What happens to someone when they decide to seek support? What triggers them to call/email/text a business like ours? If you have seen a therapist or coach then you will know what triggered you. At Conversations With Impact, we find it fascinating more so because the reasons are never straightforward.
“Most of us have distorted self-image.” “Most people think that people are more interested in us than they really are.” I showed this excerpt from an article in the New Scientist to my client Chris in his first therapy session. A successful SME owner, he had come to see me for both personal and professional reasons. Personally, he had issues with alcohol and cocaine, which were “helping me deal with my marriage break-up.” Professionally, his business was in danger of becoming “very unsuccessful if I don’t sort things out. I need some kind of transformation.”
According to the Federation of Small Businesses in the U.K., ‘…many small business owners neglect their own mental and physical wellbeing.’ At Conversations With Impact, we understand why. Running a small business can be a 24/7 commitment and when adversity strikes, the easiest option can be to ignore it.
The head-in-the sand approach was exactly how our client Gillian responded to a difficult time in her life, until a chance conversation led her to pick up the phone to me. The son of family friend she was visiting, someone I was working with at the time, wrote down my details for her and said ‘He’ll sort you out.’ A week later, Gillian was sat in front of me facing up to her anxiety.
As a therapist and coach, I see anxiety as an ’emotion of the future’. Our brains are geared towards predicting the future. This means that certain areas of our brains are already in our future looking back at our present. If they don’t like what they see, they let us know through triggering anxiety.
If therapy and coaching are about anything, they are about engaging with and reassuring our future selves. ‘Don’t worry, I’m on to it,’ we might say to them. By building trust and self-belief, flexibility and adaptability, therapy and coaching can really help with future-based anxiety.
Perfectionism is becoming increasingly recognised as a serious mental health issue. In fact, it is possible to find it almost anywhere. Education, social media, parenting, lifestyle and work – perfectionism has acquired a certain pervasiveness. In our experience, conditions such as anxiety, depression and body image are often closely related to it. While not a new phenomenon, there is evidence that perfectionism is on the increase. In this blog we take a closer look at perfectionism.