Author Archives: Ellie Atkins

This week’s blog is guest-written by Phoebe Crook, Assistant Psychologist at Headspace Guildford. Thanks Phoebe! Whilst we may have been in lock down for nearly 3 weeks now, it is still perfectly normal to feel lost and unmotivated. Every day we are bombarded with more information, most of which isn’t positive. So naturally anxiety duringContinue reading “3 weeks into lockdown…”

I’ve written a series of 5 mini-webinars aimed at NHS staff (although relevant to all) which may help at this time. They’re all 3-5 minutes long so shouldn’t be too taxing. They aim to be as practical as possible. Please do share them with anyone you know who may find them helpful. Take care, hangContinue reading “Wellbeing quick tips for NHS staff”

Thank you to all those of you who shared the webinar I posted last week. I do hope you are keeping well and taking care of yourself, especially as we move into the isolation phase (or in many people’s case the juggle a family, homeschooling and working at home phase!).As promised, here are 2 shorterContinue reading “Stress and anxiety for children”

This is a scary time for lots of people. It’s a stressful time for lots of people. We can’t just magic that away. But there are things you can do that can help you manage at this time. Please see: managing stress and anxiety webinar on youtube This is a webinar about anxiety and howContinue reading “Managing C-19 stress/anxiety”

Let’s face it. People are nervous, anxious or downright scared at the moment. So, I wanted to write today about anxiety, because I’m seeing so much of it around at the moment. The reason I’m focusing on this is that whilst only a small percentage of us are going to contract coronavirus and a tinyContinue reading “Coronanxiety #2: Understanding anxiety”

I’m writing this blog for anybody who is feeling nervous or anxious or down right scared about coronavirus. We can’t turn on any kind of electronic device (phone, TV, radio etc) without hearing the latest casualty numbers and more recently (in the UK at least) the people who have died from coronavirus. It’s the perfectContinue reading “Corono-anxiety”

I think there’s a real danger I could write this blog every week and sound completely sanctimonious. Here I am sitting in my high tower and preaching that ‘if you only do this your mental health will be better and you’ll have a wonderful life’. I’m not naive enough to think that’s how life works.Continue reading “Recognising real pain, Not just preaching”

In the final blog of the mini-series on myths in Clinical Psychology I will talk about a rather unconscious myth which is so often what I see in practice. When someone is referred to me, both at Headspace Guildford or in my NHS post, there is often the belief that I have some sort ofContinue reading “Magic wands and hard work”

In our mini-series about the myths of Psychology, the next one is that Psychologists know what you are thinking or are analysing you in every conversation they have. This pie chart sums it up nicely. Actually, this myth gives us plenty of interesting things to talk about – each of which could be a blogContinue reading “Myth busting: Psychologists know what you’re thinking”

There are lots of myths about clinical psychology. I’m going to use the next couple of blogs to address these. One of the key myths I come across is that people think that what they are suffering is different or unusual and they are strange or defective in some way for feeling or behaving inContinue reading “Myth busting #1 – My feelings are wrong”