That’s where counselling and mindfulness meditation come in — two powerful approaches that can gently support your emotional wellbeing and help you reconnect with yourself in a more grounded way.

What Is Person-Centred Counselling?

Person-centred counselling is based on the belief that you already have the inner resources to heal — you just need a safe, non-judgemental space to explore what’s going on for you.

There’s no advice-giving or fixing. Instead, you’re met with empathy, acceptance, and space to talk freely. Over time, this allows you to reconnect with your inner clarity and strength.

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of noticing what’s happening in the present moment — your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations — without judgement.

It doesn’t mean “clearing your mind.” It means being kind to yourself in the middle of everything you’re feeling. And that kindness is often the first step toward healing.

Why They Work So Well Together

Counselling helps you explore and understand your inner world. Mindfulness helps you stay present with it. Together, they support:

• Greater self-awareness
• Emotional regulation and calm
• Stress relief and clarity
• A deeper connection to your own needs and values

It’s like building a stronger foundation — emotionally and mentally — so you can move through life with more steadiness.

A Gentle Invitation

If you’re feeling disconnected, overwhelmed, or just curious about where to start, you’re welcome to reach out. Whether through person-centred counselling, meditation, or a blend of both, we can find a way forward that feels right for you.

Small steps can lead to deep shifts — and healing doesn’t have to be rushed.

The post Healing from the Inside Out: Combining Talk Therapy and Mindfulness appeared first on Friendly Therapist | Jo Thomas Counselling.

Self-awareness is about being able to understand why you are thinking and feeling and why you behave the way that you do. It’s about understanding why you react to things, what your habits are and what motivates you.

We tend to see our identity through our place in society, our family and friends, the needs and wants of our body, and the emotional and thoughtful expressions of our mind.

Benefits of Self-Awareness

Practising self-awareness is about learning to better understand why you feel what you feel and why you behave in a particular way.

Having this awareness gives you the opportunity and freedom to change things about yourself, enabling you to create a life that you want.

It’s practically impossible to change and become self-accepting if you are unsure of who you are. Having the clarity of this and what you want can be empowering, giving you the confidence to make changes. 

Practical Methods to Enhance Self-Awareness

The Johari Window can be used to look at yourself from many angles as it shows four basic forms of the Self (the Known, Hidden, Blind, and Unknown Self). 

You may find it as quite a informative tool to help you discover who you are. 

Practice Mindfulness

Practising both mindfulness and self-awareness can bring about personal growth and self-awareness. By being mindful, we develop the ability to focus on the present moment without judgment or criticism.

This helps us become more aware of our thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. On the other hand, self-awareness allows us to have a deeper understanding of ourselves – our strengths, weaknesses, values, and beliefs.

These practices complement each other and can lead to greater self-discovery and a clearer understanding of who we are.

The post How To Increase Your Self-Awareness – Part 2 appeared first on Friendly Therapist | Jo Thomas Counselling.

Counselling is a great tool to use for developing your self-awareness, but here are some pointers to get you started.  

Understanding why and how you react to triggering events.  

How do you react to things that trigger you?  

Like, going into a shop that is packed full of people, or feeling like someone if watching you in a public space.  

Do you feel anxious? Judged? Scared?  

Do you think your thoughts and feelings are realistic, or do you ‘know’ that logically you don’t need to feel that way but you still do?  

These are signs of a lack of self-awareness, which is when you don’t understand why you feel the way that you do. You can combat this by thinking about the reasons why you are triggered by certain events and by exploring any feelings that come up for you.  

Feeling like you are lost or don’t know who you are. 

There are so many labels out there that it can be hard to know where we fit in.  

Am I a housewife, mum, worker, unemployed, a mess, successful, hopeless?  

Am I funny, grumpy, angry, happy?  

How do people see me? How do I see me and who do I want to be? 

A lack of self-identity can send you down so many wrong paths in life. And yet finding out who you want to be can be hard to work out. Have a think about what you like wearing, what name you like to use, what activities give you joy and what interests you.  

You don’t understand what you are feeling? 

Do you get angry or upset but you don’t know why?  

Have you ever been angry about a trivial thing and then realised later on that your anger was excessive?  

Do you struggle to explain why you are upset and sad? 

A lot of people are like this at times, including myself, and it’s linked to our own level of self-awareness.  

It’s good to sometimes sit with your feelings, when safe to do so, and try and listen to your mind.  

Are you thinking angry thoughts? Are you hating on yourself?  

Are you feeling loved or alone in this moment?  

The more understanding you gain will grow your self-awareness and in turn, your understanding of your emotions. You can read more about understanding you feelings in my blog post here.

It’s important to know that no matter what level our self-awareness is at, we all have the ability to grow. It can be hard to have honest conversations with yourself at times so if you are on a journey of self-development, please remember to be kind to yourselves and seek support when you feel you need it.  

The post How to Increase Your Self-Awareness – Part 1 appeared first on Friendly Therapist | Jo Thomas Counselling.

What is it?

It is a visual guide which helps to show how emotions are linked to each other and how they can lead onto others. For example, you are feeling scared of a particular situation because it is making you feel worried and anxious. Processing what your worries are will help to relieve the fear you have.

How does it work?

The first step with using the Wheel of Emotions is to identify the emotion closest to how you are feeling. The emotions vary with intensity starting with the centre ones being the most extreme going outwards to the mildest forms.

When you have identified an emotion, you can try to work out what’s triggering it. Sometimes this is quite obvious but other times it can be very complicated. You may notice that some emotions you identify can lead on to other emotions. For example, you could feel supported by a close friend which makes you feel relieved and peaceful, however this also triggers a trust issue making you feel on edge and nervous.

Once you begin to identify your emotions and triggers, you can use this awareness to help you find ways to cope and work through them.

The post How to Understand Your Feelings? appeared first on Friendly Therapist | Jo Thomas Counselling.