Talking to teenagers

I read recently that teenage girls on average check their social media accounts 50 times a day. I imagine snapchat to be like Slimer from Ghost busters (its logo is similar) every girl that it touches starts to have a negative attitude towards themselves and all their self-esteem gets sucked out of them into that proton pack and gets locks away. It’s a sad thought but it is true. I was recently travelling on the Virgin train to London when a girl got on at Preston. She was maybe 18, makeup done, headphones in and rucksack. She produced her makeup bag at Warrington Bank Quay and proceeded to do her make up (which was already done) until we reached Stafford (that takes an hour). I can honestly say that she looked NO different as a result of her make up tweaks then when she had boarded the train. She then took a photo once she shifted around in her seat for 5 minutes and then applied some more eyeshadow and took another photo that she was obviously more pleased with. I ob...

Are you a child of Perfectionism Parenting – “this might make them happy”…How you end up frazzled and anxious! Last year I saw a client who was studying at university and was aimed for a first by the end of her second year. This was quite amazing as she had started to feel low and lonely, her mood affected her work and she stopped going to 80% of her lectures half way through the academic year, that was when she contacted me for counselling. Her goal for therapy was to regain the motivation she had felt for the course and feel passionate about her chosen subject again. After the initial session and quite a bit of exploration together, I said that in my experience I thought it would take more to feeling better than just university related motivation, her eyes filled up “ yes, I think so, I feel like part of me has always felt this low and anxious” ·        Over the weeks we went on to explore her feelings about attending lectures (she would m...