The Therapy Journal
This is where psychotherapy steps out of the session and into conversation. From our defences that shape our daily lives to the emotions that drive our choices, these pieces explore the human mind through a psychodynamic lens.
Whether clinical or cultural, every post asks the same question: what happens when we stop avoiding our feelings?
Where therapy meets everyday life…
What My Vinyl Collection Taught Me About Memory, Regulation, and Meaning
Organising my vinyl collection by psychological function, rather than genre, unexpectedly mirrored key psychodynamic ideas about memory, regulation, and emotional capacity. This reflective piece explores how experiences arrive, settle, carry meaning, and eventually become part of who we are.
What the Latest UK Therapy Data Really Tells Us: and What It Means If You’re Thinking About Therapy
Therapy has quietly become mainstream in the UK, with more than a third of adults having tried it, and most finding it helpful. But beneath anxiety and stress, loneliness is often the real driver. As therapy moves online and into everyday life, this piece explores why human connection still matters, how to choose support wisely, and what actually makes therapy work.
The Unseen Battle: What Netflix’s Stranger Things 5 Teaches Us About Trauma, Shame, and the Inner Critic
What if the monsters we fear most are internal? Using Stranger Things as a lens, this piece explores how shame, self-attack, and emotional avoidance show up in popular culture, and what depth therapy can teach us about facing them, building emotional capacity, and reclaiming freedom from the inside out.
Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story: When the “Monster” Speaks
What happens when trauma overwhelms a person’s capacity to feel and integrate experience? Using Netflix’s Monster as a lens, this piece explores emotional fragmentation, failed containment, and why facing shame and emotional avoidance is central to real therapeutic change.
The Man in Black: How Johnny Cash (and My Therapy Uniform) Teach Us About Containment
What creates a sense of safety in therapy often has less to do with words and more to do with presence. This piece explores how containment is communicated through steadiness, consistency, and tone, and why feeling held in this way makes it possible to face anxiety and move beyond emotional avoidance.
The Song That Saves You: What Johnny Cash Can Teach Us About Authenticity in Therapy
What makes an expression feel real rather than performed? Using a scene from Walk the Line as a lens, this piece explores why authenticity has a transformative effect, and how therapy helps people move past emotional avoidance to access what genuinely changes them.
From Pain to Possibility: What Nine Inch Nails: The Downward Spiral Teaches Us About Being Human
Why do shame and trauma so often drive us toward emotional avoidance rather than healing? Using The Downward Spiral as a lens, this piece explores how unprocessed emotion shapes inner experience, and why facing what’s avoided is central to integration and real psychological freedom.