Mindful Path

21/11/2025

🌿🤍December Openings🤍🌿 Mindful Path

20/11/2025

There's always a warm cuppa and a cosy fire with candles ready to welcome you into Mindful Path 🌿🤍

19/11/2025

✨ How to Make Therapy Truly Effective ✨
Therapy is an investment in you — your wellbeing, your patterns, your healing, and your growth. Here are a few gentle tips to help you get the most out of your sessions:

🗣 Be open and honest
You don’t have to have everything figured out — just bring your real thoughts and feelings. Even saying “I don’t know how to talk about this yet” is a powerful start.

⏳ Give yourself time
Therapy isn’t a quick fix. Progress is often slow but incredibly meaningful. Small shifts can lead to big changes over time.

🧭 Set goals together
Think about what you want from therapy — clarity, coping skills, confidence, healing from past experiences — and we’ll work towards it at your pace.

📘 Reflect between sessions
Noticing your emotions, triggers, and patterns during the week can help deepen your understanding and strengthen what we explore in the room.

💛 Build a trusting relationship
Feeling safe and understood is the foundation of good therapy. Your sessions are your space — a place without judgment or pressure.

🔄 Expect ups and downs
Some sessions feel lighter, some feel heavier, and both are part of the process. Growth is rarely a straight line.

If you're ready to begin your therapy journey — or return to it with a fresh mindset — I’m here to support you every step of the way.
🌿 Mindful Path Therapy | A safe space to heal, understand, and grow.

18/11/2025

🌿 Let’s Talk About Health Anxiety

Health anxiety can feel incredibly overwhelming.
It’s that constant scanning of your body, the “what if?” thoughts that spiral, the urge to Google symptoms at 2am, and the fear that something serious is being missed. Even when tests come back clear, the worry can still feel very real — because health anxiety isn’t about attention-seeking or being dramatic. It’s about fear, uncertainty, and a nervous system stuck on high alert.

If you struggle with this, please know you’re not alone. So many people live with the same cycle of fear and reassurance, only to find the worry popping up again. It’s exhausting. It can affect relationships, sleep, work, and peace of mind.

But health anxiety is treatable, and you can feel better.

Here are a few gentle reminders:

✨ Your feelings make sense. Your brain is trying to protect you — it’s just working a bit too hard.
✨ Symptoms of anxiety can mimic physical illness. Dizziness, chest tightness, headaches, stomach problems — these can all be created by stress.
✨ Reassurance isn’t a long-term solution. It helps for a moment, but long-term relief comes from understanding the cycle and learning new ways to respond.
✨ You are not your anxious thoughts. You can learn to notice them without getting hooked in.
✨ Support is available. Therapy can help you break the cycle, calm your nervous system, and regain trust in your body.

If this resonates with you, you don’t have to keep managing it alone.
I offer a safe, compassionate space to explore health anxiety, understand where it comes from, and find tools that genuinely help.

📩 If you’d like support, feel free to message me.
You deserve peace. You deserve clarity. You deserve to feel safe in your body again.

16/11/2025

🎄 The Pressure of Christmas: Let’s Talk About It

For many people, Christmas is painted as a season of joy, connection, and celebration. But in reality, this time of year can bring pressure, overwhelm, financial stress, loneliness, grief, and emotional exhaustion. If you’re not feeling festive — or if you're struggling behind the scenes — you are not alone.

The truth is, Christmas often comes with expectations that can feel impossible to meet:
• buying the “perfect” gifts
• hosting or attending endless events
• trying to create a picture-perfect holiday for others
• navigating family conflict or strained relationships
• coping with missing someone who isn’t here this year
• managing the pressure to feel happy when you don’t

Many people carry silent stress at Christmas… and they blame themselves for it.

But you don’t have to.

🌟 Gentle Reminders for This Season

1. You’re allowed to set boundaries.
It’s okay to say no. It’s okay to leave early. It’s okay to protect your energy. Your wellbeing matters more than meeting expectations.

2. You don’t need to overspend to show love.
A thoughtful message, a homemade gift, or simply being present can mean far more than anything bought under pressure. Your worth is not measured by what’s under the tree.

3. It’s okay to feel how you feel.
If you’re grieving, stressed, or struggling — you don’t need to put on a mask. Allow your emotions to come and go without judgement.

