A number of publications are directly relevant to the wellbeing of healthcare professionals – you can find these below:

The Burnout Booklet

The Burnout Booklet: A Health Resource for Patients and Practitioners By Katharine Murphy and Olivia Glaze

This beautifully illustrated booklet draws on lived experience of burnout to offer a range of metaphorical ways of describing burnout. I often talk about how the word burnout can mean many different things, and it’s important to understand the individual experience of this to be able to respond in helpful ways. This booklet can help individuals find ways of expressing their experience and also help supporting professionals think in a more nuanced way about the issue.

Creative hobbies and work recovery

Recuperating, Revitalising, and Reaffirming: the experiences associated with creative hobbies, and their impact on recovery, wellbeing, and work by Delores Hill

This research project explored ways in which creative hobbies can support work recovery. This is a concept I often explore with health professionals I work with. It is the idea that what we do outside of work can help to replenish what is depleted by our experiences at work. It requires us to be attuned to our needs and be intentional about how we can support ourselves with what we invest our time in outside of work. Creative hobbies offer ways to meet a range of needs through supporting detachment from work, providing a sense of mastery, lifting our mood, and connection with values. This article describes Hill’s research in a very digestible way, and offers useful practical applications.

Creative Toolkit for palliative care professionals

Co-producing a ‘creative toolkit’ to support the mental health and wellbeing of palliative care professionals: a community case study By Marie A. Clancy, Caitlin R. Kight, Jessica Stein, Naome Glanville, Anthony C. Wilson, and Richard G. Kyle

This publication explores the growing pressures faced by professionals working in palliative care, particularly in the wake of COVID-19, and highlights how a culture of prioritising patient needs often leads staff to neglect their own wellbeing. It presents a co-produced, arts-based “Creative Toolkit” designed to support the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual health of staff through reflection, relaxation, and connection.

Drawing on a small-scale case study, the paper demonstrates how creative approaches can help staff process difficult experiences and build a sense of community, with highly positive participant feedback. While the findings are context-specific and further research is needed, the publication makes a valuable contribution by showing how creative, arts-based interventions can be meaningfully integrated into workforce wellbeing support.

Art therapy to reduce burnout

Art therapy to reduce burnout and mental distress in healthcare professionals in acute hospitals: a randomised controlled trial By Megan Tjasink, Catherine Elizabeth Carr, Paul Bassett, Gehan Soosaipillai, Dennis Ougrin, and Stefan Priebe

This study examines whether a brief, structured group art therapy programme can improve burnout and mental wellbeing among hospital-based healthcare professionals. In a large, multicentre randomised controlled trial involving NHS staff across a range of roles, participants were assigned either to six weekly art therapy sessions or to a wait-list control group receiving usual support.

The findings show that those who took part in the art therapy programme experienced significant reductions in emotional exhaustion, alongside improvements in stress, anxiety, depression, and detachment from work, with benefits sustained at three-month follow-up. While the study had some limitations, including its reliance on a wait-list control and limited subgroup analysis, it provides strong evidence that a relatively short, manualised and theory-informed art therapy intervention can meaningfully support staff wellbeing and could be integrated into hospital workforce support services. The lead author, Megan Tjasink has been a guest on the When Work Hurts podcast – you can listen to her talk about her work here.

The Body Hotel Self-Care Suite

The Body Hotel Self-Care Suite: Evaluation By Teresa Filipponi, Carolyn Wallace, and Thania Acarón

This publication evaluates The Body Hotel Self-Care Suite, a creative, movement- and body-based programme developed to support the wellbeing of palliative care staff within NHS Wales. Focusing on teams at Velindre NHS Trust, the study explores whether embodied, creative practices can enhance wellbeing, psychological safety, and day-to-day working relationships.

Drawing on interviews and pre- and post-programme questionnaire data, the evaluation found that participants reported increased energy, emotional resilience, self-awareness, confidence, and self-compassion, alongside a stronger sense of connection with colleagues. Staff also described applying tools from the programme to manage stress, communicate more openly, and foster more supportive team dynamics. While based on a small, self-selecting sample, the findings suggest that creative, body-based approaches can play a valuable role in supporting workforce mental health and cultivating more compassionate and sustainable workplace cultures.

It’s clear that the arts and creative practice can play an important role in supporting the wellbeing of healthcare staff. Creativity & Wellbeing Week is coming up (18th – 24th May 2026) – this is a great opportunity to consider how you might be able to bring more creativity into your workplace and life.

On 19th May I am running an online workshop for doctors with Dr Alison Smith of Earth & Bloom called Shaping Self Compassion. It’s a hands on workshop using clay to explore and nurture compassion for yourself, something many of us in helping professions struggle to access. It will be a gentle evening combining the soothing and tactile experience of working with clay and other natural materials with a listening circle. Booking closes on 5th May (to give us time to get your goodie bag to you), so secure your place today!

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Health professionals often advise patients and clients to prioritise self care but regularly find it hard to follow their own advice.  Mindfulness is one of those self care tools that can feel like another stick health professionals beat themselves with. You may know it’ll help you manage stress, but just can’t get round to fitting it in. Or perhaps you tried it but couldn’t clear your mind of thoughts so it seemed like a waste of time. 

Despite mindfulness being an evidence based tool used in the NHS to reduce mental health problems, many people, including health professionals, have misconceptions about it which prevent them from using it.

This blog will clear up some common mindfulness myths and help busy health professionals find ways to use it that suits them, even on a busy day. But first the basics.

What is mindfulness and how can it help manage stress? 

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Mindfulness increases a person’s awareness, with a sense of curiosity and acceptance, of what’s going on in the present moment. This includes stuff outside you (i.e. what you can see, hear and feel) but also inside you (i.e. your mind, body and emotions). Being more aware of these things in a curious and accepting way helps us to manage our thoughts and feelings and therefore respond to stress more helpfully. 

However, the focus on “present moment awareness” leads to the first misconception – that you are meant to be clearing your mind of all thoughts. 

It’s impossible to clear your mind of thoughts and people can have very busy minds and still practice mindfulness (like me!). But when you are mindfully aware of your thoughts you can take a step back and react differently to them. A head full of “shoulds” or self criticism becomes more manageable when we label them as “”just thoughts”. 

