Blog & Podcast

From a humanist perspective, labelling is only safe and useful when it’s chosen by the individual — and even then, it should be held lightly, as a temporary container rather than a fixed identity. • Ownership of meaning: When someone names their own experience, the label becomes empowering (“I feel anxious,” “I’m grieving”). When imposed from outside, […]

The quieter, often-overlooked signs that hierarchy has crept into a romantic relationship: • Uneven listening: One partner’s stories get full attention, while the other’s are rushed or brushed aside. • Decision defaults: Without discussion, one person’s preferences (restaurants, travel, money, even daily routines) often take priority. • Tone and language: Correcting, talking over, or subtly patronizing the […]

• Overt trauma: The obvious, visible wound. Abuse, violence, accident, war, violation — experiences so overwhelming they leave no doubt that something terrible happened. It’s clear, external, and usually named. • Covert trauma: The quiet absence. Neglect, emotional dismissal, chronic invalidation, conditional love. Nothing “explosive” happens, yet the child grows up unseen, unheard, unmet. It’s […]

Trauma is not an event — it’s what happens inside us when life overwhelms our ability to stay whole. • Overwhelm: Trauma is the flooding of experience we couldn’t process — fear, shame, grief, violation, helplessness. • Disconnection: In that overwhelm, we split: from our body, from our feelings, from our sense of safety or from our […]

It’s the constructed self — the mask of roles, identities, judgments, and strategies that we present to the world. • It forms as a protection: when our raw being was unsafe, we built layers of control, performance, and image to survive. • Ego is not essence. It is not our true self, but a covering around it. • It […]

The courage to do therapy is profound, because it asks a person to walk toward what they would otherwise be avoiding. • It’s the courage to face yourself: To peel back the armour of ego, to meet the parts of you that are wounded, ashamed, or buried. That is not easy — it takes more […]

• Therapy isn’t just for crisis: It’s for living more fully. You don’t need a diagnosis to want clarity, freedom, or deeper connection. • Small struggles matter: Anxiety before sleep, feeling stuck in patterns, trouble setting boundaries — these may not feel “major,” but they quietly shape how alive or constricted you feel each day. […]

Sympathy looks downward. It says: “I feel bad for you.” It positions me outside your experience, offering pity or comfort from a distance. It can soothe, but it can also reinforce disconnection — I stay the helper, you stay the sufferer. Empathy moves alongside. It says: “I feel with you.” It enters your world without trying to fix, reduce, or stand above it. […]

Hierarchy, in the humanist sense, is one of the deepest patterns that wounds us — because it shapes how we see ourselves, others, and what we are “allowed” to be. • Hierarchy creates separation: It says some are above, some are below. Worth becomes ranked instead of inherent. • Internalized hierarchy: We don’t just experience […]