Onwards & Upwards Counselling

13/12/2025

Anger is dangerous when we are being abused, and shame is the handbrake on it. We blame ourselves rather than our abusers because we're trying to stay alive. But that worldview persists long after the abuser has gone.

Read more:
https://www.carolynspring.com/blog/shame-is-the-handbrake-on-anger

13/12/2025

There's no right or wrong way to grieve, just your way.
cruse.org.uk

11/12/2025

Our next 'Let's Talk About Grief' session is on road fatality and bereavement.

If you have been bereaved by a road fatality, we invite you to this free online session with guest speaker Lucy Harrison on Friday 12th December

For more information and to book your space, please click below ⬇️

https://ow.ly/Z7Su50XCS6c

With thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund for supporting our 'Let's Talk About Grief' sessions.

10/12/2025

It's a busy time of year but it can also be particularly hard for some people.
Check in on your friends - even the organised ones, the ones smiling in the photos, the 'magic makers' for everyone else.

Learn more about helping others with their grief here https://ow.ly/yeG350XGl2t

09/12/2025

Permission slips for the festive season.
Take what you need.

For more information about grief and support, visit cruse.org.uk

08/12/2025

Today marks the end of Grief Awareness Week, but that doesn't mean that we should stop talking about grief.

Grief Awareness Week is a brilliant opportunity to encourage people, organisations and leaders to start talking about grief. We need to make sure these conversations continue all year round.

For more information and support, please visit our website ⬇️

https://www.cruse.org.uk/

05/12/2025

✨ 🚪

03/12/2025

03/12/2025

As the days get darker, many people notice their mood dipping too. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is more than “winter blues” – it’s a real type of depression. If this time of year feels heavier for you, you’re not alone. 💙

Here are 8 symptoms to be mindful and if things are feeling a little too much, remember it is OK to reach out for help.

https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/topics/seasonal-affective-disorder.html

03/12/2025

Is there a case for statutory regulation of therapy?

That was the question posed by today’s second session of the Commission for the Future of Counselling and Psychotherapy.

The online event reflected the range of views on this debate from those with lived experience of therapy, practising therapists and our members, and representatives of professional bodies and other relevant organisations, including the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) and the Psychotherapy and Counselling Union (PCU) .

It covered the current regulatory mechanisms for the professions in protecting clients, explored alternative models, highlighted the nuances of the arguments for and against regulation, and the impact this issue has on clients, therapists and the profession.

In the UK, anyone can say they’re a therapist without having registration or membership of a professional body. There’s no statutory regulation of therapy here.

However, the PSA’s accredited registers programme does exist – a voluntary scheme which accredits registers of healthcare professional bodies, so members of the public can be confident when choosing practitioners.

We always advise anyone seeking therapy to check the therapist is a member of a professional body that has a Professional Standards Authority (PSA) accredited register – such as BACP. This means they’re seeing a therapist who’s highly qualified and committed to high professional and ethical standards. It also means if they want to make a complaint there’s a process and support available.

There’s been increased interested in the topic of regulation of therapy from politicians and the media over the past year, although the government has said it has no plans to regulate therapy. If the government was to consider the introduction of regulation, we’d want to be involved in this to ensure it worked for therapists and clients.

So it’s vital we’re having conversations like today’s session to ensure a range of voices and evidence is taken into account.

Today’s event was the second of four evidence-gathering roundtable sessions for the Commission for the Future of Counselling and Psychotherapy that will result in a report of recommendations, developed by the co-Chairs in partnership with the PCPB, that will be released next year.

Find out more about the commission 👉 https://orlo.uk/EHapy

02/12/2025

💕

One of the hardest parts of grief is how people tiptoe around the name of the person who’s died. They worry it will upset you, as though saying the name will reopen a wound you’ve somehow managed to close.

But anyone who has lived with grief knows the opposite is true. Their name is already with you, in your thoughts, your memories, your everyday life. What hurts far more is when others pretend that person never existed, as if love and loss can be tucked away.

Grief Awareness Week is a reminder that speaking their name is not something to fear. It’s one of the ways we honour who they were and how much they still mean. And if you’d like to, this space can be one place to do that.

I’ll start by sharing a name of someone I’m remembering this week, and you can follow if you wish:

This week I remember my friend Susanna. Vibrant, loving, funny, original, beautiful and brilliant. We had such s simple and deeply loving friendship. 💔 I never had enough time with her and I’m devastated there is no more time to spend with her. 

So if it feels right, share the name of someone you love who has died in the comments, just their name, or a word or two about who they were. Both are enough.

When we speak their names, here and everyday, something shifts. We feel connected. Seen. And we remember that grief isn’t a sign of weakness but of love that continues.

The focus this year of grief awareness week is ‘growing with grief’ we are more likely to grow if we are met where are at, and you say their name. 

I look forward to reading the names you share.

Love, Julia ❤️ Xx