But it doesn’t end there. In fact when it comes to managing stress, what happens from the neck down is just as important. 

Stressful situations create physical sensations in the body that, if we are not aware of them, will build through the day and get worse. The magic of mindfulness is that you become much more aware that this is happening and can take steps to release stress from your body by relaxing your muscles or taking some deep breaths. So even though it can’t change the huge, work based demands on health professionals, it can help you change your response to those demands by helping you regulate stress in the body.

Another myth is that you have to fit in long meditations which is another big no if you’re already feel short of time. But although a regular planned meditation will certainly help you to be more mindful, weaving mindfulness practices into a busy day can also be effective. A “ mini mindful moment” really can be done anytime, anywhere by loosely following these steps: 

How to practice mindfulness anytime, any place  

• Choose an “anchor” to focus on i.e sounds, feet on floor, taste of tea. Really notice the details of that. When (not if) your mind wanders away, simply acknowledge and label the thoughts i.e. I am having lots of busy thoughts, I am noticing I am being harsh on myself.
• After a few moments bring attention to your body as a whole. Briefly scan from the head downwards, paying peculiar attention to where you usually hold tension, e.g. shoulder neck and jaw.
• Spend a few moments naming the feelings in the body e.g. I am aware I am feeling stressed, I am noticing anxiety.
• Try to release stress from the body i.e drop your shoulders, loosen your jaw, take some deeper breaths.
• Return to the chosen anchor for a few moments and then carry on with your day.

Suggestions for mini mindful moments on busy days 

Here are some suggestions for mindful moments that busy health professionals can easily weave into their day:

• When showering in the morning, notice the water against your skin, the sound of the shower or the smell and feel of soap.
• When having your morning coffee, notice how it looks and tastes as well as the warmth of the cup in your hands.
• On your commute, instead of looking at your phone or catching up with emails, set a timer for 5-10 minutes. Use that time to focus on your breath and/or body and build in a short meditation practice.
• When catching up with client notes at your desk, notice your feet on the floor and body sat on the chair. Stop what you are doing and focus on the sounds you can hear around you. Zoom into the fine detail of the buzz in the office such as chatting and photocopier etc.
• If you’re on your feet a lot, tune into the soles of your feet a few times a day. Notice the contact points they make with the floor and then expand your awareness to notice the rest of your body too.
• When having lunch, instead of eating and working, spend time looking, smelling and tasting the food. 
• On your commute home, scan your body from head to toe and let go of stress before you arrive home.

Practising little and often, in the middle of everyday activities, is a great way to start being more mindful that doesn’t take up extra time. It can be tricky to remember at first, so it can help to set reminders or commit to 1 or 2 activities you will do mindfully each day. The more you make an effort to be mindful, the more it becomes second nature.

For more information about mindfulness and how to get started visit Mind. 

Rebecca Stambridge is a mindfulness teacher and integrative psychotherapist. She spent many years working for busy national and local mental health charities as a project manager but now runs the private therapy practice “Contentedmind” where she specialises in anxiety and low self esteem. 

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Working as a staff health and wellbeing psychologist offers a range of opportunities to be creative. As an evolving area of intervention it invites innovation, and permission to try new things.

One of the initiatives I am most proud of is the development and delivery of an art and wellbeing collaboration called Take heART. A project that seeks to improve the experience of staff, patients and hospital visitors through creativity and the arts. But how, as a psychologist did I find myself involved in this work? Let me share a story with you.

© Shaun Armstrong

My story

For a long time I believed “I’m not creative”. This was the story I told myself….and others.  Stories that started when I was a child: attempts to learn a musical instrument, dance lessons, trying art and drama at school all seemed to feed this narrative. The crush of comparison with others reinforced a well-crafted story: “this is not for me, others do it better”. 

I pick this story up many years later when, as an adult patient I experienced the positive impact art and creativity can have on wellbeing. I was undergoing treatment that required frequent visits to hospital. With this came a lot of waiting. Waiting to get assessed, waiting for treatment, waiting for results, waiting rooms and a lot of uncertainty.

As I spent an increasing amount of time in a waiting area, I gravitated away from the main room to a smaller space. To a light filled corridor. A place where there was less waiting and more….. just being. As I made this my new regular spot, my attention was drawn to the art, a picture that sat squarely and proudly on the wall. A familiar, predictable and engaging sight. I recall an abstract depiction of a cell, inside the body. It was beautiful. On a bad day it was slightly painful to look at. It did not shy away from what those coming to the hospital were doing, the treatment they were having.

Art is open to the interpretation of its audience. What I took from it was an intriguing, distracting, honest depiction of a medical, but also emotional, process that myself and others were navigating. Art has power and presence, particularly at times of difficulty and distress. This was the start of my connection with art in hospital.

The final thread of this story can be found a few years ago. After working for much of my career in mental health services I lost my love for the work and my wellbeing started to suffer. I had an instinctive need to pause. Rather than asking myself “what should I do next?” I considered “what gives me a sense of purpose and enjoyment at work?” Supporting other staff and working in services and systems that invited creativity were up there. And so my journey working in a staff support role started. I initially worked during the pandemic with critical care and respiratory medicine staff followed by a trust-wide role. I was outside my comfort zone but inside my creative zone.  

Working in stressed and stretched care systems with limited resources and navigating unchartered territory invited new ways of thinking and working.  As both an ‘embedded’ and trust-wide staff support psychologist I was struck by the challenge of how, with limited resources my role could offer meaningful, effective and sustainable change. In a busy, unpredictable, often anxiety provoking environment, how could the hospital setting feel more welcoming, calming, engaging and soothing?

The Take HeART project

© Shaun Armstrong

Take heART has grown from connection and collaboration. It is a true team effort, a network of staff, departments and community partners coming together to try new things. As a psychologist I have been well placed to bring psychological theory and frameworks to help shape and evolve this development. To operationalise what can feel like abstract ideas such as ‘compassion’ and ‘trauma-informed care’. To support the creation of places and spaces that trigger our emotional soothing systems. Creating conditions for individuals to slow down, connect with their values and importantly with others including the local community. To enable appreciation and gratitude to be cultivated. Also, this has been an opportunity to raise and evolve the profile of my profession, to highlight how psychologists can support not just wellbeing but ‘well doing’.

