience that’s made us feel.

⭐Championing yourself is a great way to self-validate – celebrate your achievements, including your efforts and any progress you’ve made, no matter how small. Even getting out of bed on the days when it all feels too much is an achievement.
⭐Meet your needs with self-kindness, self-compassion, and self-care. It’s okay to put your needs first – treat yourself as you would a close friend or loved one.
⭐Importantly, try some unconditional self-acceptance by accepting your limitations and flaws – human beings are fallible and as such we all have our good points and our bad points. There’s no reason why we mustn’t have flaws.

In a world where we are reminded to be kind - remember to be self-kind too # # #.

International Women’s Day raises the awareness needed to bring us closer to gender equality and diminish gender inequity, for the good of our mental health.

Based on the work I do as an integrative therapist, it’s clear that women remain at a disadvantage because of their s*x.

Women are more likely to experience exposure to violence, abuse and discrimination. This can have an adverse effect on their mental health, leading to such difficulties as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.

So lets embrace the theme of this years and work towards inspiring inclusion. I often work with women from marginalised communities and they are some of the most incredible women I know. I'm inspired by all women, because I feel we have more obstacles to overcome to achieve our goals in life, due to gender bias. Believe in yourself # # #.

We made it - it's Friday. I hope you've had a wonderful week. Now it's almost time for the weekend. I hope you have something lovely planned.

When we remain calm and tolerant we deal with things most effectively. We owe this to ourselves.

Ah - here we are at Wednesday. Half way through the week and time to think about the weekend.

Nothing better than a good old clear out to soothe the mind. If you aren't interested in de-cluttering externally, perhaps a bit of an internal de-clutter would help. Notice how you're feeling, sit with it and take some nice deep breaths.

It's true - slow down to speed up. Start your Monday as you want the rest of the week to be. Be calm and stay regulated so you can focus and concentrate more - this gets the job done, stress free. Happy Monday # # #.

Reflecting on this week and I've realised the theme of the week is resilience. I work with some of the most incredible people who have experienced adversity and trauma, yet developed resilience in abundance.

Resilience is not about being unaffected by those harmful/negative and traumatic experiences, it's having the ability to adapt to and manage such adversity. They are often deeply affected by the traumatic event and experience psychological and physical symptoms but are able to carry on with life despite the disturbance and distress caused. The resilience is about growing from that experience and thriving, not just surviving.

Resilience is by default developed through discomfort, and being exposed to experiences that push us or challenge us. My clients often don't need much help with building resilience but rather support in processing and overcoming their traumatic experiences. I'm passionate about and dedicated to helping them achieve this.

It might not be a happy day outside today but for me I’m practically the sunshine itself 🌝.

I beat my son at ‘yellow car no returns’ this morning.

Mind he almost jumped through the car roof at how hard I hit his leg and shouted it out😂🌝🚖, such was my excitement at spotting it first for once.

Simple things - happy Friday and if you have or see a yellow car today give it a toot and a smile # # #

Well, here we are on the 1st Friday of February. Happy Friday - gotta love a Friday. Apparently Friday's are the most relaxed days of the working week. I hope you have a lovely weekend planned.

One of my clients shared this week how happy and positive they feel for the first time in a long time. Their life circumstances haven't changed, indeed there continues to be challenges - they just respond positively to it now rather than react negatively to it.

As we've processed their trauma and built up resilience and the ability to find joy in life, their life and beliefs are changing in a positive way. They observed though that some of their 'loved ones' aren't exactly embracing the positive changes they are making.

We talked about the possibility these people may have a deep rooted insecurity or lack of self-esteem, therefore the positive changes my client is making might be making them uncomfortable.

My advice - this is your life, we can't control other people (or even life itself) be true to yourself, and if it doesn't feel right, take yourself out of the situation.

Keep shining!

Wow... what a start to the year and we are already almost at the end of January. December and January have been particularly busy months for me as a therapist, so I haven't had the chance to post much. Today as I was reflecting on the week and remembering just how amazing my clients are, I felt inspired by one client in particular, who has worked so hard and shifted so much of their trauma. They are quite literally empowered and liberated by self-care, self-compassion, self-awareness and self-respect.

Looking beyond yourself and recognising the past is for lessons and not for living in the present will help you to reach your goals and potential. Anything we perceive as being a problem will be a problem. Anything we perceive as being an opportunity will be an opportunity. We have choices.

Have a lovely weekend # # #.

Happy New Year.

How do people respond when you tell them what you do for a living?

When we meet new people socially, the conversation inevitably comes around to, “what do you do for a living?” There was a time I would have said, “oh, I’m a Civil Servant and I work for DWP”. Nice and safe answer mostly, apart from when I expanded and said I worked on the project for New State Pension or PIP (that didn’t go down too well back in the 2016)😂.

Now though, I tell people I’m a therapist and this elicits a reaction that makes me giggle inwardly. Firstly, there’s the initial moment the questioner considers whether I’m a beauty therapist, very quickly (cheek 🙄) replaced with, “what kind of therapy?”. This is when I say I’m a professional hypnotherapist and then brace myself for their response.

Before I explain more, the next question that generally comes up immediately after the first is, “can you put anyone into a trance, and can you read my mind?” Move over Professor X.

Check out my blog post for more - https://wix.to/ukvDK36

Hello, my name is Sandra and I'm a... therapist! Hello, my name is Sandra Thompson and I’m a … therapist. When we meet new people socially, the conversation inevitably comes around to, “what do you do for a living?” There was a time I would have said, “oh, I’m a Civil Servant and I work for DWP”. Nice and safe answer mostly, apart fr...

As we speed towards that 'special' day of the year, and get lost in the madness of preparation, I wanted to take the opportunity of wishing you all the very best. I also wanted to remind you to take some time out for you - self-kindness, self-care, self-compassion (with self-compassion we give ourselves the same kindness as we'd give to a loved one).

Kindness is a present we can afford to give and being kind releases helpful hormones like Oxytocin, the feel-good hormone, and Serotonin, the happiness hormone. Kindness decreases stress and helps us to connect and keep things in perspective.

Here's to the best festive season and Christmas we can manage this year.

Love from Sandra SCT Therapy # # #.

People will often tell me how lucky my boys are and although the comments are well intended, I always answer by saying we are all lucky to have found each other. There are times this is easier to say than at other times, but it's always true.

I met with two of my favourite people today, who are also adoptive parents. When I'm with them we can share our stories without judgement and holding back and this is so liberating. We laugh out loud at the amusing aspects of our often stressful experiences and this is beyond therapeutic. Humour is a tonic in itself.

I can honestly say these two incredible human beings, ground me and inspire me more than I can ever thank them for.

Find your tribe and hold onto them # # #.

Nicola provides an exemplary VA service - highly recommend # # #.

Hi there everyone! If you could possibly like and share my business page it would be much appreciated. Remember I am here to help small businesses be the best they can…please feel free to share my details with anyone you think I can assist. https://www.instagram.com/coordinate_pa?igshid=MzMyNGUyNmU2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

What do you love about Christmas (or the Festive Season) and how different is it since you were a young child? If you need some mindfulness tips to overcome the madness of the Festive Season, then check out my blog post
http://wix.to/VnRSMjx

Mindfulness to overcome the madness of the Festive Season What do you love about Christmas (or the festive season) and how different is it from when you were a young whipper snapper? Probably the only thing I truly love these days is drinking the Sherry and Bailey’s (we are very generous in our house) that is left out for the Big Man in the red suit and ...