Home - Ali Harris Therapy

I’m Ali

I’m a counsellor & psychotherapist
and I help people feel better.

I specialise in helping people who are experiencing:

Depression
Anxiety
Bereavement

to lead happier & more satisfying lives.

Watch my video about how counselling & psychotherapy can help you to feel better

If you’re struggling right now I’m here to provide you with some safe, confidential space, where you can say anything you like & I will listen warmly, respectfully & with an open mind.

I want to help you to learn to manage your all your difficult feelings and experiences, so that you can feel:

happier in your day to day life
more satisfied with your relationship with yourself & your family & friends
less overwhelmed when bad stuff happens
better able to think & make smart decisions under pressure
able to bounce back from setbacks more quickly & easily than before

The best way to find out if you’d like to work with me is to arrange a chat, so you can

tell me what’s troubling you
ask me any questions you have
get a sense of what I’m like
find out if I’m someone you could talk to

Sound good? Book in for a chat here
An initial chat is FREE, so you have nothing to lose!

aliharristherapy

Mum, Counsellor & Psychotherapist; I help people feel better, if you’d like a free chat about how I can help you, DM me now 😊

🙈 Knowing that we need to build & then maintain

🙈 Knowing that we need to build & then maintain good mental health habits is very different to feeling equipped & able to do it.

🤷‍♀️ It’s a skill - and as such it can be learned.
👩‍🎓 It’s a lifelong exercise in learning.
🔧 Like anything, good mental health must be regularly maintained.

🤔 If you’d like to start but you’re not sure how or you start but keep ‘falling off’ then maybe get in touch.

⏰ I offer everyone a free 60 minute chat.

👥 You can tell me a bit about what’s going on for you, you can ask me questions & find out how I work, why it helps etc and by the end of our conversation you should have a good idea of whether or not I’m someone you could really talk to.

📱 To book that chat or find out more about me, click the link in my bio.
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#emotionalhealing #innerhealing #healyourheart #myhealingjourney #therapysession #anxietyrecovery #wellbeingwarrior #emotionalwellbeing #selfcareideas #mentalhealthtips #selfknowledge #selfkindness #selfcompassion #selfhealer #selfwork #selflovejourney #protectyourenergy #selfcareeveryday #boundariesarehealthy #healing #gracenotperfection #mindset #instatherapy #dothework #youareenough #personaldevelopment #supportingmums #maternalmentalhealth #psychotherapist #peptalk

💬 I wanted to chat to you today about your ‘i

💬 I wanted to chat to you today about your ‘inner voice’ - you know, the one that monologues inside your head, your inner narrator, the one providing running commentary to you on what you do, how you do it, what’s going to happen next, how what you said was received, what people must think of you, and how that will affect you, going forward… you know the one, right?

♻️ Your inner voice, like so much of you, is a mish-mash of all the voices of people who took care of you – so that’s mainly authority figures, like parents, teachers and other people who have been in charge of you. They could also include siblings, peers and other people in your early life.

🗣 As a part of growing up, you, like everyone else, will have internalised these voices - their tones, their words, their attitudes, their expectations of you and made your own ‘scripts’ out of them, based on the kinds of things they said.

💖 If, when you made a mistake, you were accustomed to hearing empathic, supportive, encouraging remarks, then probably when you make a mistake now, you repeat similarly warm and reassuring things to yourself, in your head.

🤷‍♀️ This will likely help you keep steady in a crisis, develop confidence to try again despite your recent failure, and allow you to remain emotionally buoyant and resilient in the face of future setbacks.

⚠️ BUT

😡 If your childhood mistakes were met with angry, disappointed, shaming comments, chances are your own inner voice repeats these kinds of things to you now, in adulthood, when you make a mistake:

👥 Counselling and psychotherapy offer one very effective way to get support with defeating your inner bully and learning to speaking lovingly and encouragingly to yourself.

🤔 If that’s something you are interested in finding out more about, please do get in touch now to arrange a free 60 minute chat.

👂You can tell me a little about what’s going on for you, ask me any questions and get a sense of whether I’m someone you feel you could really talk to.

💻 You can book that chat or find out more via the link in my bio.

