Author Archives: Ellie Atkins

You sleep badly and wake early stressing about the upcoming exams. As you are coming round you notice the little toy on your bedside table that your friend gave you to remind you it’s all going to be ok. It makes you smile. You drag yourself out of bed (possibly after some nagging from yourContinue reading “How to make it through exam season”

At Headspace Guildford we often help children and young people manage something which is distressing them – often things like worries or coping with feelings or sensations which are difficult. We work to give young people strategies that help them cope with this. One of the best strategies is also the most accessible to allContinue reading “Just breathe…”

I like the Action for Happiness stuff a lot. https://www.actionforhappiness.org/ I like the idea that instead of trying not to feel something negative (Sad, depressed, anxious) we can work on feeling happy or good or chilled instead. It’s from a school of thought called Positive Psychology. It’s the idea that rather than focus on allContinue reading “The journey not the destination”

I ended last week’s blog with the quote from Winnie the Pooh. The whole quote actually goes like this: You are BRAVER than you believe STRONGER than you seem and Smarter than you think you are Now, here at Headspace Guildford, and in the NHS, I have met a number of people who I knowContinue reading “You are stronger than you think?”

I can remember once being in a very important interview – in fact it was one of a series that I needed to pass to be accepted on to Clinical Psychology training. Despite looking calm, my voice completely betrayed me, shaking the entire way through one interview. I forged on despite sounding like I wasContinue reading “The mind and the body”

It occurs to me that I’ve been talking a lot about kindness recently, and perhaps not started at the beginning. I recently had a conversation with someone which went like this: Me – “How are things?” The other person – “Good thanks, we’re all doing fine. Except for my sister in law. She’s got MentalContinue reading “What is ‘Mental Health’”

Following last week’s post about what I’ve learnt from young people I’d also like to represent the other side too. At Headspace Guildford, and in my NHS job, I am in the humbling position of hearing from parents every day and of sitting in on parents and children/young people as they talk. Here are someContinue reading “Things I’ve learnt from parents”

I have the privilege of working with young people and getting to hear more about the world they live in. This is invaluable for me as I genuinely believe that adults can learn a lot from them. Here are just a few of the lessons I think we could all learn from: Teenagers still needContinue reading “Things I’ve learnt from young people”

I don’t mean to sound wet (or like I have a limited vocabulary) but really, it is nice just to be nice. In fact, it’s more than nice – it’s really important if you care about people and their emotional health and well-being. Today, when I was driving, I was waiting behind a parked carContinue reading “It’s nice to be nice”