How you can get started

While supporting wellbeing through the arts and creativity can be powerful, it can feel difficult to initiate and challenging to translate into behavioural change. Especially when working in high demand, low resource systems.  It can be helpful to start small and think BIG. 

‘ARTS’ is one way to guide this process and ask a number of important questions – consider Access, Resources, the Team and how to Shout about it. Try to do so with curiosity, care and a small dose of optimism. We do not need to have all the answers.

© Shaun Armstrong

Access

How can you make what you do as accessible as possible to ALL staff , especially those who do not see themselves as creative? What are the different ways individuals can participate? What invites curiosity and playfulness? What gets in the way of involvement, what are the internal and external barriers? 

For example, how could you not just invite staff to step away from their day-to-day busy environments but also bring art and creativity to them? Why not display art in team areas including staff rooms, offer a touring ‘art cart’ or join an existing staff event such as a team away day or trust staff engagement event?  

Katie Allen and Bedford Road Primary School

Resources

What resources and motivates you and others? Start with YOURSELF….what do you need? What inspires and supports you?  What are the existing budgets you can tap into? Do you have charitable funds you could apply to for initial ‘pump priming’? Are there individuals within your trust who could apply for external grants?

One starting point might be to consider what you already have. Why not create an inventory to log current artwork in your workplace? How might you showcase this?  Maybe set up an art trail? What skills, knowledge and experience would help you grow your projects? What are the strengths and skills you can bring to the work and how would you like to develop these?

Working within your limits is also important to sustain yourself and others. Developing a project plan/timeline, keeping a log of hours spent on a project and setting flexible deadlines can all help with this. As your project evolves and you seek funding, ensuring tasks such as project management and installation are budgeted for. This will create capacity and help you make a case for additional resources. Setting up a regular working group offers an opportunity to review workload, engage and inspire others and in turn create a team.

© Shaun Armstrong

Team

Who can you connect with? Who else is doing (or trying to do) this kind of work in your workplace?  Why not start with just one other person? There can be real power to partnership working. What other parts of your organisation might help?  Organisational Development, the Communications Team, Charitable Funds, Estates & Facilities, Wellbeing Leads and the Senior Leadership Team?  What about those outside your organisation?  Local artists, schools and art colleagues.  Link in with other trusts where they have more well-established arts and wellbeing programmes etc.

Feel free to reach out to take heART via our website or email.

Katie Allen and Bedford Road Primary School

Shout

Once you have started to test out some ideas, how can you shout about and showcase what you are doing and trying to do? You do not need to wait until you feel you have a well-established project. Shout early on.

When starting take heART we found it helpful to identify a name for our group and key aims and vision for the work, which could be easily disseminated.  Having a logo can help create ‘a brand’ and enable others to recognise and link different projects. Gathering feedback has been important.  Sharing what staff say about their experiences can bring the work to life. Working with our Communications Team and photographing what we do has raised the profile of our work. 

Visual artwork displayed in high footfall areas can have a powerful impact and create ‘positive gossip’. Why not walk around your work space with the Estates Team and consider where the high impact and easy to display areas are (e.g. main entrances, stairwells, lifts, corridors and waiting rooms)?  Installing large poster frames is a relatively quick, cheap and easy way to create spaces to display artwork.

Also get good at shouting about your profession and your role, showcase what psychology can bring to the table. It is not just the stories we tell ourselves, but the ones we choose to share with others that can spark change.

To find out more listen to Rachel’s in-depth discussion with Paula on the When Work Hurts Podcast.

The post Take heART: Bringing together psychology and art for NHS staff wellbeing appeared first on Dr Paula Redmond, Clinical Psychologist.

When we are feeling overwhelmed we can spend a lot of time berating ourselves for not being better buckets, when actually our buckets are fundamentally fine.

There are, though, things we can do to support our buckets and keep things flowing and working as best we can: disconnecting, connecting, doing what matters, and making room through self-compassion.

Watch the video to find out more.

The post The Bucket Metaphor appeared first on Dr Paula Redmond, Clinical Psychologist.

It can seem like everyone around us is making resolutions, setting goals, working out their targets, streamlining, organizing (or so our mind and social media might tell us). For some, this brings a new feeling of hope, that anything is possible, and comes with excitement, a chance to start refreshed and anew.

For others it comes with a sense of dread (“I need to try again and its hard”), disappointment (“I didn’t make it last year”), or discomfort (“This is hard”). First let us start with acknowledging ALL those thoughts and feelings.

Sometimes goal setting is not what serves us best. Sometimes, we don’t need to set ourselves targets, or make resolutions that may or may not be achievable when the world is currently so full of uncertainty. This can leave us feeling discombobulated and without sure footing.

A more helpful way can be to think about making moves every day that take us towards the kind of life we want, and towards the kind of person we want to be, rather than away. And we don’t need a January to find a point of recalibration, a compass, a choice point to navigate these “towards moves”.

The Choice Point

Instead of making resolutions I like to use an exercise called The Choice Point (introduced by Ciarrochi, Bailey and Harris, 2013). This is a brief tool that we can use to bring us back to what matters most, to re-centre, and re-calibrate our compass over and over every day. We can’t fail at this, we get to check in and re-calibrate and flex with every move.

The Choice Point lets us ask ourselves those tricky questions from a deeper, more meaningful place: should I accept this piece of work? Should I step forward for that promotion? Shall I book that annual leave? How much time do I want to spend in the office, or at home? What clients do I love to work with the most? Why am I doing this job? How do I want this telephone conversation to go, or to word that email? With every single decision we can check back in and say, does this take me towards, or away from my values, and what matters to me?

Values

How do I know what my values are? What kind of parent/sister/partner do I want to be? How do I want to show up for my community? What do I want my life to stand for? What kind of person do I want to be?  At home? At work? How much time am I spending in each of those areas? Is this the best balance for this phase of my life? You can learn more about values here.

