Natural Space Counselling

20/12/2025

As the winter solstice approaches, and the light begins its return, I’m taking a moment to pause, reflect, and express my gratitude to all of my clients, colleagues, family, and friends.

I’m sincerely grateful for the trust placed in me, and for the insight and collaboration that have shaped this year so meaningfully. Through valuable partnerships, thoughtful conversations, and shared learning, this year has offered many opportunities for growth, and I look forward to building on this foundation in the year ahead.

Sending the warmest of wishes for a festive season and a new year that brings gentleness, connection, and hope.
Nova 🕊️

Natural Space Counselling will be taking a break from 23rd December to the 5th of January.

20/12/2025

20/12/2025

05/12/2025

Make your wellbeing your best strategy in 2026. You deserve a life that feels lived, not just survived.

I’m opening a small number of spaces in January.

Book your free 30 minute, no obligation chat to explore whether we’re a good match before scheduling.

Drop me a message or make contact through my website below:

Natural Space Counselling: Pluralistic Counsellor & Psychotherapist. A professional and confidential counselling service tailored to you. Specialising in Creative Counselling & Nature Based Therapy with adults and young people across Tayside & Fife. Sessions take place at my cosy therapy room, from....

30/11/2025

"Is that Cheese?" - a new startup supporting ADHD women in and around the St Andrews area. Organising, clearing, decluttering, and more...

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BVhC2gazy/

ADHD-friendly, shame-free decluttering and organising.

30/11/2025

"Seek out a tree and let it teach you stillness." —Eckhart Tolle

28/11/2025

ADHD paralysis happens when your brain feels “stuck”.
Starting a task can feel impossible, your to-do list feels overwhelming, or you become caught up in loops of overthinking…and this in itself is exhausting!

It often looks like procrastination from the outside, but it’s actually an overwhelmed brain, not you choosing to avoid anything.

ADHD paralysis is often triggered by overwhelm, by under/over-stimulation, perfectionism, or fear of failure.

The first step? Try to notice when it’s happening. Awareness can help to break the cycle.

Tips:
• Shrink the task to the tiniest next step
• Use a 2–5 minute timer on your phone
• Body double (in person or virtual)
• Lower expectations- aim for “good enough”
• Pick ONE task only
• Change your environment
• Use alarms or visual cues
• Reward yourself for small wins!

Image credit:

10/11/2025

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still,
treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

- Rumi
(Translated by Coleman Barks)

💛 Sitting with our feelings, especially uncomfortable ones, takes curiosity and practice.

For some, this can feel especially difficult. Around one in ten of us experience alexithymia — a neuropsychological phenomenon sometimes called emotional blindness. This can make it challenging to identify or describe emotions, or to distinguish between our feelings and physical sensations.

It can be helpful to gently explore body sensations, to expand our emotional vocabulary, or use more abstract concepts like colour, texture, or imagery to describe what we’re feeling. 🌿

💓This image brings to mind a beautiful little children’s book inspired by Rumi’s poem - ‘Visiting Feelings’ by Dr. Lauren Rubenstein. If you’re curious it can be found here: https://amzn.eu/d/h2ekOFo

It’s a gentle reminder that all emotions have something to teach us when we learn to welcome them in. 🌈

Image@rockinruksi

09/11/2025

Struggling a bit as the days get darker?
You’re definitely not alone, more than half of us find this time of year difficult 🌓

If you’ve been wondering about counselling, now could be a good time to start 🌱

I have some new client spaces available and offer a free 30-minute introductory chat to see if it feels like a good fit.

Pop me a message if you’d like to know more 💜

Natural Space Counselling: Pluralistic Counsellor & Psychotherapist. A professional and confidential counselling service tailored to you. Specialising in Creative Counselling & Nature Based Therapy with adults and young people across Tayside & Fife. Sessions take place at my cosy therapy room, from....

12/10/2025

How we feel and the emotions we experience are a central part of our mental health. Conversely how we respond to emotions is critical for our health, mental and physical. While they can perplexing, stubborn, frustrating, annoying, frightening and downright depressing at times, emotions are a fundamental and necessary part of brain functioning. In fact, they are central to being human.

Unfortunately societal beliefs often tells us we shouldn’t have emotions or some emotions are bad. Telling your brain it shouldn’t have emotions is like telling your heart not to beat or your lungs not to breathe, and it doesn’t make your brain very happy.

Emotions don’t always feel nice and can make us want to run away from them. And like any avoidance, short term this seems to work, we feel relieved. But inside your brain is feeling pretty annoyed at trying to hold it all in.

How you respond to your emotions is important. Research shows suppressing, berating and shaming emotions doesn’t help us deal with them at all and just creates more stress and make emotions feel even more difficult.

Naming, validating, expressing and recognising emotions seems to help us process them and help us become friends with them, rather than them having power over us. It seems to soothe those emotions and instead of adding a layer of more stress and difficult feelings, helps us deal with the ones we have.

read more about the science of emotions and how we can help our emotions in my books
📕‘A Toolkit for your Emotions’.
📚 A toolkit for modern life
📖 A toolkit for happiness

25/09/2025

‘Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.’
- Rachel Carson