Vivamus Community Singers

Vivamus Community Singers

  At Vivamus we recognise that being mentally healthy doesn’t have to mean psychological therapy or medication. There are many things that anyone can do to improve their mood, reduce stress and feel more able to tackle life’s challenges. This is equally true...
Treating Panic Attacks

Treating Panic Attacks

Panic attacks are anxiety attacks which have physical and cognitive symptoms that people find very distressing. A defining feature of a panic attack is that common physical symptoms of anxiety (e.g. racing heart, changes in breathing) are misinterpreted as signs that...
School Refusal: Distress not Defiance.

School Refusal: Distress not Defiance.

  Ask any child – going to school is not typically at (or even near) the top of their list of favourite things to do. A daily routine of having to wake up at what seems to be the break of dawn, combined with tasks of brushing teeth, fixing hair, getting dressed...
Soothing

Soothing

Soothing (or rather, difficulty in self-soothing) is a notion that comes up a lot in my work. When people report a difficulty managing emotions, where experiences like anxiety or anger come on quickly and intensely, and escalate until the point of what people often...
What day is it?

What day is it?

  What day is it?  You can’t move for days these days, many of which are ridiculous! National olive oil day, national cherries day, for example. And I recently learned that September 25this National Psychotherapy Day in the U.S. I groaned at first when I saw...