🧞‍♂️ Bottling up your feelings is a tempo

🧞‍♂️ Bottling up your feelings is a temporary fix but not really advisable in the long-term. Because eventually you’re in out of storage space and then all that bottled up crap comes a-busting out all over.

🤷‍♀️ If you deal with each difficult thing as it comes, you save yourself a lot of trauma later on.

🤔 If you’re not sure how to do that (or if you feel like your emotional storage facility is about to hit critical and start leaking,) maybe you could do with some support?

🔎 If you’re interested in finding out more, I offer everyone a free hour’s chat. You can tell me about what’s going on for you and I can give you some insight into what I do, how I work and how it can help you.

⏰ By the end of that hour you should have a good idea if I’m someone you can really talk to.

📱 To book your free chat or to find out more about me visit the link in my bio
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#onlinetherapist #therapyiscool #therapyhelps #emotionalwellbeing #selflovetips #selflovejourney #selfcareeveryday #selfwork #instatherapy #therapyisselfcare #growthroughit #feelittohealit #selfhealer #therapyiscool #therapysession #seekhelp #wellbeingwarrior #everymindmatters #selfcompassion

🤷‍♀️ I don’t remember being carefree in

🤷‍♀️ I don’t remember being carefree in my body in a swimming costume - but I do remember the moment I became aware that my body was ‘wrong’.

❌ A girl called Sarah in my class at school told me I was fat and that I should ‘go on a diet’. I was 9.

🙈 This began a life-long battle with my body, starving it to make it thinner and dealing with the inevitable bingeing that comes when you harshly restrict food.

🤔 It’s not all on Sarah, clearly. She was just repeating ideas she had heard elsewhere, probably from her mum or off the TV.

🧏🏻‍♀️ I certainly heard all the body-hating stuff from my own mother, who heard it from society in general. The messages were everywhere. They still are.

🤷‍♀️ How about you?

😊 Can you remember life before diet culture, before it ever occurred to you that your body might not be ‘beach ready’?

#bodypositivity #fatacceptance #selfacceptance #selflove #loveyourself #plussize #effyourbeautystandards #selfcare #confidence #womenempowerment #fatpositive #healthateverysize #fatliberation #bodypeace #bodylove #allbodiesaregoodbodies #bodytrust #fatisnotaviolation #loveyourself

🤔 Counselling & psychotherapy helps you to lear

🤔 Counselling & psychotherapy helps you to learn how to tune IN to your own feelings and instincts, and tune OUT all the bullsh*t that stops you being who you are and prevents you from creating & living your best life.

🤷‍♀️ That really is it!

❌ As a therapist, I do not know better than you - not what you should do or who you should aspire to be or the perfect recipe for your happiness. No.

☝️ But what I know is how to begin the work of helping you to tune into your gut, and how to start to learn how to trust that gut instinct, and hold onto your feelings & instincts.

🌱 The ability to do this is, in my opinion, the cornerstone of self-love, which is in many respects the basis for good mental health.

👂 So please listen to your gut and trust your instincts.

👊🏻 You’ve got this.
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#trustyourgut #emotionsmatter #talkingtherapy #selfcompassion #selfcaretips #selfregulation #selfcarematters #selfcareeveryday #dothework #onedayatatime #gracenotperfection #overthinking #mindset #instatherapy #therapyisselfcare #therapyhelps #empathsofinstagram #growthroughit #selfhealer #knowyourworth

🤷‍♀️ We all long for quick-fixes but deep

🤷‍♀️ We all long for quick-fixes but deep down we also all know that meaningful, long-lasting change is gradual and cannot be rushed.

🤔 It can be hard to notice progress when it comes slowly. But the signs are there, if you look for them.

🔎 If you focus on progress (which is attainable,) instead of perfection (which isn’t,) you are much less likely to become disheartened and give up.

🦋 And then, if you hang in there, one day you notice the change you longed for is ‘suddenly’ complete!

🌈 So try to focus on your progress, however small, and release the fantasy of perfection, for a happier, more satisfying life.