Hooks

Sometimes when we recalibrate and check in, we get those tricky thoughts that pop up and say “Oh hang on.. what will your colleagues think of you?”, “Don’t let your colleagues down, they are counting on you”, “One more shift won’t hurt”, “Just stay one more hour and say no next time”, “Just one more patient, they need you”. These are called ‘hooks’. They are difficult thoughts and feelings that get their hooks into us and can pull as away from those towards moves.

When those tricky hooks come up pause, breathe, notice mindfully and then make an active choice. Let your mind wander back to task, engage fully and take a step back from the tricky thought in your mind. You might visualise yourself ‘unhooking’. Then experience fully the present moment using all the senses, what can you smell, see, taste, touch. What is right here in this moment for you?

Grounding techniques can be very useful for unhooking. You can read more about grounding here.

Values based action

Now consider what small step takes you towards your values in this moment? What ‘towards moves’ could you make? What are your ‘helpers’, your strengths, your tools and your resources (don’t forget your cheerleaders) that you can draw from in this moment…and this moment…and this moment.

What does this look like?

Here is an example that I have frequently discussed with clients when making decisions feels tough.  This is often because there is a values clash and it doesn’t feel like there is a choice. In this example, the hooks often feel like ‘facts’ until further mindful examination. Labelling our thoughts as ‘hooks’ allows us to step back in order to see where there may be some wiggle room, even when things look fixed and stuck.

Often our ‘towards moves’ are not big leaps, but a series of tiny movements, that open up the possibility of something that feels more aligned with our values. It is those times when we feel most stuck, that often signal a values clash, and that something isn’t working for us.

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So, this year make a choice. You might make a resolution, or set a new goal, or just take a pause and reflect. And if you don’t have the energy, or it feels too much, it’s ok. Be kind to yourself, because at any moment, at any time of year you can pause, reflect on those opportunities to make more towards moves and take those tiny steps towards that valued life.

Dr Claire Hepworth is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Coaching Psychologist  who loves to help make work life work well. Claire has over twenty years of experience in Psychology research and practice in the NHS and private services. Dr Hepworth offers therapy and coaching psychology to individuals who wish to enhance their wellbeing or performance. She loves to work with professionals who want to overcome self-criticism, worry and perfectionism and manage stress.  Claire works with organisations to offer consultation, coaching and training to develop evidence based psychological organisational wellbeing strategies. You can find out more about her work here: www.dowhatworks.co.uk, www.drclairehepworth.com

The post A fresh take on making New Years resolutions – The Choice Point appeared first on Dr Paula Redmond, Clinical Psychologist.

So what can yoga do for me when I’m stressed at work?

Work and workplace environments are common sources of stress, so given that we now know the potential benefits of yoga, how can we incorporate it into a working day? Ultimately, the more regularly yoga is practiced, the greater the benefits on our overall wellbeing at any time. It helps to get into the habit of a regular practice where possible (even if only a few minutes per day), much like brushing our teeth on a daily basis benefits our dental hygiene. Therefore, the benefits of any practice of yoga outside of work will extend to the workplace too. Here are some ideas for incorporating practices from the eight branches of yoga at work.

Identify Yoga Time

If you are able to take some time during a lunch break, you may like to use the opportunity to practice a short yoga flow that incorporates both the psychological and physical benefits.

• Find a space you can do this (perhaps outdoors in the summer, or an empty office).
• Practice on your own, or invite colleagues to join you – perhaps it can become a new office habit together where you can additionally reap the benefits of connection through community. Before the pandemic had us working from home, some colleagues and I would enjoy gathering for just 10 minutes of gentle flow together before eating our lunch. It was a lovely way to connect to our bodies and feel we were offering nourishment to ourselves, alongside each other.
• Follow a guided practice – you can find some excellent free online resources to do this. One of the most well-known is ‘Yoga with Adriene’ on YouTube, who offers hundreds of free videos ranging from just 5 minutes up to a full hour of practice. She categorises her videos so you can find one matching what you feel you are in need of, for example: for managing stress, anxiety, anger, or boosting energy.

Breathe

Take a moment to pause. Place one hand over your heart and the other on your belly. Your eyes can be closed, or open with gaze lowered if it’s more comfortable for you. Take a long, slow breath in through the nose, filling your belly with air and feel your hand gently rising here as you do. Pause for a moment at the end of the inhale, then breathe out as slowly as you can, gradually releasing the air from your lungs. Feel the warmth of your hand directed into the heart. You could also add a mantra here, if you wish. Notice how you feel after a few rounds of this. Another great technique to promote a calming connection between mind and body is Alternate Nostril Breathing, which you can find a demonstration of here.

Mindful self-compassion

When you next grab a cup of tea or coffee, see if you can use this moment to tune into the sensations as you make yourself a drink: the smells, the colours, the sight of the steam rising, the heat from the mug… Notice this as a moment of reconnection between your mind and body, and a moment of practicing ‘santosha’, one of the Niyamas.

Shift

Before transitioning from one task or space to another (such as from a meeting to a clinical session), try spending a minute practicing a round or two of slow ‘sun salutations’. Not only is this a traditional and energising way to start your morning, it is a great sequence to reset the mind and body and shift any tricky stressed energy or emotions that feel a bit stuck. As you flow from one movement to the next in synchrony with your breath, you bring quite a literal change in perspective with each different posture. Practice with an intention to observe and move in a way that feels good for your own body; yoga shouldn’t be about how you look. Sun salutations also help to get blood and oxygen flowing through your body as you move mindfully, which has a refreshing effect. See this video for a demonstration and this article  for variations and information on safe practice.

Embody

Take a moment to tune into your body and mind; notice your current body posture, facial expression, and energy level. With this information, see if you can feel a sense of what your body and mind need right now. Then move into an asana (posture) or two that help you to embody this.

For example, if you are feeling anxious and want to nurture and embody a sense of courage, you could mindfully move into a Warrior 2 posture: spend a little time here to feel into your body, generate a felt sense of strength, stability, and warming energy as you actively engage your muscles while rooting to the ground beneath your feet. When you feel you have the posture, focus your eyes on one spot (in yoga we say “find your Drishti; point of concentration”). Stay here for as long as you wish, remembering to take long, slow breaths through the nose.