4. Take small moments for yourself.
A walk. A quiet cup of tea. Breathing space. Grounding moments help regulate a busy, overwhelming season.

5. You don’t have to “fix” everything before January.
The end of the year can bring reflection, but it doesn’t need to bring panic. You are not behind. You are human.

💚 If Christmas feels heavy this year…

Know that support is available. You don’t have to carry everything alone. Reaching out — whether to a friend, a support line, or a therapist — can make all the difference.

Be gentle with yourself.
Not every Christmas is magical — and that’s okay.

You are doing your best, and that is enough.

14/11/2025

🌧️ Seasonal Depression Is Real — and You’re Not Alone 🌤️

As the days get shorter and the light fades, many people notice their mood shifting too. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) — often called seasonal depression — is more common than most realise. It isn’t just “winter blues.” It’s a real change in your emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing triggered by reduced daylight and disrupted routines.

You might notice:

Feeling low, heavy, or disconnected

Struggling to wake up or feeling tired despite sleeping more

Craving carbs and comfort foods

Losing motivation or interest in things you usually enjoy

Feeling irritable, overwhelmed, or emotionally flat

If this sounds like you, please know nothing is “wrong” with you — your brain and body are responding to a genuine environmental shift.

What can help:

Getting outside in natural light, even for a short walk

Building gentle structure into your day

Using a daylight/therapy lamp

Staying connected with people who help you feel grounded

Being compassionate with yourself rather than pushing through

Sometimes, support from a therapist can make all the difference — offering space to make sense of what you’re feeling, explore coping strategies, and feel less weighed down by the season.

If you’re struggling more than usual right now, you’re not alone. I’m here, and my door is open.

✨ Reach out if you need a safe place to talk, reflect, and feel supported this winter.

10/11/2025

🌿 Now Welcoming New Clients at Mindful Path Therapy 🌿

Are you feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or simply in need of someone to talk to? You don’t have to face it all alone. 💚

At Mindful Path, I offer a safe, compassionate, and confidential space where you can explore whatever’s on your mind. Whether you’re dealing with stress, relationship challenges, low mood, or simply need a place to breathe and be heard — I’m here to help.

✨ What I Offer:
• One-to-one talking therapy
• Flexible sessions – in person, by phone, or via video call
• £40 per hour while I continue advanced training

With a Master’s in Forensic Psychology and qualifications in Counselling Levels 3, 4, and 5, I bring both knowledge and genuine empathy to every session. My approach is always client-focused, non-judgemental, and supportive — helping you find calm, clarity, and confidence again. 🌸

💚 Why Choose Mindful Path Therapy?
• Professional, understanding support
• Flexible appointment times
• Affordable rates during my training period
• A warm, calming space to just be you

If you’re ready to take the first step towards healing and self-understanding, I’d love to walk that path with you. 🌿

📞 Gabriela
Mindful Path Therapy
📍 Flexible sessions available
📱 07763 833993
💌mindfulpaththerapy@protonmail.com

08/11/2025

🌿 Grief Isn’t Something We “Get Over” — It’s Something We Learn to Live With 🌿

Grief can come in many forms — the loss of a loved one, a relationship, a version of ourselves, or even a change in life we didn’t choose. It isn’t linear, and it doesn’t follow a timeline. Some days it may feel like a quiet ache, and others like a wave that takes your breath away.

There’s no “right” way to grieve. You might feel sadness, anger, guilt, numbness, or even relief — and all of these emotions are valid. Grief simply shows how deeply we have loved and how much something mattered to us.

If you’re grieving, please know this: you don’t have to face it alone. Talking through your feelings, finding gentle routines, and giving yourself permission to feel can make a huge difference.

Therapy offers a safe space to explore loss, find meaning, and begin to carry your grief in a way that feels a little lighter over time. 💛

If you’re struggling right now, I’m here to support you.

📍 Mindful Path Therapy, Brackley

06/11/2025

CBT for PTSD: Example of how grounding techniques can be used in therapy 🌿

Case study example for use in teaching, aiming to demonstrate how grounding techniques might be used in CBT for PTSD disorder. Catherine Corker, qualified CB...

