Embark Counselling & Coaching

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK this year invites us to take action.

It makes sense, as it’s surprising how few people choose action when they’re struggling. Let’s face it, asking for help is hard, especially when we’re feeling low or overwhelmed.

Often, we can convince ourselves that our situation is not ‘big’ or ‘important’ enough and that we ‘should’ be able to manage alone. We can feel stubborn, scared or stuck, and inaction becomes the far easier path.

We may have fears about what help might mean or concerns that we might open a can of worms, risking making things worse. This might be tangled up with doubt, anxiety, worry or confusion.

We get all mixed up in part of us defending their corner, refusing to see beyond the story we tell ourselves, or stubbornly holding onto the status quo.

This week is your invitation to take action, to take that brave first step forward towards change. This courageous act will help you become more aware of your challenges and cultivate the wisdom to seek the right kind of support for you. This may be as simple as a coffee with a friend, a walk in the park or a guilt-free afternoon nap.

If you feel you need something more collaborative, therapeutic, and insightful, get in touch with me. I offer a way to help you become aware of your inner conflicts and meet the critic, judge, or tyrant that runs your life, forcing you into inaction. This, in turn, helps cultivate more inner understanding, clarity and calm.

By exploring what makes you, you, a deeper awareness opens up, and pretty soon you’ll be wondering why you didn’t begin sooner.

Will you open up to an action that could bring you clarity, compassion and curiosity? I hope so. Get in touch to arrange a free phone call, and together we’ll discuss what’s needed to help you get back on track to a meaningful life full of hope and joy.

This action might just be the kindness thing you’ve done for yourself.

I look forward to meeting you there.

Lucy x

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK this year invites us to take action.

It makes sense, as it’s surprising how few people choose action when they’re struggling. Let’s face it, asking for help is hard, especially when we’re feeling low or overwhelmed.

Often, we can convince ourselves that our situation is not ‘big’ or ‘important’ enough and that we ‘should’ be able to manage alone. We can feel stubborn, scared or stuck, and inaction becomes the far easier path.

We may have fears about what help might mean or concerns that we might open a can of worms, risking making things worse. This might be tangled up with doubt, anxiety, worry or confusion.

We get all mixed up in part of us defending their corner, refusing to see beyond the story we tell ourselves, or stubbornly holding onto the status quo.

This week is your invitation to take action, to take that brave first step forward towards change. This courageous act will help you become more aware of your challenges and cultivate the wisdom to seek the right kind of support for you. This may be as simple as a coffee with a friend, a walk in the park or a guilt-free afternoon nap.

If you feel you need something more collaborative, therapeutic, and insightful, get in touch with me. I offer a way to help you become aware of your inner conflicts and meet the critic, judge, or tyrant that runs your life, forcing you into inaction. This, in turn, helps cultivate more inner understanding, clarity and calm.

By exploring what makes you, you, a deeper awareness opens up, and pretty soon you’ll be wondering why you didn’t begin sooner.

Will you open up to an action that could bring you clarity, compassion and curiosity? I hope so. Get in touch to arrange a free phone call, and together we’ll discuss what’s needed to help you get back on track to a meaningful life full of hope and joy.

This action might just be the kindness thing you’ve done for yourself.

I look forward to meeting you there.

Lucy x

This supercharged sign is the human equivalent of turning it off & on again. Just as quick, equally baffling & almost always guaranteed to help.

Here’s how! One long breath in (slowly count to 5 if you can), then an extra sniff through your nose to fill up. Now the supercharged bit: add a sip more breath in through your mouth till at capacity, hold a millisecond longer & then let it all go.

3 times should be enough to feel the benefits. Let me know what you notice.

Enjoy your day. Lucy x

WHAT DOES WELLBEING MEAN?

As you may know, I’ve recently been shortlisted in the Muddy Stilettos Awards for the Best Wellbeing Specialist in Kent. Which has got me thinking, what does wellbeing mean to me?

Fundamentally, the only way to truly be well is to be aware. To honestly, regularly & consciously check how you’re feeling mentally, emotionally & physically.

Once you’ve become aware of how you feel, you might want to explore why?

You then open up all sorts of options to choose from in order to make changes, where necessary.

These changes, when consciously and authentically made, boost your sense of being well.

Without awareness we are in a muddled fog of confusion, conflict or denial.

With awareness we step into clarity & with compassion we can choose the right next steps to take.

I’m curious to hear what you think? Let me know, I’d love to hear.

Oh, and please do vote, the link is in my bio & I’d be so grateful.

Lucy x

I’m always immensely grateful to clients when they take the time & consideration to write a review of their experience working through IFS (Internal Family Systems) with me.

This review is from a long-standing & precious client who knows me well, & I’ve had the privilege of sharing my smorgasbord of ancient, mixed with modern, somatic, psychological, & spiritual tools with them.

I offer both private therapy sessions & will soon be announcing more group IFS workshops & day retreats.

Discover more about how I work on my website, then get in touch when you’re ready to explore your inner system of parts & how to expand the energy of your compassionate & curious Self as both a support & a healing source.

Here’s the review in full. I hope it gives you some insight & both the courage & curiosity to start your own journey of freedom & expansion:

“Lucy has a rare way of guiding you—gently, thoughtfully, and with real depth. She creates a space where you feel safe enough to explore the parts of yourself you might usually avoid.

Through Internal Family Systems, she helps you connect with the different parts of you with compassion and curiosity. With her support, you can feel and release emotions from the past without getting caught in the story, which feels incredibly freeing and light.

There is something powerful in how she works: bringing clarity where there was confusion, calm where there was overwhelm, and a deeper connection back to yourself.

She holds space with a quiet, poetic presence—gently supporting you through the process of becoming, where old emotions can soften and release without judgment.

She is, without question, one of the most amazing people I have ever met: a fountain of wisdom, endlessly creative, deeply kind, and profoundly supportive.

Working with Lucy feels like being guided home to yourself—with a sense of freedom you didn’t know was possible.”

Remember, I’m a fully trained & qualified psychotherapist, counsellor & coach, registered with the BACP, & have a Level 2 IFS training through IFS UK & The IFS Institute.

With love & infinite light.

Lucy x

It’s Monday morning and it’s still January - officially the longest month of the year. Things feel grey, dark, cold and heavy. What’s to be done?

If your mood right now is an overriding low one, where things feel bleak and the year is less than jolly, here are some ideas that I find do truly work to help boost your mood. They help to shift your perspective and offer a little rest-bite, guiding you forward towards brighter days:

1. Get outside, even if for 5 minutes, even in the rain. Look at the sky, stare at something intriguing, get curious about your surroundings, breathe the air.

2. Purposefully stop to notice the truth of how you do feel before auto pilot sets in and carry’s you away into pretence.

3. Feel into your breathing, count how long it takes you to breath in and how long it takes to breath out. Increase that count by 1. Slowing the breath a little and feeling how your body shape shifts to welcome the air in and push the air out.

4. Find a pen and paper and write something down or doodle. Allow 5 mins to simply let the pen speak to the paper, showing you a deeper sense of how things are for you in this moment.

5. If you still feel lost or at sea do seek some professional help. You’re not meant to be overwhelmed, stuck, trapped or drowning. You’re designed to be more flexible than that, able to stretch into the joy as easily as sink into the sorrow.

I’m here should you want to touch in. Should you choose to embark on a new way of being, a new way to open your heart to the world, a new way to approach this brand new year, even on a grey January Monday morning….

All you need to do is ask.

Lucy

(See my website, link in bio, or email [email protected])