What about using yoga to manage stress when I’m at home?

Here are some ideas for incorporating some yoga practice into your home life – which will also have a knock-on effect on work stress:

• Protect some time in your day to practice – whether immediately before or after work, or last thing before going to sleep. Identify a time that seems the most doable for you.

• Let others know that this is your time for yoga and if you want to practice on your own, ask not to be disturbed. Or invite your partner, child, or housemate to join you! While yoga can be a personal practice (and can broaden your sense of connection to all living things), it is also a great way of connecting with others and feeling a sense of community.

• Find what works best for you and your wellbeing, which may be a mixture of both individual and shared practice. You could use the free resources mentioned here, or find yourself a class to attend online or in person. There are many options available now, so you can also ‘shop around’ and see which suits you best.

• If you are looking for deep rest and relaxation, or stress affects your sleep, you may gain particular benefit from yoga nidra, which is a highly accessible guided meditation practice done lying down. You can find free audio recordings online here.

As a clinical psychologist, I have been excited to explore the practice of yoga and the ways in which it can support psychological wellbeing, including as a supplement to talking therapy. With its wide variety of practices, I believe yoga can be accessible to all, but of course there are other mind-body practices that you may feel more connection with, such as Tai Chi, or Qigong. There are many different traditional and modern methods for practicing all branches of yoga and therefore it can be quite confusing to know where to start. You may wish to explore some of the different approaches (such as Vinyasa, Hatha, Yin, or Restorative) and see which you find most accessible and that you most connect with and find benefit from. As popular YouTube yoga teacher Adrienne would say, “find what feels good” – it’s about what works for you in service of your values.

Please note – if you’re planning to practice yoga for the first time, please take a moment to assess if your body is ready for some of the physical practices. In particular, if you have any health conditions or concerns, recent illness, or have doubts about your fitness and health, then check with your doctor first for any advice before starting a new form of physical exercise. You may also wish to practice under the guidance of a qualified yoga teacher, either in a private session or group class.

Dr Bethany Stroyde is a Clinical Psychologist and Yoga Teacher with a special interest in mind-body approaches and works with adults. You can contact her at BethStroyde@Protonmail.com, follow her on Instagram at @heartmindbodypsychology, and find her website at heartmindbodypsychology.com.

The post 5 practical ways to incorporate yoga into your working life appeared first on Dr Paula Redmond, Clinical Psychologist.

When people think of yoga it might conjure up images of glamorous young women twisting into challenging shapes in exotic locations – thank you social media. It’s also not uncommon to hear people say, “I’m not flexible enough to do yoga”, which seems to reflect and reinforce an unfortunate misconception about what yoga actually is and who can practice it.

Naive for years myself about yoga (I had assumed it was simply an exercise regime similar to Pilates!), it was a day of training during my Clinical Psychology doctorate that opened my eyes to the full scope and potential power of yoga to transform our lives for the better. I learned that anyone can practice yoga and feel the benefits.

How and why can yoga help with stress?

Maybe you have some familiarity with yoga already, either from hearing about it, or from having attended classes. However, you may be less familiar with the history, science and full scope of the practice of yoga and its relevance to our wellbeing…

Is yoga not just striking a pose?

Yoga is an ancient systematic practice rooted in Indian philosophy. It is not only the physical practice that we see images of everywhere – that is only one of eight branches of the practice of yoga. Together, the eight branches cover physical, psychological or psycho-spiritual, and ethical practices. They are called:

• Yamas: interpersonal ethics (how we treat others)
• Niyamas: intrapersonal guidance (how we treat ourselves)
• Asana: physical postures and movements
• Pranayama: breathwork
• Pratyahara: controlled senses (aligns with mindfulness approaches)
• Dharana: concentration
• Dhyana: meditation
• Samadhi: enlightenment (links to connectedness and values)

They are listed in this order intentionally, as the first four practices are concerned with how we live in the external world and act as preparation of your mind and body for practicing the following four, that are more concerned with our internal world. While they all connect and build upon each other, we can decide for ourselves which parts work for us in terms of our values and how we want to live our lives.

When I began to learn more about the eight branches, I discovered that there is much crossover and alignment with some Western models of psychological therapy, particularly compassion-focused therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy.  This furthered my interest in how the practices and benefits of yoga could work alongside clinical psychology.

What are the benefits of yoga?

The benefits of yoga have been recognised for thousands of years, but we are now able to examine more closely and objectively the mechanisms of this thanks to modern scientific methods and technology. Yoga practices essentially improve the connection between mind and body, through both a ‘top-down’ neurocognitive pathway and a ‘bottom-up’ neurophysiological pathway. By engaging the mind and body simultaneously and bi-directionally we can improve both our ability to self-regulate and our resilience (returning to homeostasis after stress).

From ‘fight or flight’ to ‘rest and digest’

The role of the autonomic nervous system is key here, with its sympathetic branch (commonly known as ‘fight or flight’) and parasympathetic branch (often referred to as ‘rest and digest’). When the body is in a state of stress, the sympathetic branch is activated. Again, this is not always an unhelpful thing because we need the body to be physically prepared for certain situations through increasing our heart and breathing rate, etc.

However, sometimes we find ourselves in this ‘fight or flight’ mode when it’s not helpful.  Furthermore,  regular activation of the stress response and difficulty returning to a state of ‘rest and digest’ may leave you feeling chronically stressed and can impact on your health.

Through yoga practices we are able to have direct influence on regulating the autonomic nervous system, so that we spend less unnecessary time in ‘fight or flight’ and move more easily and flexibly into ‘rest and digest’, where we feel calm, relaxed, and more able to connect with others.

The evidence for breathwork

Breathwork (pranayama) has the most scientific evidence to date, with numerous studies now demonstrating how changing the way we breathe has significant positive impact on our physical and psychological wellbeing. For example, many breathing practices involve extending the exhale, which stimulates the parasympathetic system and therefore calms our entire system.

Breathwork has also been shown to improve heart rate variability (HRV), which indicates the relative balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. When these systems are well balanced (good HRV), we are more able to calmly assess and respond to everyday situations, meaning we have more choice and control over our behaviour. Poor HRV makes people more vulnerable to a variety of both physical ailments and mental health problems.

