As the clocks go back I am left reflecting why my counselling client appointment requests increase in the winter?

There may be some obvious reasons, dark nights, bad weather, less time out and about, less sunlight.

There is a long leap from the summer holidays to Christmas with a short October break for some. Stress caused by chronic ongoing unwanted demand can leave some of us feeling down, depressed, anxious or even ill. It can often affect our relationships, leaving us on a short fuse, ready to dump the day’s anger on the safest (loved) one. How many of us are guilty of that?

If we feel stressed or down due to increased workload, the bad weather and lack of light can affect us even more. Our control seems to be external. In other words our happiness depends more on what is happening ‘out there’ rather than us taking control. If the weather is bad than that makes us feel sad, if people aren’t nice to us at work we feel down. This external locus of control can be the cause of stress and make stress worse, a vicious circle downwards.

If you would like to find out how to take more control of your happiness and feel less down the winter than last, through counselling or hypnosis, please call me at Calm Minds in Bramhall.

Jonathan Lloyd
Oct 2011