Dr Lindsay Walker, Clinical Psychologist - Hampshire Psychological Therapy

10/10/2025

It’s World Mental Health Day. A day to shine the spotlight on mental health awareness, reduce stigma, and remind us to look after ourselves and others.
As I go off to work this morning, every day is a mental health day for me. I’d like it to be more frequent for everyone else too - keep checking in on yourself and others. Difficulties with our emotional health can build up quickly. It’s always the right time to address it. 🌍

18/07/2024

It is such a privilege to be able to be with and support someone when they are at their most vulnerable. To be a part of their solution is so rewarding and worthwhile.

02/04/2024

04/08/2023

A wonderful foundation that does brilliant work and run with great passion and care.

https://fb.watch/md3XUvLGg4/

18/06/2023

So often people are unsympathetic towards, and don’t fully understand, the reinforcing cycle of addiction - or the immense emotional pain that often leads to substance use.

This beautiful and powerful animation of a bird without wings finding something to enable flight poignantly illustrates this.

Kiwi tastes a golden nugget. It's delicious.Script, direction, animation: Andreas HykadeAnimation, artwork: Angela SteffenMusic & sound: Heiko MaileFlute: To...

16/05/2023

It's mental health awareness week. Time to shine the spotlight on our mental health. And by this I don't just mean the type of clinical work I do and the clinical presentations that bring people to see me at my practice. I mean all of us.

We all have emotions. We all have stressors. We all have experiences; positive and negative.

Recently the world has felt like a negative place. So many people voicing what they think they don't have, making demands about wanting more. It's felt like half the country has been on strike. Of course there is room for this and we shouldn't be complacent.

BUT by focusing on the negative, on what we don't have or think we should have instead, we end up feeling resentful, disgruntled, unfulfilled. Not great for our emotional health.

We could all benefit from looking at things more positively, focusing on our values and how we find meaning in the everyday. We saw this during Covid - communities came together, we were grateful for our health, those around us, the services supporting us.

There seems to be a current shift towards wanting more, competing to see whose job is harder, more stressful, less financially renumerated ... "I’m more hard done by", "no, I am". This is not good for our emotional health.

Values, meaning, gratitude. Let's focus on these. Focus on what we DO have. I could complain about 20+ years of working in the NHS; pay, targets, pressure. Trying to hold down a professional career and looking after my children, my husband's aversion to helping out at home. Of course I have days where things don’t feel good enough and I struggle.

Instead I try to look at what I DO have. I have a loving partner. I've been lucky enough to have my beautiful children. A meaningful NHS job that allowed me paid maternity leave. Paid annual leave. Paid sick leave. Pension (all things I took for granted until I no longer had them). I love the work I do, which has value and meaning. I'm paid to help people and teach them the skills they need to live fulfilled lives - what a privilege! I have a home, food, my health. There no war in my country. I am safe.

For all these things I am grateful and this enables me to feel positive and maintain good mental health. I exercise and use this to manage stress, it soothes my soul, I have a strong healthy body. These are all tools we can use to help us feel better.

So let's move away from complaints, comparisons, negative focus and look to meaning, our values and gratitude.

Your mental health will thank you.

21/02/2023

The situation with Nicola Bulley over the last few weeks and it's recent tragic conclusion is heartbreaking. I wouldn't presume to know anything about her but what is evident is that she was surrounded by love and support. And hope. And I wonder if perhaps she found it hard to see that?

Struggles with our mental and emotional health can feel isolating, overwhelming and lonely. And hopeless. But there is always hope. Always.

Speak to others and reach out if you're struggling - whether it is to services or to friends. Those of us who work in this field will provide space, validation, encouragement, solutions, hope and care. You are not alone. You are valuable, loved, and there are people who want to support you. It is never too late. There is hope.

24/12/2021

Christmas time - so much expectation. For many it is a wonderful time of year. But for many others it is a time of amplified emotional pain. Whether it is because we are alone, separated from loved ones, grieving, revisiting loss, unable to provide our loved ones with the Christmas we want to, living with illness or fear - the collective expectation that this ‘should be’ a wonderful time makes it all the harder.

My thoughts are with all those for whom this is a difficult or challenging time of year.