Em’s Therapy Space

Em’s Therapy Space Private Counselling for adults, teens and couples. Based in a peaceful garden room in Wilmslow.

Lucky li’l me.Back to normal nwcr week 🩵
08/04/2026

Lucky li’l me.
Back to normal nwcr week 🩵

Spiralling and evolving can feel similar from the inside because both involve thinking hard about something. The differe...
06/04/2026

Spiralling and evolving can feel similar from the inside because both involve thinking hard about something. The difference is one keeps you stuck and one moves you toward feeling better.

1. Avoidance / suppression
The feeling shows up but you distract, numb, or push it away.
→ It isn’t processed, so it comes back.

2. Getting lost in it
The feeling takes over. You become it.
→ No reflection, just repetition.

Both keep the cycle going.

🩵What creates forward movement?🩵

It happens when three things come together:

1. Let it be there
Allow the feeling, don’t block it.

2. Stay with it
Don’t get overwhelmed, but don’t disconnect either.
Feel it without losing yourself.

3. Work through it
Talk, write, reflect, understand.
This is where change happens.
The pattern is processed, not repeated.

Real life example:
Spiralling (getting lost in it)
You walk into a room and people are laughing.
You instantly think: they’re laughing about me.
You go quiet, feel awkward, maybe leave or shut down… and it sticks with you all day.

Evolving (staying with it, not in it)
Same moment. Same feeling: that felt uncomfortable.
You pause.
Think: I don’t actually know what they’re laughing about.
You stay, settle yourself, maybe even join in.
The feeling passes instead of taking over.

Had an ending session today with one of my clients that made me stop and think about how far she’s come.A year ago she w...
31/03/2026

Had an ending session today with one of my clients that made me stop and think about how far she’s come.

A year ago she would’ve held back, overthought everything, and avoided anything that felt too exposing.

Now she’s taking chances, showing up, and backing herself in a way she never used to.

Same person. Different mindset.

And that’s all her; the work she’s put in, the risks she’s taken, the way she’s kept going even when it felt uncomfortable.

So very proud of her. And she knows where I am if she ever needs me again. 🤍🌹

Great minds don’t always think alike…and they’re not supposed to.Neurodiversity Celebration Week is a reminder that diff...
19/03/2026

Great minds don’t always think alike…
and they’re not supposed to.

Neurodiversity Celebration Week is a reminder that difference isn’t a problem to solve,
it’s something to understand and celebrate. 🩵🤍🙌🧠

Do you ever feel like unless something is perfect, there’s almost no point doing it at all?Perfectionism often gets mist...
17/03/2026

Do you ever feel like unless something is perfect, there’s almost no point doing it at all?

Perfectionism often gets mistaken for excellence. From the outside it can look like high standards, dedication, being really driven. People get praised for it, especially in the work place and young people at school/college/uni.

Underneath, it can be something quite different. It can keep you overthinking things, putting off starting, endlessly tweaking something that was already good enough, or abandoning ideas because they might not turn out exactly right.

Trying to live by a standard that basically doesn’t exist is exhausting. And it’s strangely unsatisfying too, because even when something does go well it still rarely feels quite good enough.

A more helpful shift is focusing on progress instead of perfection. Most things worth doing get better through trying, practising, adjusting and learning as you go. Perfectionism usually just keeps people stuck on the starting line.

Mother’s Day is joyful for some people.For others it carries grief, strained relationships, or the ache of what wasn’t t...
15/03/2026

Mother’s Day is joyful for some people.
For others it carries grief, strained relationships, or the ache of what wasn’t there.

Sometimes the same person holds both. Sending love to all 💛

Our brains are generally wired for familiar but that doesn’t always mean better. It feels safer and even if something is...
08/03/2026

Our brains are generally wired for familiar but that doesn’t always mean better. It feels safer and even if something isn’t right for you, or the best for you… if it feels familiar it will always sit better. It’s the old ‘better the devil you know’ scenario (and since this phrase came up Kylie took over the song choice.. sorry.)

So the moment you try something different…speak up, set a boundary, change direction, take a risk, even just think about your life in a new way… your brain can hit the alarm button.

Danger, abort, retreat to the sofa and carry on with the same old patterns.