By practicing pranayama we can improve our HRV and help to reduce secretion of the stress hormone cortisol, alongside increasing protective anti-inflammatory markers.

Strengthening mind-body connections

Research has shown that we are more prone to stress when we are out of touch with our body and the signals it sends and therefore less able to meet our needs before those signals become alarm bells. Essentially, the better the connection between our mind and body, the better our ability to cope with stress.

When practicing asanas, we move our bodies in synchronisation with the breath and focus on the sensations arising moment-by-moment. Through this we begin to notice connections between our emotions and our body, enabling us to begin to explore what happens if we move or breathe a little differently, enhancing our interoceptive awareness.

Strengthening this connection between mind and body helps us to better interpret our physical sensations.  This is vital to being able to navigate safely through life (for example, being able to read danger or hunger signals). As Bessel van der Kolk says in his bestselling book, ‘The Body Keeps the Score’: “If you are not aware of what your body needs you can’t take care of it”.

Once we become more viscerally attuned to our needs, we may find ourselves developing a new authentic and naturally arising capacity for self-care.

Other stress-related benefits of yoga

Further benefits related to stress include (but are not limited to):

• Improvements in digestive health including from irritable bowel syndrome, which is often linked to stress or anxiety
• Improving cognitive flexibility by facilitating neuroplasticity through increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)
• Increased capacity to manage pain, including chronic pain
• Activation of mirror neurons when moving with a group or following a teacher, which increases empathy, compassion and a sense of connection – thereby stimulating our ‘soothing system’ – an antidote to stress.

How to incorporate yoga into your work life

As we have seen yoga can have enormous benefits for managing stress at work and at home.  In the next article I outline practical ways to introduce yoga into your everyday working life.

Dr Bethany Stroyde is a Clinical Psychologist and Yoga Teacher with a special interest in mind-body approaches and works with adults. You can contact her at BethStroyde@Protonmail.com, follow her on Instagram at @heartmindbodypsychology, and find her website at heartmindbodypsychology.com.

The post Can yoga help me to manage work-related stress? appeared first on Dr Paula Redmond, Clinical Psychologist.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT for short) offers really helpful ways of responding to overwhelm. They’re not easy, and require practice – but they can be boiled down into 3 core processes: get present, open up and do what matters.

When you notice yourself caught in the midst of an emotional storm (this could be anxiety, avoidance, anger, overwhelm – anything that means you feel caught up, and disconnected from living the life you want) follow these three steps:

Get present

This will help you to “drop anchor” to keep you steady in the midst of an emotional storm. Getting present can help you make mindful choices about how to respond to the situation and the difficult thoughts or feelings that show up.

There are 3 steps: Acknowledge, Connect and Engage.

Acknowledge your experience

Notice what thoughts, feelings, memories are present for you right now. Try to name them if you can.

Connect with your body

Push your feet into the ground or Intentionally move your body, noticing that it is containing all your thoughts and feelings.

Engage with the world around you

Notice the room around you and engage your senses. What can you see, hear, smell and taste?

Click HERE to access four dropping anchor audio scripts from Dr Russ Harris, a leading ACT author.

Open up

Once you are feeling present and aware of what’s going on for you, opening up to difficult thoughts and feelings allows you to drop the struggle with them, and have greater freedom in how you respond. Do this by:

Being curious

Observe the workings of your mind and the sensations in your body like a curious scientist. What do you notice? Don’t try to alter or change them, just notice them.

Making room

Imagine breathing into and around your feelings, making space for them.

Offering a kind hand

Place a hand on your body where you feel the most discomfort. Imagine a sense of kindness, warmth and care flowing from your hand to your body. Try to treat your feelings as you would a wounded puppy, or a priceless piece of art.

This audio recording (again from Russ Harris) will help you practise these skills.

Do what matters

Our lives are enriched when we take actions that are in line with our values.

Ask yourself these questions to help clarify your values:

• What do you want to stand for in the face of your current struggles?
• How do you want to treat yourself and others?
• When it comes to work what sort of person do you want to be? What strengths and qualities do you want to develop?

Then decide what action to take – pick one or two of the values you identified above and look for opportunities to sprinkle these into your day.

At the end of the day take some time to reflect – notice what it was like to take values-guided action. What difference did it make?

You can read more about clarifying values here.

If you’ve found this helpful you can download a pdf workbook version of this blog here.

If you’d like more support to work through these ideas in therapy book a free 20-minute call with me.

The post 3 steps to overcoming overwhelm – get present, open up and do what matters appeared first on Dr Paula Redmond, Clinical Psychologist.

Too often, we therapists neglect our personal relationships. Our work becomes our life. At the end of our workday, having given so much of ourselves, we feel drained of the desire for more relationship. ID Yalom, 2002 (The Gift of Therapy).

Do you ever feel like you have given so much of yourself to your work – to building relationships with patients and clients; to going the extra mile to provide care and compassion; to doing so again and again, throughout your working day – that you have nothing left when you get home? And then you feel guilty that your children aren’t getting the best of you.

Or do you feel so protective of precious family time, making extra effort to be present and engaged at home, that work just feels like you have to be on autopilot, going through the motions, protecting yourself from being too emotionally engaged, because of what it might cost you in emotional resources?

Compassion and caring aren’t finite resources, but we do need fuel in our emotional tanks to be able to maintain our compassion over time, in the face of challenges, and to avoiding burning out. This is true of both being a parent, and being in a healthcare or helping role, and doubly so when you are both.

We are all doing the best we can with the resources we have available to us. When we are burning out, reaching our limits, not being our best parenting self, or our most compassionate professional self, it isn’t a problem of knowledge, skill or understanding, but one of capacity. Self care is key to topping up our emotional fuel tanks and to creating capacity to continue to care for others.

What is self care?

Self care encompasses many things. From meeting your basic needs such as eating and drinking, to meeting other needs like the need for connection, autonomy and recognition. I use it to describe any of the practices that nurture yourself and add fuel to your emotional tank.

