Dr Claire Plumbly's Blog

A trained EMDR-therapist's thoughts on whether you can do self-guided EMDR

What is High-Functioning Anxiety? Anxiety can affect people in different ways: some people are floored by it, unable to do every-day...

Why you should read this blog Loneliness affects almost 1 in 2 people in England. So even if you aren’t struggling with this yourself right now the chances are very high that someone you care about is. This week is Mental Health Awareness Week (9-15 May 2022) and the focus is on loneliness: raising awareness and how to reduce it. I hope you will take the message from this blog that we need to working together as a society to reduce it. Why focus on loneliness Because it’s ba

1. Manage your exposure to the news (and make sure you’re only looking at reputable news sources) There can be a strong urge to check for...

It’s now almost two years since Covid-19 first appeared in the UK and began changing everyday life as we know it. Some people have been left with post-traumatic stress disorder after being gravely sick in intensive care. Others have been left grieving for loved ones. Millions have been impacted by fear about catching the virus. In fact, a UK survey indicated that anxiety, sleep problems, and alcohol intake increased by up to 50% during the first year of the pandemic particula

Yesterday my daughter went into school feeling nervous about ‘percentages’. She had struggled with her homework and was anxious about...

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. This is a structured, eight-phase therapy that can improve the psychological effects of trauma. EMDR has a strong evidence-base for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but can also be used to improve distress in other health presentations like panic, pain and anxiety. How does it work? Unprocessed traumatic memories come back in the form of intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, unexplained pain, or repetitive behav

A sexual health screening appointment can be very difficult if you’ve experienced a sexual assault. Even the anticipation of going can be...

Before you can understand why you get the munchies when you're stressed I first need to explain how the brain and digestive system work together to keep you safe. Quick guide to the digestive system during stress If there is something stressful happening the body switches into survival mode (i.e. it's on high alert: muscles contract; blood pumps faster and so on). These parts of the body that are ready for action need extra energy to get through the stress and fuel fast respo

A traumatic event that your parents or grandparents went through could still be impacting on you now. This is called Intergenerational Trauma. I know this seems a bit heavy and upsetting but let me explain how the effects of trauma are passed down and what you can do about it. This can help to explain symptoms like low self-confidence, sleep difficulties, poor relationships with your folks or worry and anxiety. Ask yourself: Did any of your family live through any of the fo

What is 'Little T' Trauma? One afternoon when I was seven our teacher set us a writing project. She must have been feeling stressed that day because she announced tetchily that she was fed-up of telling us where to put our work when we had finished as we "should all know by now". She explained that the next child who asked where the completed work should go would have it pinned to the ceiling. Well, you can guess who that child was! I was so lost in my own dreamy-seven-ye