by Bill Sheate
What are your dreams and expectation of university?
As the 2024-25 academic year begins you may be embarking on your dream course, or maybe you have all sorts of expectations of what university life will be like. Give yourself time to settle in, make friends, socialise - your social network (and by that I mean in-real-life friends and colleagues!) will provide you with the base from which to celebrate the good stuff and cope with the problems in life.
Here are a few of the common issues many students find can end up occupying their time more than they would want ........ [Read more]
by Bill Sheate
From 1 June 2024 I am delighted to be joining the Bloomsbury Therapy Centre in Bristol House, 80a Southampton Row, London, WC1B 4BA, just a few minutes walk from Holborn tube station…… [Read more]
by Bill Sheate
It’s Mental Health Awareness week (15-21 May 2023) and the spotlight is on ‘anxiety’.
How can CBH help you with anxiety whatever walk of life you are in?
CBH draws on tried and trusted evidence-based techniques for managing stress and anxiety, for changing your approach to stressful situations and building greater psychological flexibility for long-term resilience. Below I’ve provided the links to just a few of my popular blog post topics, the things that often initiate people seeking out therapy or support. If something resonates for you don’t hesitate to get in touch to arrange an assessment and conceptualisation session - no obligation to further sessions. But it might just help you to understand better what is going on and why. Clients often find that first session can be so helpful and therapeutic in its own right…… [Read more]
by Bill Sheate
Career change - stressful or exciting?
There can be many reasons to make a career change or change your job. Stress and work/life balance may be a strong motivating force. Sometimes, however much you try to manage the stress and anxiety, changing the principle stressor in your life - your job - may be the only real option. That can seem even more scary than the stresses your current job is putting you under. But it need not be. Maybe the stress is exactly the impetus you needed to step back and look anew at what’s really important to you and where your job fits into your wider personal values…….[Read more]
Today - Monday 10 October 2022 - is World Mental Health Day.
Periodically, I post on my blog short articles on key aspects of stress and anxiety, and mental health and well-being, especially related to higher education. Below are just a few of the resources on this blog - clustered in one place so they’re easier to find - that you might find helpful: [Read more]
by Bill Sheate
Here we go again…..
My last blog post on Covid-19 (Coronavirus 6: keeping a sense of perspective…) was over a year ago (8 December 2020). I had thought at the time that might be the last, but with recent guidance and ‘Plan B’ introduced in the run up to Christmas 2021 then some further reflections may be worthwhile….. [Read more]
by Bill Sheate
…...because it is what it is.
Anxiety is typically future focused - a fear that something bad is going to happen and I won't be able to cope. And so we worry - as a coping strategy, believing (unconsciously) that all that over-thinking will somehow solve our anxiety, find the answer - except that it won't. It prolongs the thinking to try to avoid anxiety, but the struggle means we engage ever more in thinking about the very thing we are anxious about and so maintain the cycle…….[Read more]
by Bill Sheate
……While all around you are not!
I’m reluctant to suggest this might be my last Coronavirus blog on the subject – it is likely to be for 2020 at least! I never anticipated a series when I posted the first one back in March this year [1]. But Covid-19 continues to dominate the headlines – with the recent end of a second lockdown, new tiered levels of restrictions, the start of the first vaccinations, Christmas holidays and maybe a third lockdown after that (seems quite likely!)? How are you supposed to navigate the deluge of information, different restrictions and competing claims? How is this continuing to impact on your own mental health and well-being - as a student or as a member of staff? …..[Read more]
by Bill Sheate
Learning to live with Covid-19, mindfully….
As Universities re-open for the new academic year this autumn students and staff are facing a whole new world, a very different experience to one we may be used to or have come to expect.
Big lectures with hundreds of students are no more.
Online video recorded lecture material and online live meetings are the new order of the day.
And maybe some small group teaching or lab working, where possible, in 'bubbles' of various sizes.
But social events on campus are hugely curtailed.
Covid-19 has created it's own existential anxieties for many while for some the risks seem overblown. But as I've discussed in my previous Coronavirus blogs (1-4), this spectrum of perception is normal, depending on your own personal circumstances……. [Read more]
by Bill Sheate
The new normal for universities?
As countries slowly begin to emerge from lock-down, universities have been busy trying to work out what the new landscape will look like come the Autumn of 2020 and the new academic year. In this third post of what has now become a series, I’m looking ahead to anticipate what teaching and learning at universities might look like this next year and how that could impact on students’ and staff mental health and well-being……..[Read more]
by Bill Sheate
The only thing that’s certain is uncertainty…..
The current Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has all the characteristics needed for generating high levels of concern and worry among the public and creating even more stress among those who already suffer from anxiety:
Uncertainty about what might happen
How might we be affected?
How severe might the impact be?
Concern about friends/love ones
Anxiety about the short- and medium-term future (e.g. if supposed to be taking exams, doing assignments, research, career, loss of work/income, paying bills, buying food)
All of these are key aspects of the coronavirus situation that cause us to ‘worry’……..[Read more]
by Bill Sheate
Today - Thursday 10 October 2019 - is World Mental Health Day.
Periodically, I post on my blog short articles on key aspects of stress and anxiety, and mental health and well-being, especially related to higher education. Below are just a few of the resources on this blog - clustered in one place so they’re easier to find - that you might find helpful:……..[Read more]
by Bill Sheate
Eco-anxiety workshop now booking……
Do you have a feeling of hopelessness about the world’s willingness and ability to tackle climate change and biodiversity extinction? Do you feel helpless yourself in your own actions? Do you fear for future generations? Is this anxiety or sadness affecting other aspects of your life, your motivation to do things, to interact with friends and family?
Then you may well be suffering from eco-anxiety - a fear that something bad is going to happen, not just to you, but to the world and that you (and the world) won’t be able to cope. Or, more succinctly, a ‘chronic fear of environmental doom’.
This interactive workshop provides an opportunity ……[Read more]