06/11/2025

💬 Men & Mental Health: Breaking the Silence
Mental health isn’t gender-neutral. In the UK, men face a uniquely severe risk when it comes to su***de and mental distress — and the impact is wide ranging.

📊 By the numbers

Around three-quarters of su***de deaths in England & Wales are by men — 4,179 male deaths in 2022, representing a rate of 16.4 per 100,000 for men versus 5.4 per 100,000 for women.

Su***de is the leading cause of death for men under 50 in the UK.

Men aged 45-49 and 50-54 have some of the highest age-specific su***de rates (for example 23 per 100,000 for males aged 45-49 in 2022).

Men are significantly less likely to access talking therapies: in one survey only 33-36% of referrals to NHS psychological services were men.

🔍 What’s behind the risk?

Cultural expectations of masculinity: many men feel that vulnerability, emotional expression or asking for help is a weakness.

Under-diagnosis and under-treatment: though men might appear to have fewer commonly reported mental health conditions than women, many men’s distress goes unreported or untreated.

Life-stage pressures and isolation: relationship breakdown, job loss, health issues or social isolation can all heighten risk, especially for middle-aged men.

Escape behaviours: Men may be more likely to use alcohol, drugs or risk-taking as a way of coping instead of talking about what they’re going through.

🛠 What can we do — and what I offer
If you’re reading this and thinking “I’m not sure how much longer I can carry this”, know: you do not have to carry it alone. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗽𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 — 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲.🤍

Here’s how we can work together:

A safe space specifically for men or with a clinician attuned to men’s mental-health issues.

Exploring what “being strong” or “manhood” means for you, and whether that definition is working for you.

Building resilience: recognising emotional pain, stress, trauma or loss and learning how to address it rather than ignore it.

Tools for connection: strengthening relationships, building support networks, understanding how isolation or disconnection might be affecting you.

Recognising crisis signs + planning for safety: if thoughts of su***de or self-harm are present, having a plan, knowing support contacts, and committing to reach out before things become unmanageable.

📞 If you’re in crisis right now
You are not alone. Here are some UK resources:

Samaritans free-phone 116 123 – available 24/7.

If you feel you might act on suicidal thoughts today, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E.

If you’re considering therapy: you can message me for a confidential conversation – no pressure, no judgment.

🔗 If you’re worried about someone else
Sometimes men in distress don’t show what we expect. A small change in behaviour, withdrawal, increased substance use, irritability, loss of interest – these can all be signs. Simple things help: ask how they are, make time to listen, share that you’re concerned. You don’t have to “fix” it — you just need to show you care.

Bottom line: men’s mental health matters — in fact, it matters urgently. If you’re struggling, reach out. If you think someone else might be, reach out to them. And if you want a therapy space where you’re understood, heard and supported — I’m here.

***dePrevention

05/11/2025

🧠 Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month 💚

This month is all about shining a light on men’s mental health — something that’s so often overlooked or kept quiet.

Many men grow up hearing messages like “be strong,” “man up,” or “don’t show emotion.” But the truth is, struggling doesn’t make you weak — it makes you human. Anxiety, depression, stress, and burnout affect men just as deeply as anyone else, even if they’re not always spoken about.

Sadly, too many men still find it hard to reach out for support. That’s why this month, I want to remind you that my door is always open. Whether you’re facing daily stress, relationship challenges, loss, or just not feeling yourself — you don’t have to carry it alone.

Therapy isn’t about “fixing” you; it’s about giving you a space to talk openly, without judgement, and start feeling lighter again.

Let’s normalise men looking after their mental health — the same way they’d care for their physical health.

If you or someone you know needs to talk, please know that you can message me any time. You’re always welcome here.

05/11/2025

🌿 A Little Favour — Sharing Your Experience

If you’ve had sessions with me at Mindful Path Therapy, your feedback means so much.
Reviews help others who may be struggling to take that first brave step toward therapy, knowing they’ll be met with understanding and care. 💚

I completely understand that privacy matters — especially when it comes to therapy.
If you’d like to leave a review but prefer not to do it through the official platforms, you’re very welcome to send your words directly to me. I can share your feedback anonymously or remove any identifying details before posting.

Your comfort and confidentiality always come first. 🌸

Thank you for supporting this little practice and helping others find their way to healing.