JD Psychotherapy - LGBTQ Affirmative Therapy

14/11/2025

I often find myself unintentionally collecting subscriptions — streaming platforms, productivity apps, fitness memberships, software trials, and more. I may start with enthusiasm but soon forget to cancel, even when no longer using them. This pattern can be frustrating and expensive, yet it often reflects a genuine challenge in executive functioning rather than carelessness.
Why It Happens
Impulsivity and Reward Sensitivity
ADHD is strongly associated with impulsivity and heightened reward-seeking behaviour. A new subscription offers an immediate sense of promise and excitement — the dopamine hit that makes it feel like the perfect solution. Over time, that initial interest fades, and without immediate consequences, the subscription quietly continues.
Time Blindness and Decision Fatigue
For those with ADHD, future consequences can feel abstract.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

08/11/2025

For many people with ADHD, getting started can be the hardest part. Even when motivation is high, tasks can remain untouched, delayed by overwhelm, distraction, or inertia. One increasingly popular technique to break this cycle is body doubling: working alongside another person—virtually or in person—to stay focused, get started, and keep going.
What Is Body Doubling?
Body doubling means pairing up with someone else, often called an accountability buddy, to work in parallel. The other person doesn’t need to participate in your task—they might simply sit nearby reading, studying, or doing their own work. The power lies in shared presence: knowing someone else is there, expecting you to follow through, and quietly modelling focus.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

25/10/2025

Often when I really need to get something done I find that I don’t. Having spoken with many people, I find that there is a familiar set of circumstances: the creeping delay, the mental circling, the sudden urge to tidy the kitchen instead of starting the task that actually matters. Procrastination is often framed as laziness or poor time management, yet what if it’s more about emotion than organisation?
A useful perspective comes from the short YouTube video Why We Procrastinate, which highlights that avoidance is not necessarily a failure of willpower but a form of emotional regulation. When faced with a challenging or uncertain task, our nervous system interprets it as a potential threat, triggering anxiety or discomfort. To reduce that discomfort, we distract ourselves — temporarily relieving the feeling but keeping the task unresolved.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

17/10/2025

Introduction
I was recently discussing with a colleague some new offices that they are considering. Part of the scenario was that they are hoping to offer late evening, face to face sessions. This got me thinking about the potential dangers of working alone. So I put together some thoughts about a lone working policy.
This article outlines some considerations for a lone working policy suitable for psychotherapists in solo practice.
Purpose
To protect the safety and wellbeing of the psychotherapist when working alone with clients, whether in person, online, or by telephone, and to ensure reasonable steps are taken to manage risks associated with lone working.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

10/10/2025

Therapy for the Overwhelmed: How to Begin When Everything Feels Too Much
When life feels unmanageable, even the thought of starting therapy can seem overwhelming. It can feel like justonemorething on top of a heap of things that are not getting done. So is not unusual for people to delay seeking help because they feel stuck in a cycle of exhaustion, stress, and uncertainty. Yet, therapy can provide a safe place to begin unravelling these feelings. This article offers guidance on how to take those first steps when everything feels too much.
Understanding Overwhelm
Overwhelm often arises when external pressures, internal demands, or unresolved trauma exceed our ability to cope. Signs may include:

- Difficulty concentrating or making decisions

- Feeling paralysed by even small tasks

- Heightened anxiety, irritability, or emotional exhaustion

- A sense of being “stuck” or unable to move forward

Acknowledging overwhelm as a legitimate emotional state is a vital first step.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

03/10/2025

Is the Flow State a Form of Dissociation?
The flow state, described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake,” is often hailed as the pinnacle of human productivity and creativity. But from a psychotherapeutic perspective, it prompts a deeper question: is flow a form of dissociation? And if so, when might it be beneficial — or potentially harmful?
What Is the Flow State?
The flow state occurs when a person is fully immersed in a task, experiencing a sense of timelessness, focus, and diminished self-consciousness. Commonly reported in artists, athletes, and writers, flow is associated with deep engagement, intrinsic motivation, and a seamless merging of action and awareness (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
Flow is typically described as:

- Highly pleasurable
- Goal-directed
- Involving complete absorption
- Accompanied by a loss of awareness of time or bodily needs

What Is Dissociation?

