Alison Lees, Counselling Psychologist

08/08/2024

05/01/2023

Happy New Year! I am back at work and ready to connect 💫

15/12/2022

To my dear patients and their loved ones,

For so many of you, 2022 has been a challenging year. It has been a great honour to be granted the privilege of supporting you through this year. For some, we have walked many years together and I am so grateful for the opportunity to continuously be present in your healing journey. For others, we may have just met and I look forward to the path that lies ahead of us next year - relief, healing, compassion, support, light is available to you.

I am so proud of the hard work you have put into your healing - even at the very start, taking the step to get yourself into therapy is a milestone worth celebrating.

I hope that each and everyone of you allow yourselves to experience the full range of emotions this festive season. While an exclusively happy festive season is very romantic notion, it’s not realistic. What we can aim for is a peaceful one where we don’t fight the inevitable emotions that arise but rather embrace and allow them. Surrendering to that can offer us the peace we may be seeking.

Wishing you and yours a peaceful holiday and I look forward to connecting again in the new year.

Warm regards,
Alison

28/11/2022

“I just want to be happy”. I hear this, or some version of this, so often. For some reason society feeds us the notion that happiness is the best emotion and that being happy all the time is possible. And here’s the reality: it’s neurologically not possible to be happy all the time. At most, what we can aim for is to be content. Content in the fact that we will experience a whole host of emotions constantly and consistently as our brain perceives various things in our environment. These emotions always exist to protect us and are important to be aware of. If we embrace these emotions and acknowledge that they exist to help us, we will start to gain a sense of contentedness in our emotional experiences. Look out for my upcoming posts on the different types of emotions, why they helps us, and what happens when we don’t know they exist or when we don’t feel comfortable feeling them.

27/11/2022

Emotions are physical and nothing illustrates this better than a Frank Netter drawing of the vagus nerve.

To better understand your emotions, it helps to visualize the Vagus nerve. Notice how this nerve connects with almost every organ in the body. That’s why emotions are physical and not under conscious control. When emotions are activated, it stimulates the Vagus nerve in order to prepare the entire body for actions. Those are the impulses we feel. What does this mean for us on a practical level?

1. Emotions affect the whole body.
2. Burying emotions thwarts natural adaptive physical responses that can cause physical health symptoms like back pain and IBS as well as mental health symptoms like anxiety and depression.
3. All this activation happens without our being able to control it. So judging emotions makes no sense. Learning to work with them does make sense.
4. Each core emotion is designed to make us move in ways that are adaptive for surviving. For example, the core emotion of fear gets the body ready to run as fast as possible. It does that by almost instantly dilating blood vessels in the leg muscles for example and diverting blood from digestion to muscles so we have lots of oxygen flowing for a good sprint.
5. Deep belly breathing calms distress by squeezing the Vagus nerve (or hugging it, as Heather, my co-facilitator for the Emotions Education 101 course says). This calms emotions very efficiently. Find instructions for how to deep belly breathe at the toolbox tab of my website or on the Change Triangle YouTube channel or click this link: https://www.hilaryjacobshendel.com/breathing-instructions
6. Because emotions create such intense impulses, we need skills and tools to channel emotions constructively. That’s why I’m passionate about the Change Triangle. What is the Change Triangle? https://www.hilaryjacobshendel.com/what-is-the-change-triangle-c18dd

There’s so much great stuff to learn about emotions. And it’s important because we all have emotions. Not one of us is spared. So we might as well educate ourselves on how to be with them in healthy ways.

Further reading & resources on emotions:

Read “Ignoring Your Emotions Is Bad for Your Health. Here's What to Do About It”: https://www.hilaryjacobshendel.com/ignoring-emotions-is-bad-for-health

Read “When Buried Anger Leads to Depression & How To Heal”
https://www.hilaryjacobshendel.com/post/depression-anger-neglect

Read “It's Not Always Depression, Sometimes It's Shame”
https://www.hilaryjacobshendel.com/post/2015/06/30/its-not-always-depression-sometimes-its-shame

Take the next Train the Trainer workshop and teach emotions to others using the EE 101 Turnkey experiential curriculum: https://www.hilaryjacobshendel.com/ee101-train-the-trainer-course

Read It’s Not Always Depression - the self help book on using the Change Triangle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0399588140/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1669557021&sr=8-1

Find more FREE resources at hilaryjacobshendel.com and the Change Triangle YouTube channel.

24/11/2022

It can get to this time of year and we can find ourselves feeling drained and tired. It can be that final push before the end of the year, gearing up to gear down, prepping for leave, or perhaps the impact of a stressful year that has caught up on you. You might find yourself crawling to the finish line of 2022. One thing that I have found to re-energize me is by getting into nature. Whether it is a stroll in a park, a swim in the sea, some quiet time amongst trees, or even taking a moment to look out of the window at natural greenery, nature has a special way of recharging us.

14/11/2022

Being a mother and psychologist, I get how hard being a parent is! Particularly the adjustment to being a parent. has a maternity program that offers 2 therapy sessions to support mums who are struggling with the adjustment to having a baby.

08/11/2022

Hello people of Instagram!

17/10/2022

Hello!!

A little bit about me – because reaching out to a stranger can be daunting.

My name is Carri & I’m a mixed bag of a person. I love to laugh, play, create & relax - but I can also be oh-so-serious. My friends say that I’m in touch with all the facets of my ‘humanhood’ & I take that as a huge compliment 😊

I stumbled upon Psychology as a career later than what is conventional, having spent 15 meaningful, challenging, happy-sad-amazing & GROWING years as a high school teacher before formally embarking on Carri Simmons Part 2. Opening a Private Practice as a Clinical Psychologist has been a dream that has gripped my heart & has kept me passionate, motivated, & moving for some time now. I am SO excited that after many years of study & work in various hospitals & other clinical settings, that I have finally opened up a private practice - my garden office & playroom is ready & working so beautifully as a therapeutic space!

I absolutely love what I do. I enjoy working with people of all ages & am comfortable treating clients who have serious mental health challenges as well as those who have encountered contextual 'bumps in the road' or other life stressors. I have a special interest in women's health & the transition to new motherhood as well as in working with children. I have experience working with trauma, depression, anxiety, personality pathology, neurodiversity, suicidality & self-harm, adjustment, & schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Walking alongside people & partnering in healing & growth is what I’m about – that is my why & the how of the work that I do.

I’m also a mom to three brilliant teen & tween-agers - I’m pretty sure they have taught me everything I need to know about life. My husband & I wrangle work & family life from our home in Gillitts with some spectacular (sometimes miraculous) juggling. It is busy – but we like it that way. When I am not working, you’ll find me trail running, relaxing with friends, reading, or driving my kids to all of the things (there are so many things). There’s also a rumour going around that I’m learning how to play the drums (I can or cannot confirm). But believe it or not, I am capable of stillness, and I find peace at the ocean, in nature, drawing, & I’m a firm believer in the day-time nap!

I’d love to meet you. I am a perfectly imperfect human, just like you, so don’t be shy to get in touch.

“We are all just walking each other home.” Ram Dass

16/10/2022

Graphic credit: The Parallel Process

31/08/2022

06/04/2022

Somebody recently asked me if I know of any support groups for people who have a partner battling depression or anxiety.

I did some searching and asked my wider network, and was shocked that I couldn't find anything.

Being in a relationship with someone who has depression or anxiety is an incredibly lonely journey.

I have created a free closed facebook group, with the mission of creating some community for those who have a partner with depression or anxiety.

If this is you, come and join us.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/646596746642008