Worlds apart (but still neighbours)

One of the many weird and wonderful things I did on the journey to becoming a psychologist was interviewing a range of teenagers from all over the UK. I was doing a study exploring how teenagers cope when one parent is seriously unwell. What impressed me the most...
Ghost Busting

Ghost Busting

“In every nursery there are ghosts. They are the visitors from the unremembered past of the parents; the uninvited guests at the christening” Selma Fraiberg So far, I’ve written a lot about how important it is to trust your instincts. Today, just when you...
Behind the Blank Slate

Behind the Blank Slate

“Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper void of all characters, without any ideas. How comes it to be furnished?” (John Locke, 1690)Watching that tiny, wise face, it is hard to believe that there was once a time when we thought of babies as...
The Invisible Cord

The Invisible Cord

As soon as your baby arrives in the world, the process of letting them go begins.  At birth, your previously merged selves become a duo and you immediately have to make choices (or they are made for you) about how separate you are going to be. Are you going to...