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#emotionalhealing #therapyiscool #selfkindness #selfcaretips #selfcareideas #innerhealing #mentalhealthguidance #selfknowledge #therapysession #mentalwellbeing #emotionalwellbeing #therapyiscool #talkingtherapy #mentalhealthadvice #mentalhealthcare #mentalhealthwarrior #selfcaretips #selfkindness #selfcompassion #selfknowledge #innerhealing #empathsofinstagram #aliharristherapy #selfcareeveryday #knowyourvalue #selfhealer #instatherapy #counselling #dothework
#feelings #feelyourfeelings #progressnotperfection

⚠️ Before you start justifying any refusal you

⚠️ Before you start justifying any refusal you have made, please take a moment to remind yourself that while it may often feel ok to explain your ‘no’, you don’t owe anyone your consent, and you are not required to provide reasons that meet others’ criteria.

👊🏻 Consent is yours to give or withhold, as you choose, and you are not obliged to explain your reasons for declining (or accepting) if you’d rather not.

⛔️ End of.

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#emotionalhealing #therapyiscool #selfkindness #selfcaretips #selfcareideas #innerhealing #nomeansno #selfknowledge #therapysession #mentalwellbeing #emotionalwellbeing #therapyiscool #talkingtherapy #justsayno #mentalhealthcare #mentalhealthwarrior #seekhelp #selfcaretips #selfkindness #selfcompassion #selfcarewords #sepfknowledge #innerhealing #empathsofinstagram #aliharristherapy #selfcareeveryday #knowyourvalue #selfhealer #instatherapy #feelyourfeelings

I often talk about the importance of feeling your

I often talk about the importance of feeling your feelings (they provide essential intel on how you’re doing & what you need, if you pay attention to them,) but one of the questions I’m asked most often is HOW DO I FEEL MY FEELINGS???!!

So I created this handy check list to help you get started.

Like any skill, feeling your feelings takes time to learn, but it’s SO worth it!
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#emotionalhealing #therapyiscool #selfkindness #selfcaretips #selfcareideas #innerhealing #mentalhealthguidance #selfknowledge #therapysession #mentalwellbeing #emotionalwellbeing #therapyiscool #talkingtherapy #mentalhealthadvice #mentalhealthcare #mentalhealthwarrior #seekhelp #selfcaretips #selfkindness #selfcompassion #selfcarewords #sepfknowledge #innerhealing #empathsofinstagram #aliharristherapy #selfcareeveryday #knowyourvalue #selfhealer #instatherapy #counselling #dothework
#feelings #feelyourfeelings

🤦🏻‍♀️ Are you dreading Valentine’s D

🤦🏻‍♀️ Are you dreading Valentine’s Day?
💔 Are you feeling unloved?
🤔 Would you like to develop more self-love?

🌈 Join me for my 7 Day Self-Love Challenge!

💴 It’s free!!

🔎 In the run-up to Valentines Day, we will focus on learning how to show love to ourselves and meet our own needs, rather than relying on others' validation.

📝 Each day we'll complete a task and then report back in the accountability thread as to how we got on and whether it was useful or not.

🏆 There will be prizes for those who contribute the most to this week, whether that's by showing up every single day and going all-out in the challenges or by supporting others and making warm, useful contributions in the threads.

Join the FaceBook Group via the link in my bio

https://www.facebook.com/groups/seven.days.of.self.lovef2021/

😔 It’s easy to feel powerless. 💩 And it’

😔 It’s easy to feel powerless.
💩 And it’s a shit feeling.
🤷‍♀️ But we always have a choice.

⚠️ Even with a gun to your head you can choose to live or die.

🤔 What choice could you make right now to improve your life?

🤷‍♀️ Even if it’s a tiny improvement?

☕️ Personally, I’m going to choose a quiet coffee on my stairs with noise-cancelling headphones 🎧

🌟 But tomorrow....I could do almost anything!

🤷‍♀️ How about you?

Illustration by @peacefuldiaries

Over in my free Facebook group, Mental Health Spac

Over in my free Facebook group, Mental Health Space for Mums, I post a gratitude prompt to members, every day at 6pm.

We list the things we’re grateful for that day, whether it’s for life-saving surgery or just enjoying dippy eggs on toast!

It’s emphatically NOT designed to shame anyone, to say:

“But you have so much to be grateful for!”

Rather, it helps us to pause & look for a few silver linings on even the crappiest & darkest of days.

It may sound a bit naff, but it’s a bonafide way to lift your mood!

There is plenty of research that confirm that the benefits are real 😀

Do you practice regular gratitude?
Does if help you and if so how?

