Have you ever had a thought of “I wish I couldn’t wake up? I can’t face it anymore!”. I had, but it was a temporary feeling of low mood with no intension to end my life. I consider myself the [...]

By Ashley Ward For the past nine years I have been working as a swimming instructor – having a love of the water started from an early age – swimming in the sea, jumping the waves, donning a [...]

The term self-care is used a lot these days, but what does it really mean?  The World Health Organisation 1998 definition is:  “Self-Care is what people do for themselves to establish and [...]

I had some feedback from one of my students recently regarding the CPCAB Level 4 Diploma in therapeutic counselling course she is studying on. It said: ‘Compared to my previous college I view [...]

2015 was the year that I learnt to run and my journey to better mental health started. The two are intricately joined and have been for the past nearly 6 years.  When my youngest son went [...]

Whereas quality/lack of sleep is often not viewed as a presenting problem in counselling work, it can be a contributory factor to distress and is therefore worthy of a greater understanding. [...]

For nearly 20 years, Westmeria Counselling Service has worked with members of our local community and Primary Care Trust to support their mental health and wellbeing. Our counselling service has [...]

Despite what M&S, John Lewis or Aldi would have us believe about Christmas, for many people, Christmas is a time of stress – a time when we may feel under pressure and depleted emotionally, [...]

On Sunday 4th October, we were incredibly lucky to have Matt running the Virgin London Virtual Marathon in aid of Westmeria. Like many charities, the London marathon is a huge event in our [...]

In honour of September being Suicide Prevention Month, we at Westmeria wanted to take the opportunity to explore how to best support yourself, or anyone you know who may be struggling. Firstly, [...]