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

26/09/2025

Overview
John Burnham’s chapter Developments in Social GRRRAAACCEEESSS: visible–invisible and voiced–unvoiced extends the familiar Social GRACES mnemonic (originally with Alison Roper-Hall) and explores how aspects of identity/difference can be visible or invisible and voiced or unvoiced in therapy, supervision, and training. Burnham distinguishes Personal and Social GRRRAAACCEEESSS and offers exercises (e.g., the “collide-scope”) to support reflexivity and curiosity in practice.
What GRRRAAACCEEESSS covers (and why it matters)
Over time the list has expanded (e.g., Gender, Geography, Race, Religion, Age, Ability, Appearance, Class, Culture, Ethnicity, Education, Employment, Sexuality, Sexual orientation, Spirituality). The aim is not a checklist but a lens for noticing which aspects are foregrounded or backgrounded in context, and how power and privilege flow through those shifts.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

23/09/2025

Addicted to Anxiety by Owen O’Kane: A Balanced Review
Overview of the Book
Owen O’Kane’s Addicted to Anxiety: How to Break the Habit (2025) proposes that anxiety functions like an addiction. Behaviours and thought patterns that initially feel protective become cyclical habits that reinforce fear and avoidance. His framework is structured into three main stages: recognising anxiety’s hold, tackling the habitual patterns, and building resilience to prevent relapse (O’Kane, 2025).
Strengths

- Fresh metaphor – Casting anxiety as an addiction highlights the compulsive, repetitive nature of anxious thinking and behaviour.
- Accessible and practical – Tools are presented in clear, digestible language with practical exercises.
- Warm and empathetic tone – O’Kane draws on his personal and clinical experiences, making the book relatable.
- Holistic scope – Covers thinking patterns, behaviours, lifestyle stabilisers, and relapse prevention.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

21/09/2025

Is Computer Programming a Form of Dissociation or Avoidance?
These days our minds and machines intertwine more than ever. Computer programming is often celebrated for its creativity, logic, and problem-solving elegance. But what happens when our immersion in code becomes so complete that it detaches us from our emotional or relational lives? Could it be that programming is, at times, less about building systems and more about escaping them?
The Nature of Immersion in Code
Programming creates a self-contained world governed by internally consistent logic, well-defined rules, and clear cause-and-effect outcomes. Unlike the complexities of human relationships or emotional life, programming offers structure and predictability. It’s no surprise that many programmers describe their work in terms reminiscent of a meditative or flow state (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
However, such immersive states are not always benign.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

07/08/2025

This was the shop next to my 'Swansea Office' - the wooden door to the left.

03/08/2025

Understanding the Window of Tolerance in Trauma Therapy
The concept of the Window of Tolerance, developed by Dr. Dan Siegel, has become an essential framework in trauma-informed psychotherapy. It describes the optimal zone of arousal in which a person can function effectively, think clearly, and engage socially. For those who have experienced trauma, this window is often narrowed, resulting in frequent episodes of hyper- or hypoarousal. Therapists working with trauma clients find that teaching and referencing this model provides a powerful tool for co-regulation and self-awareness.
What Is the Window of Tolerance?
The Window of Tolerance represents a range of emotional intensity within which a person can remain regulated and responsive.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.

31/07/2025

Introduction
In Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, Firefighter parts are protective subpersonalities that react quickly and often dramatically when a person is overwhelmed by emotional pain. Their goal is not to cause harm, but to prevent further suffering—usually by distracting the system through compulsive behaviours, dissociation, rage, or other urgent defences.

Rather than trying to control or suppress Firefighters, IFS invites us to understand, befriend, and listen to them. This article offers a list of therapist-friendly questions designed to help build a respectful, trusting relationship with Firefighter parts.
What Are Firefighter Parts?
Firefighters typically emerge in response to Exiles—parts that carry deep burdens like shame, fear, or grief. When those Exiles become activated, Firefighters jump in to shut the emotional experience down.

Offering face-to-face psychotherapy in Carmarthen and Swansea, specialising in LGBTQ+ and ADHD: trauma, anxiety, and depression. Your path to healing and self-acceptance starts here.