Illustration by by @themindgeek

#aliharristherapy #gratitude #grateful #attitudeofgratitude #thankful #innerhealing #emotionalhealing #mentalhealthhelp #psychotherapist #mumlifeuk #motherhood #motherhoodjourney #seekhelp #stalbansmums #mentalhealthsupport #mentalhealthadvice #mentalhealthadvice #selfcareideas #mentalhealthtips #pandemicsupport #selfcareeveryday #gracenotperfection

If you’ve been thinking about talking to someone

If you’ve been thinking about talking to someone and getting some warm, professional, confidential & totally non-judgemental support, I’ve got a few spaces at the moment for new clients.

If you’re interested, let’s chat first and see if I’m right for you 😀

You can book in for a counselling convo via the link in my bio
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#aliharristherapy #personaldevelopment #dothework #selfcarematters #pandemicsupport #onlinetherapist #therapyhelps #emotionalwellbeing #selflovejourney #limitingbeliefs #knowyourvalue #instatherapy #counselling #counsellor #psychotherapist #psychotherapy #therapistsofinstagram #growthroughit #mentalhealth #healing #selfwork #thistooshallpass # therapyiscool #therapysession #seekhelp #stalbansmums #harpendenmums

🗣 There’s a lot of talk about ‘sitting with

🗣 There’s a lot of talk about ‘sitting with your feelings’ and how it helps to improve your mental health.

😞 Sadly, there is much less talk about HOW to sit with your feelings & why it helps.

🤷‍♀️ This seems to imply everyone knows how to sit with their feelings.

😀 I know from my client work that most people do not know how to do that, and to be fair, prior to my own therapy, neither did I.

🤔 So I thought I’d put the general idea out there, in the hope that it could help a few people

🤦🏻‍♀️ When we’re feeling something painful or difficult we tend to try to make it stop by:

➡️ Pushing the feeling away
🙈 Refusing to acknowledge it
👉 Ascribing the feeling to someone else
🔥 Trying to drown-out the feeling by engaging in behaviour that is intense in some way - eating, drinking, taking drugs, taking risks etc.

🧘‍♀️ Sitting with how you feel involves resisting the impulse to do those things.

🤲 Instead you allow your feelings to rise and you hold them in your awareness.

❌ You don’t judge them or try to banish them.

✅ You accept them.
🔎 And you try to get curious about them.
🤔 What are they trying to tell you?

🤷‍♀️ Why go to all the trouble?
👉 Feelings hang out and wait to be felt.
📚 They pile up.
🤦🏻‍♀️ Eventually, if you keep ignoring them, they start to overwhelm you in the form of states like depression & anxiety.

⏰ This process of sitting with your feelings can be tricky at first.

🌱 Like anything though, with practice, over time, it gets easier.

🆘 And it’s often useful (but not necessarily essential,) to have help as you learn to do it.

☔️ As a counsellor & psychotherapist, helping people to learn to sit with their feelings is something I do a lot.

🌈 And it’s always wonderful to watch people get the hang of it, and enjoy their delight in how much it helps them start to feel better.

😀 If you’d like some help with your difficult feelings, let’s chat.

👥 You can tell me a bit about what’s troubling you, ask questions about therapy and how I can help, and find out if I’m someone who can help you feel better.

⏳ Initial chats are free

👩‍💻 You can book yours via the link in my bio

[image credit: pls tell me if you know]

🤔 Do you ever wish you could escape from your l

🤔 Do you ever wish you could escape from your life?

💤 Do you go to sleep dreading the next morning?

🤦🏻‍♀️ And wake up wishing you didn’t have to?

☔️ Do you feel:

🤯 Overwhelmed
😣 At odds with everyone?
😒 Over-burdened & resentful?
😞 Anxious?
☹️ Depressed?

⛑ I’d love to offer you some support.

👋 I’m Ali, I’m a counsellor & psychotherapist & I help people feel better.

🦠 I can’t cure Corona virus
🕰 I can’t change the past
🧞‍♂️ I can’t grant wishes
💊 There are no quick-fixes

☝️BUT I can:

🌺 Provide you with a safe, validating space to explore your difficulties
👂 Listen to you without judging
💎 Help you learn to manage your difficult feelings & experiences.

