Counselling with Estelle Cassidy

28/12/2022

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.
Normality will resume for me on Wednesday the 4th of January. Please get in touch if you need some support, or forward on to someone you think may need some.

01/01/2021

Happy New Year to you all. I thought I would share an excerpt from 'The Book of Awakenings' - Mark Nepo.

The Precious Human Birth

"Of all the things that exist,
we breathe and wake and turn it into song.

There is a Buddhist precept that asks us to be mindful of how rare it is to find ourselves in human form on earth. It is really a beautiful view of life that offers us the chance to feel enormous appreciation for the fact that we are here as individual spirits filled with consciousness, drinking water and chopping wood.

It asks us to look about at the ant and antelope, at the worm and the butterfly, at the dog and the castrated bull, at the hawk and the wild lonely tiger, at the hundred year old oak and the thousand year old patch of ocean. It asks us to understand that no other life form has the consciousness of being that we are privilege to. It asks us to recognize that, of all the endless species of plant and animal and mineral that make up the earth, a very small portion of life has the wakefulness of spirit that we call being human.

That I can rise from some depth of awareness to express this to you and that you can receive me in this instant is part of our precious human birth. You could have been an ant. I could have been an ant-eater. You could have been rain. I could have been a lick of salt. But we were blessed—in this time, in this place—to be human beings, alive in rare ways we often take for granted.

All of this to say, this precious human birth is unrepeatable. So what will you do today, knowing that you are one of the rarest forms of life to ever walk the earth? How will you carry yourself? What will you do with your hands? What will you ask and of whom?

Tomorrow you could die and become an ant, and someone will be setting traps for you. But today you are precious and rare and awake. It ushers us into grateful living. It makes hesitation useless. Grateful and awake, ask what you need to know now. Say what you feel now. Love what you love now."

05/12/2020

2020 has been an incredibly lonely year for so many. This is a great initiative by ITV to help fight loneliness. Take a look, and pledge some minutes if you can.

https://fb.watch/2bnoJDiM2X/

24/11/2020

Ever think that therapy is just ‘dwelling’ on a problem? ….It’s so much more than that. Often, therapy has an intent to move away from a problem-focused story and highlight the exceptions. Putting emphasis on the times when ‘the problem’ is not present or does not affect you in the same way, shows us that, very often, it is temporary. It enables your perspective to shift from potentially hopeless and helpless to one of control and positivity.

24/10/2020

It’s been some time since I’ve posted on here, and what a strange, unsettling time it’s been. The uncertainty of last 6 months have affected everybody in some way. I wish I could say I’ve returned to face to face counselling but for the moment, I’m still offering help via online methods. It’s different, but it’s not as strange and impersonal as you may think.
Please reach out if you need some support.
Here are some pointers for getting the most out of an online session.

Have you had to switch from face-to-face counselling to remote therapy? Here are four tips for making the most out of online therapy.

27/03/2020

I hope everyone is doing ok in this strange and uncertain time. I have temporarily switched all my counselling sessions online or via phone. Please do get in touch if you need anything at all, I would be more than happy to talk through things. Let’s stay connected. Sending thoughts and best wishes. Estelle.

11/03/2020

Lets be honest, parenting can be tough! There are so many opinions and different ideas. It can be pretty overwhelming and incredibly confusing to know which way to turn.
I found this podcast with child psychologist Phillipa Perry really inspiring and informative.
Take a listen here...

Fearne meets child psychotherapist Philippa Perry to discover the latest thinking and advice we can take to help the next generation be their best selves.

22/12/2019

Merry Christmas to you all. Here are some useful numbers if anyone is in need over the Christmas break.

20/10/2019

Very powerful words.

10/10/2019

It’s world mental health day today. Why not take some time to check in with someone and ask them how they’re doing. Let’s keep talking.

02/10/2019

The way we talk to ourselves is so important. Talk to yourself like you would talk to a friend.