Whatever thing it is that you are trying differently, it’s unlikely that it actually is dangerous. It’s far more likely that it’s just that it is new. New can feel uncomfortable before it ever feels good.

The strange thing is, the choices that make our brain the most twitchy in the moment are often the ones our future self is incredibly grateful for.
Safe has its place but try not to let it be the lead in every decision.
Happy Sunday 🩵🩵🩵

Since it’s World Book Day I was mulling over my fave books. I read (buy more than I read 🙄) a lot of mental health relat...
05/03/2026

Since it’s World Book Day I was mulling over my fave books. I read (buy more than I read 🙄) a lot of mental health related books. And I love a good psychological thriller or true crime.
But, one of my forever favourites is a children’s book, The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson is simple, a bit magical and also relatable (am I describing myself..?!) It was read on repeat with my three kids and I’ll be keeping my copy forever, hence the pic.

A mum and her little girl make a chain of paper dolls. Each has a name, and as the girl plays they go on all sorts of adventures together, escaping dinosaurs, crocodiles and every imagined danger, singing that they’re ‘holding hands and we won’t let go.’

Then a little boy arrives with scissors.

The dolls are cut up. But they’re not gone forever, they drift into the girl’s memory alongside all the other small, ordinary, but treasured moments that make up childhood. And years later, when she has a little girl of her own, she makes paper dolls again and the story lives on…

It’s beautiful and quietly enchanting, and a lovely reminder that precious things (living and not) stay with us. We keep them alive by passing them on and telling their stories.✨✨✨✨✨

Some days it doesn’t take much. A bit of blue sky and suddenly things feel a little more possible. No big life revelatio...
04/03/2026

Some days it doesn’t take much. A bit of blue sky and suddenly things feel a little more possible. No big life revelations, just a quiet lift.
Cheers to the mother-fo’ing blue sky. 🩵🩵🩵

“I’ll be happy when…”When I leave school. When I get the job. When I meet the one. When I buy the house. When I’ve fixed...
02/03/2026

“I’ll be happy when…”

When I leave school. When I get the job. When I meet the one. When I buy the house. When I’ve fixed myself.

It sounds sensible, but often it’s just postponing things until you feel ready. So you hold back. You stay where it feels safer. You assume other people are somehow more capable or more entitled to go after what they want, and you tell yourself you’ll move properly once you feel more certain.

The problem is that ready rarely turns up first. It usually catches up after you’ve acted. If you keep waiting for the feeling before you make the move, you can end up living cautiously for years without meaning to.

That’s how a half life happens. Not through failure, but through hesitation. Through quietly deciding you’re not quite there yet.

You chase the next milestone hoping it will finally settle something inside you, and when it doesn’t, you assume the problem is you.

And the years will pass anyway.
You don’t have to earn the right to live fully.

The timeline ends for all of us. The question is whether we really lived it or just endured it.
🤍🤍🤍

There are endless ideas about what a “good” life should look like.Ambitious, visible, successful, busy. Or stripped back...
01/03/2026

There are endless ideas about what a “good” life should look like.

Ambitious, visible, successful, busy. Or stripped back, minimal, off-grid, intentional.

But a life doesn’t have to be impressive to be meaningful, and it doesn’t have to be simple to be wise. It doesn’t have to fit a trend to be right.

For some people it’s adventure and risk and building something big. For others it’s routine, family, steady work and quiet contentment.

The real question isn’t whether it looks exciting, it’s whether it feels honest.

Fulfilment isn’t measured by how it appears from the outside. It’s measured by whether you recognise yourself in it, whether your choices reflect who you actually are, and whether you’ve shaped your life around your values rather than other people’s expectations.

Because this is your life. Not a performance. Not a response to someone else’s approval. Yours. 🩵

If your relationship has been feeling strained lately, whether that is more tension, less connection, or conversations t...
24/02/2026

If your relationship has been feeling strained lately, whether that is more tension, less connection, or conversations that go round in circles, it can start to wear you down.

I provide couples counselling in Wilmslow for partners who want a steady, supportive space to talk openly, understand what is happening between them, and find a clearer way forward together.

Limited availability at present. Please direct message to enquire or email emma@emstherapyspace.co.uk

www.emstherapyspace.co.uk

Address

Wilmslow

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