😢 So that when life knocks you down in the future
🔥 You can bounce right back!

🤔 Sound good? Let’s talk!

⏰ I offer everyone a free 60 minute chat.

💖 You can tell me what’s going on for you, ask me any questions and find out if I’m someone who can help you feel better.

👩‍💻 To book in for a chat click the link in my bio

🎈 You’ve got nothing to lose but your blues!

⛔️ There’s absolutely NO NEED for you to cre

⛔️ There’s absolutely NO NEED for you to create a ‘new you’ in honour of the New Year!!

🤷‍♀️ I know I keep repeating this message but I’m not sorry, because diet culture & capitalism, which profit so hugely from undermining our mental health, never shuts up so I guess I can’t either and they tend to shout their loudest about now!

🤦🏻‍♀️ Please do not feel you must overhaul your personality, your size or any other aspect of your being in order to be considered worthy of respect, love, friendship and happiness.

💎 You deserve all that good stuff already, just because you’re you.

🤷‍♀️ I know that may sound a bit naff.
🌈 But I really believe that!
😉 So there!

🧚‍♀️ Wishing you the best of things and certainly a good deal better than 2020 dealt us all.

💥 Kick ass, ok?!!

Illustration by @wonder_doodles

A lot of bad shit went down this year. And it was

A lot of bad shit went down this year.
And it was a privilege and a pleasure to be allowed to be there for my clients each week.

- No amount of therapy can raise the dead.
- Talking cannot cure Covid 19.
- Counselling does not magically restore ruined livelihoods.
- Therapy cannot zap us back to our much-missed ‘old normal’.

But what therapy can do, and did do this year, was to help struggling people:

- Feel seen, heard & validated
- Begin to love & accept themselves
- Allow & experience their feelings
- Grieve for their losses
- Take pleasure in their victories
- Learn to manage the negative effects of difficult feelings, experiences and situations.

So while I’m keen to say ‘Good riddance’ to 2020 on the one hand, I won’t say the whole thing was a bust.

We got a lot of good shit done in our virtual therapy room!

I’d like to thank all my clients - I’m looking forward to seeing you again next week and seeing what 2021 has in store for us.

Whatever it is, we’ll find a way to manage it 🥂

Love from Ali xx

Art by @poppyspapercuts

🤔 It’s easy to criticise - to tear yourself o

🤔 It’s easy to criticise - to tear yourself or someone else down.

🤷‍♀️ But you do have a choice - you can pull things to pieces or you can start building.

🧱 You don’t need to dismantle yourself and re-create yourself according to someone else’s model.

🥇 We don’t need a ‘new you’

👍 You are already perfect just the way you are.

☠️ All that needs removing are the ideas that you have taken in that tell you that you’re less-than.

🦋 Then you can be fully you, as you were always meant to be.

🌈 I know what I want to devote my energies to.

🤔 How about you?

🗓 I’ve got a couple of spots left for counselling starting in January 2021

⏰ I offer everyone a free 60 min chat so you can tell me what you’re struggling with, ask me any questions and find out if I’m someone you could really talk to.

👩‍💻 Book in using the link in my bio.

Illustration by @theresgoodinstore

Merry Christmas 😊🎄❄️🎅🎁⛄️

Merry Christmas 😊🎄❄️🎅🎁⛄️

🌈 The Mental Health Space for Mums is a safe sp

🌈 The Mental Health Space for Mums is a safe space that centres mums, their concerns, their cares and day to day struggles & offers the chance to have those struggles seen, heard and validated.

💎 It’s a place where group members give & receive emotional support, vent in confidence, & help each other learn to manage difficult feelings & experiences.

👋 It’s run by me - Ali - counsellor, psychotherapist & fellow mum.

☔️ If you’d like access to this active & lovely little community of mums, you’d be very welcome!

😊 See you there!

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

Lovely new testimonial from another happy therapy

Lovely new testimonial from another happy therapy client!

If you're struggling with difficult feelings & experiences, I'd love to find out if I could support you with some counselling.

I offer everyone a free initial 60 min chat so we can find out if I'm someone you could really talk to.

We can take our time, you can ask me any questions, tell me what's going on for you and see where it takes us!

Book your chat now, the link to do that is in my bio

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