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 Cures in Therapy Is Truth…
Therapy helps when we stop avoiding what we fear. Research consistently shows that facing what triggers our anxiety leads to genuine improvement. In practice, this means working through the tension between feelings, anxiety, and defence until what’s true can finally be felt and expressed. Truth restores coherence to the mind and body, the moment of quiet honesty when something long denied can finally be seen.
The Man in Black: How Johnny Cash (and My Therapy Uniform) Teach Us About Containment
Why I wear black for every session, and what Johnny Cash’s Man in Black reveals about presence, containment, and the unspoken language of therapy.
The Song That Saves You: What Johnny Cash Can Teach Us About Authenticity in Therapy
In Walk the Line, Sam Phillips tells a young Johnny Cash, “I don’t believe you.” The moment he stops performing and sings something real, he’s reborn. Therapy asks the same of us: to stop trying to sound right, and instead speak from where it truly hurts. Because only what’s real has the power to heal.
The Therapy FAD? Rethinking our Feelings, Anxiety and Defences Across Modalities
Every client’s struggle follows the same human sequence: feelings trigger anxiety, and anxiety triggers defences. The “Therapy FAD” reframes this not as pathology, but as survival. When therapists learn to read defences as signals of unprocessed feeling, and regulate anxiety rather than chase thoughts, therapy becomes a space for transformation, not resistance.
From Pain to Possibility: What Nine Inch Nails: The Downward Spiral Teaches Us About Being Human
Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral is so much more than an industrial rock classic; it’s a brutally honest journey through the three great fears of humanity: the fear of our own feelings, our fear of closeness, and ultimately the fear of ourselves and our own shadow. Each track is a window into the defences we build, the critical voice that controls us, and the loneliness that follows. Yet, it still ends in possibility instead of despair. Therapy follows the same path: facing the spiral, not avoiding it, and finding hope in the very place we fear most, our pain.
Why Therapy? The Real Question Nobody Asks
Depth therapies are not about solving problems. They are actually about discovering how much capacity you have to sit with something painful, feel it fully, and resist the urge to avoid or numb yourself. That capacity changes everything: your relationships, your choices, and your sense of self.
Most people come to therapy thinking it’s about fixing symptoms. Anxiety. Depression. Relationship struggles. But under the surface, therapy is asking a far more important question…
The Power of Coming Back: Lewis Capaldi, Vulnerability, and the Quiet Strength of Resilience
Resilience rarely arrives with noise or drama. It grows quietly, moment by moment, through support, honesty, and courage. Watching Lewis Capaldi return to the stage after facing his mental health challenges was a moving reminder that what heals us in therapy is what heals us in life: connection, patience, and belief in ourselves.