Author: suziechick
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Facing our shadow
“The shadow is the greatest teacher for how to come to the light” Ram Dass As the nights begin to draw in and we live more in the dark than the light, I got to thinking about our own dark sides, what we call in therapy, our shadow. What is it? First conceived by Carl…
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The masks we wear
“The greatest battle we face as human beings is the battle to protect our true selves from the self the world wants us to become.” poet E. E. Cummings During my early days of therapy training we were asked to draw our masks. These being the masks we show to the world. The masks we…
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My Summer reading
“We read books to find out who we are.” Author Ursula Le Guin “Leisure without literature is death” Seneca the Younger We are now in the full swing of Summer (heatwave and all) and one of the first tasks I undertake before any holiday is to decide what books to read. This rather delicate selection…
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Feel the burn
The summer holidays are fast approaching (a collective “hurrah” I hear) and it’s got me thinking about burnout. Not the kind involving excessive sun exposure (ouch), but the one involving complete and utter exhaustion (double ouch). Burnout, in a nutshell, is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It…
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Quarter-life crisis – A millennial hazard?
“Some people inherit values and practices as a house they inhabit; some of us have to burn down that house, find our own ground, build from scratch…a psychological metamorphosis” Rebecca Solnit Some call it a funk, some call it a continual groundhog day, some call it a sense that something isn’t right but not knowing…
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The burden of the people pleaser
“…when you say ‘yes’ to others make sure you are not saying ‘no’ to yourself” Paolo Coehlo (novelist of The Alchemist) Do you struggle to say no to people? Go to great efforts to avoid conflict? Feel responsible for other people’s feelings? Blame yourself excessively? If you’re nodding to any of this, then it’s highly…
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Spring’s here -Time to clean up your act
“Come with me into the woods. Where spring is advancing, as it does, no matter what, not being singular or particular, but one of the forever gifts, and certainly visible.” Mary Oliver At last Spring has finally arrived! The snow has melted, the daffodils are smiling and the sun has even made a few appearances.…
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Feeling like an imposter?
“…uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.“ – Maya Angelou (world reknowned author) Ever sat in a meeting at work and felt like a fraud? Ever attributed your success to luck more than your ability? Ever feared that one day everyone…
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Love is blind
Two cures for love by Wendy Cope Don’t see him. Don’t phone or write a letter. The easy way: get to know him better. Given its February and Valentines Day is fast approaching, I couldn’t resist writing this month about the matter of romantic love. The very talented Ms Cope’s little ditty above has always…
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Spiritual bypass – Are we all victims?
First of all, a very very Happy New Year!! For this month’s blog post, I’ve chosen to look at the concept of spiritual bypass. I feel this could be quite relevant as we enter those tricky first few weeks of January where we could all fall victim to personal avoidance through our reliance on external…
Suzie Chick 