Tonight On… Misogyny Island… 1960’s Attitudes
Maybe it’s just me, but this year has seemed more bizarre and misogynistic than ever on the annual visit to Love Island. From the start the language used has been more reminiscent of Michael Cain’s infamous ‘Alfie’ of the 1960’s, with women being called ‘Birds’ and...
BE DIGITAL AWARE: HOW TO HAVE A HEALTHIER AND HAPPIER SOCIAL MEDIA RELATIONSHIP IN THE NEW YEAR
As we emerge from the Christmas and New Year break, it’s easy to revert to old habits: far too much screen-time, checking devices all day, angsting about likes and dislikes, and not taking the mental breaks we need. A new year, a new slate – yes, that feels good. But...
Women and Risk
(Based on an online talk given to the Royal London Group’s Women’s Network on 16.11.21) Women have got bad press when it comes to taking risks: they are seen generally as being wary, more cautious, and less adventurous. Yet, look back and you’ll see many women...
Lockdown Easing – a piece of cake, or the need for peace?
Corinne will be speaking online at the Oundle Literary Festival, 13th May 2021: https://oundlelitfest.org.uk/events/corinne-sweet-everyday-self-care-for-busy-lives-series/. Over the past year, plunged deep into a pandemic, many of us have dreamt of the moment when we...
Beat Blue Monday
Yesterday was Blue Monday. I’ve been on BBC Radio Kent talking about it from a psychological perspective. Since 2005, it’s been calculated that this is a day when we feel most gloomy, down and depressed. The party is over (Christmas and New Year – well,...
Learning to Lose
My mother was a bad loser. I remember her pushing me backwards into a bed of nettles when I beat her once at tennis. I was eleven. She could not bear to lose and stormed off, racket in hand, leaving me floundering and stinging. Like Trump, my mother...
Change Your Expectations to Find Christmas Cheer
I’ve been on BBC Radio Sussex and BBC Kent in the last two days, talking about our ‘great expectations’ for this coming Christmas. After the Victoria Derbyshire comments about wanting to break the Covid-19 rules at Christmas, the airwaves have been quivering with...
The Addictive Pull of the Lockdown
The current lockdown is challenging us in so many ways psychologically and emotionally. The stress of not being able to do what you want, when you want, or to simply go out and stay out, see people, have fun, and do all the things you usually do, is taking its toll....
Keep Calm and Don’t Catastrophise
For the past few years ‘Keep Calm And Carry On” has been reprised. The old 2nd World War slogan has had a second life in our techno-hectic zeitgeist. The slogan is on mugs, socks, cards, towels, t-shirts, exhorting us to calm down everywhere we are. However,...
The Dark Side of Covid: Attacked at Ally Pally Lake
At 6.30pm on Friday 27th March 2020, I had just finished a long day of writing and working with psychotherapy clients online. I decided my reward was my favourite daily allowed walk to my local park, Alexandra Palace, to look at the ducks. I’d been...
Dealing with Brexit Day Blues
Some people will be feeling thrilled as the portcullis comes down tomorrow and the drawbridge is pulled up, between Britain and mainland Europe. They will probably be waving their union jacks, saying ‘Cheers’ and feeling they have won the fight to be true to good old...
Why Brexit is Like Giving Birth
Focussing on achieving Brexit as the ‘be-and-end-all’ solution to all our current problems, is very like the way women can end up focussed on having the perfect birth. It is totally understandable, but on the whole, totally useless. It is often the wrong...
Riding the Brexit Rollercoaster and Staying Sane
It’s a truism: we are living in extremely challenging times. The current Brexit rollercoaster is riding roughshod over people’s lives and well-being. The constant discussions, arguments, clashes, and crises are extremely wearing. Uncertainty creates a...
Overcoming Overwhelm in an Age of Anxiety
It’s a truism: we are living in an age of anxiety. An age of too much information, too much stress, too much anxiety – too much too much. Consequently, many of us are experiencing emotional, psychological and physical overwhelm on a daily basis. The dial...
Surviving Blighted Blighty: A View From Sunny Spain
Having spent the past week in sunny Seville with my choir, the Highgate Choral Society, singing in amazing churches and breathtaking Cathedrals, one thing became very clear: we were all thoroughly relieved to be away from the terrible tumult of UK life. Over tapas we...
Surviving a National Crisis
‘Crisis?’ ‘What Crisis?’ Many of us might be in denial, right now, that we are in a national crisis. But we are. When things get this tough, it is tempting to take recourse to Netflix (a telly version of hiding under the duvet). And really hiding under the duvet,...
Have You Got Bad News-itis?
You are checking your phone, browsing news websites, flicking on the TV or Radio, glancing at news-stands compulsively, wary of what bad news is coming next.
Is Brexit Making You Anxious?
We are living in challenging times. The storm clouds have not only gathered, but are hanging heavily over our heads.