Reflections — Ian Leigh | Counselling & Psychotherapy

Reflections

Short pieces on therapy, trauma, relationships, and the work of change.

The patterns we don't choose

Why anxious, avoidant and ambivalent attachment styles began as reasonable adaptations to childhood — and how they can change.

8 min read

Why anger is often the only feeling men have permission for, and how a kinder inner voice opens the way back to love.

8 min read

Drawing on Pete Walker's work on Complex PTSD — the fight, flight, freeze and fawn responses, and what they mean for recovery.

7 min read

Why understanding trauma intellectually rarely resolves it — and how working with the body helps guide us back to safety.

6 min read

Why so many men learn to think about their feelings rather than feel them — and what reconnecting looks like.

9 min read

Recognising narcissistic, toxic and abusive relationship patterns — and finding your way back to yourself.

8 min read

Anxiety isn't a decision you can talk yourself out of — here's what actually helps when your nervous system won't switch off.

6 min read

A recent study found a supportive AI chatbot couldn't ease loneliness the way a real, fallible human being could.

4 min read

You don't have to face things alone.