Self care can include long baths with candles and going to get a massage, but in this blog I’m going to focus on three types of self care that in many ways could not be further removed from this: I’m going to talk about “micro self care”, caring for yourself when you are not by yourself, and self care as an attitude.

The limits of self care

But before we get to looking more at this, an important caveat. Firstly, self care is not really self care if it is yet another thing on your TO DO list, one more thing for you beat yourself up over, or for anyone else in your life to beat you round the head with either. Too often, for both parents and for healthcare workers, it can be used in this way.

It’s too common to be made to feel that if we are stressed it is our own fault for not practicing “good enough” self care. Self care is not about managing intolerable levels of stress indefinitely. So self care isn’t a cure-all for toxic working cultures or a challenging home life. But here’s how it can help.

Micro self care

We all operate at our best when we are inside our “window of tolerance”. The idea is that when we are feeling calm and connected, we can draw on skills like empathy, problem-solving and emotional regulation. When stress builds and we move outside our window of tolerance we are in our fight/flight or freeze state. We are less likely to be able to draw on our rational thinking skills because the emotional centre of our brain has taken over to try to protect us from the perceived threat.

I know that shouting at my toddler doesn’t help either of us, but when I do so, it’s because I’ve been skirting too close to the edge of my window of tolerance for too long, and I simply don’t have the resources in that moment to respond helpfully.

It isn’t always one massive thing that sends us into our threat response. Sometimes it is the accumulation of lots of smaller things, manageable on their own: trigger stacks on trigger, straw upon straw, until the camel’s back is broken. But, just as an accumulation of small things can push us out of our window of tolerance, so too can small things brings us back, by removing one straw at a time.

So self-care doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You don’t have to wait until you have time for a massage or a holiday to do things that help your stress levels. By peppering self care throughout your day, you can prevent stress from building up.

For example, in “Simple Self Care for Therapists” Ashley Davis Bush lists hundreds of small acts of “micro” self care, things that fit into the time between appointments, that can be done in different places, to ground us, energise us or relax us.

You could try a grounding practice while the kettle boils, drink your cup of tea mindfully, or do a three minute breathing space exercise at your desk.

There are self care practices you can do if you have one minute (feel your feet on the floor, notice 5 things around you that are coloured green), five minutes (get a drink, do a three minute breathing space), or a bigger chunk of time like 20 minutes (a power nap, watch something funny, do a guided mindfulness meditation).

Try to make self care a habit by linking it to the patterns and activities of your day.

Caring for yourself when you are not by yourself

The Australian Clinical Psychologist Amanda Donnet (Spilt Milk Psychology) describes parenting as like “learning to breathe underwater”. Becoming a parent can feel like inhabiting a new underwater world, where things look and feel different. Many parents feel like they need to make a break for the surface, to be their old selves again, in order to take deep lungfuls of air and reset themselves.

But if our only coping strategy is going back to not being a parent for a while, then it makes going back under the water feel difficult. Instead, Donnet argues, we need to learn how to breathe and be comfortable under the water and to do this we can ask ourselves, “how can I do things for myself when I’m not by myself?”

Lots of the micro self care practices discussed above work here. Even better if what you do benefits or entertains your child too. That might be directly involving them in the self care – for example doing yoga or mindfulness together. Or it might be about picking activities where both your needs get met.

Lucy Aitken Read talks about Sites of Mutual Fulfilment, which are places “where both the child’s and the parent’s urges and needs are met. They are places where all parties leave with a full cup. They are the vital mental health break in a day for mum or dad.”

Try to find the places both you and your child find restorative. It might be that you love a particular park because you feel connected to nature, and your child likes the open space to have more freedom to run around while still being safely seen. Play games with your children that allow you to be still and sitting (if that’s what you need in the moment) while they run around and burn off energy – for example, time them on an obstacle course round the lounge, or send them off on a scavenger hunt round the garden or house.

Self care as an attitude

Self care isn’t always about things we do, it can also be about how we speak to ourselves, how we notice our own needs, have compassion for our own suffering and engage with ourselves with kindness rather than criticism. As a parent, and as a healthcare professional, we become adept at noticing others’ cues and responding to them, soothing them when they are upset, seeing the best in them, having compassion and empathy for their feelings and challenges. Imagine if we could cultivate the love we have for our children, and the kindness we have for our patients, for ourselves?

Try as an experiment talking kindly to yourself, in the way you would (in your calmest moments) talk to your child. What would you say to them if they were feeling this way? You might even let them hear you say it to yourself: “You are so tired, you’re trying your very best all the time, it is exhausting, no wonder you sometimes need help.” Children learn their own self talk from how we talk to ourselves, as well as from how we talk to them.

Having an attitude of self care could be about checking in more regularly with what you need, and setting appropriate boundaries that help you to meet those needs. It could be about asking for and accepting help (and being able to delegate the whole of the task, including the preparation and the mental load).

Sometimes it might be about lowering the bar and allowing yourself to be imperfect. And on tough days, really lower the bar. No harm will come to your children from eating ready meals and extra screen time on the days where that is all your resources will allow.

With these three tips it’s my hope that we can all find regular, nurturing, effective self care. Self care doesn’t have to take a lot of uninterrupted time. Why not experiment, and see what works for you? By using the small moments in our day, adjusting unreasonable expectations of ourselves, treating ourselves with kindness, and learning how to balance our needs with those of our children, self care can be within our reach after all.

Dr Hannah Guzinska is a Clinical Psychologist with a special interest in babies and very young children and their parents. She offers consultations around parenting young children and CalmFamily (Baby and ToddlerCalm) Workshops and classes, and works with organisations which support families in the early years. She has made a video on self care for new parents which was runner up in the IJBPE First 1000 Days competition: and has a blog and mailing list.

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Unravelling the therapeutic benefits of knitting: a personal story

On reflection, my journeys with knitting and clinical psychology have always been interwoven.  During the first term of my doctorate, I visited my mum for the weekend.  She told me that she had met the parents of a recently qualified psychologist whose urge to do something entirely unrelated to psychology during her doctorate had led her to learn to brick-lay.

My mum felt I should learn to knit, so (mostly to please her) I took some needles and yarn and she showed me the basics.  It was amazing that even though my brain had forgotten what to do, my hands clearly remembered the movements from the tiny, holey mouse-blanket I had made on my Donald Duck needles at the age of about 7.

This was the beginning of my journey with therapeutic knitting – to help me manage the demands of the clinical psychology doctorate.

Rhythmical repetitive bilateral movement

As a prolific knitter and quilter, my mum had beautiful woollen shawls draped over the arms of her sofa, and convinced me that with only the basic stitches I could make one myself.  On the way to the train station the next day we stopped at John Lewis to buy me my own yarn and needles and she cast on 5 stitches for me.  It was helpful that this shawl started with only 5 stitches as the number of stitches in each row increased gradually along with my confidence and commitment to my knitting project.

During my first year exams, I remember stopping for a row of knitting every time I needed a break.   At the time I had no idea I was engaging in ‘therapeutic knitting’ but I definitely appreciated the soothing nature of the rhythmical action of forming each stitch, and felt that by focussing on what my hands were doing, it allowed my busy brain to rest.

Researcher and author, Betsan Corkhill, summarises the therapeutic qualities of knitting in her ‘Knitting Equation’ and notes that that the automatic, repetitive and rhythmical movements of knitting have benefits akin to meditation.

I still have and wear my first knitted shawl and it will always remind me of the relief of passing the first year of clinical training and the start of my journey as a knitter.

My first knitted shawl

Making progress in small increments

My knitting skills grew, and by the final year of my training I was busily making a shawl to wear to my graduation celebration.   This deadline taught me another of the major benefits of therapeutic knitting: that you can make significant progress in tiny increments of time.

A few stitches on the bus to work or while waiting for a friend in a café can all add up.  As Betsan Corkhill notes in her book ‘Knit for Health and Wellness’ the ability to make tangible progress in small increments is extremely helpful for new knitters or those struggling with low mood.

As a psychologist, I often relate this to the idea of ‘behavioural activation’ used in a cognitive-behavioural approach to low mood.  The theory suggests that people experiencing low mood benefit from engaging in activities which allow them to experience pleasure and/or a sense of achievement

However when we are struggling with low mood, engaging in any activity can feel overwhelming.  Knitting is a convenient and portable activity that can offer both pleasure and a sense of achievement even if only a few stitches are made at a time.

Connection and community

On leaving the adolescent team where I spent my final placement year, I was stunned to receive a cushion with a ‘rustic’ handknitted patchwork cover as a leaving gift.

A leaving gift

This was presented to me alongside a photo album with evidence that the whole team, including many non-knitters, had contributed stitches towards this gift.  Never has a leaving present been more meaningful or appreciated and the cushion lives in my bedroom to this day, over 13 years later.

The legacy of this thoughtful gift has lived on in another way as I have borrowed this idea to create blankets for several colleagues expecting babies.  In my last Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) team, a very dear friend and colleague was expecting twins following a very challenging journey to her pregnancy.  After the third ‘rusty knitter’ approached me for help in making something for the babies, I decided that we should collaborate and all knit or crochet squares that I would then join together to make two blankets.

Creating connection and community

While our friend was touched to receive the two rainbow blankets for her twins, the project also brought unanticipated benefits to those of us who contributed.  Many of us stopped working at least once a week to have a lunch break together so we could knit, and I could help retrieve dropped stitches or teach a new person who wanted to contribute.

I certainly felt a stronger sense of team morale during this time, and had conversations with colleagues I otherwise knew little about.  While a few colleagues were admittedly rather reluctant participants, others commented that they had enjoyed learning or remembering how to knit, and appreciated having this little oasis of calm in an otherwise hectic day in CAMHS.

One colleague who was completely new to knitting and crochet continues to this day, 5 years on, and made 91 crocheted hearts as her wedding favours.

A transitional project

Knitting also supported me through the end of my career in the NHS.  Leaving was not a decision I had planned or anticipated and many tears were shed in the process.  By this point, I was choosing knitting projects more mindfully for their therapeutic benefits, and I knew I needed a big project to help me with the transition of leaving the NHS.

The ‘Starting Point’ wrap by Joji Locatelli was released the previous month and as a huge shawl in 5 colours, constructed by working two separate halves which are then knitted together, it seemed a perfect metaphor for my transition from NHS to private practice.

‘Starting Point’

My Starting Point wrap wasn’t finished quickly. I had to take a deep breath and grit my teeth before starting again from scratch with the second half.  This mirrored the many challenges of leaving the familiarity of an established NHS career to build something new from the beginning.

However, during this new phase of my life, I relied heavily on what I had learned as a knitter – the process is as important as the end result.  And that sometimes things need unravelling a few times before they work out.

I honestly feel that I was better able to tolerate the pressure I felt (from within myself!) to make my business a success. I was also more able to be patient in seeing the value of the process of moving towards my goal slowly and steadily.

I love having this huge shawl to wrap around me, which will always remind me of my NHS career and my ability to manage change that I hadn’t necessarily chosen or anticipated.  It also taught me the value of making space for the transition to be a project in itself, and taking it one step (or stitch) at a time.

Therapeutic knitting

It is a common assumption among knitters that it has therapeutic benefits, and there is emerging evidence to confirm this and to suggest that people in a clinical population may also experience a reduction in anxiety and increased sense of calm when learning to knit.

Since starting in private practice in 2017, I have often read, reflected and talked to others about the therapeutic benefits of knitting, but only recently have I started to turn this into action. I am now running a therapeutic knitting group in a local primary school and recording the first series of my podcast ‘Why I Knit’ in which I interview a diverse range of knitters to learn more about their experiences of the therapeutic benefits of knitting.

I have also started to introduce the idea of knitting or other handcrafts when discussing behavioural activation or mindful activities with some of the young people I see for individual therapy.

I hope that this will encourage those of us who are existing knitters to deliberately and mindfully use this craft to its full therapeutic potential, and to introduce some new potential knitters to the idea that knitting could have more to offer than just the ability to make great jumpers!

Dr Mia Hobbs is a Clinical Psychologist working with children, young people and their families. You can learn more about the therapeutic benefits of knitting at Creative Restoration and follow her on Instagram @knittingistherapeutic.

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