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 😊

🤦🏻‍♀️ 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

😊 I recently quit an expensive year-long traini

😊 I recently quit an expensive year-long training to be a couples therapist just 4 classes, 25 clinical hours and one assignment away from finishing.

🤔 Why?

🤷‍♀️ Because life doesn’t always go the way you plan for it to go.

🤦🏻‍♀️ I was trying to fit too much in.

♻️ Pushing myself too hard in too many directions.

🔎 Sometimes the secret to success isn’t ‘pushing through’ but narrowing the scope of what you focus on.

☝️I may yet get the chance to complete the training.

🤷‍♀️ And I may not.

🤪 But driving myself nuts trying to do everything leads to physical and emotional burn-out.

🌈 So I’ll take my own advice and focus on what’s most important here and now, on what I CAN control (instead of what I can’t).

🦋 I’ll hope for the best that I’ll get to complete the training later, and let the ‘what ifs’ float away on the breeze.

⭐️ I feel light.

😊 Which tells me I’ve made the right decision.

💎 If you’re struggling with overwhelm and need a hand working things out, I’d love to see if I could help.

⏰ I offer everyone a free initial chat via phone or video call - 60 minutes to tell me what’s on your mind, ask any questions plus talk about anything you like to help you work out if I’m someone you could really talk to.

👩‍💻 To book yours, click this link:

https://tinyurl.com/FreeInitialChat

Illustration by @crazyheadcomics

😡 Know what really pisses me off? The idea that

😡 Know what really pisses me off? The idea that a good mum is a woman who always puts herself last.

🤔 Somehow mums are supposed to put everyone else’s needs first...

🤷‍♀️ ....whilst simultaneously meeting standards for appearance and behaviour that would require inordinate amounts of time devoted to physical & emotional self-care.

😤 It f*cking sucks and I’m tired of it!

👥 I work with so many mums who feel like they’re failing.

😫 But actually they are being failed by a society that asks too much of them.

🥺 And gives them too little in return.

⛓ If we want to free ourselves from this madness then we need to speak up.

🌈 Identify our needs.

🦋 And make sure they’re met.

🤷‍♀️ A carer who does not care for herself becomes embittered, passive aggressive, anxious, depressed and burned out.

👀 Our children are watching.

💎 Let’s give them something more positive and empowering to internalise for the future.

💪🏼 And let’s take back the present moment for ourselves.

🤔 What do you think?

😊 If you’d like some help identifying and meeting your neglected emotional needs, I’d love to support you.

🗣 Let’s chat - we can take a whole hour to think about what’s going on for you, you can ask questions about how I work and you can find out if I’m someone you could really talk to.

👥 There’s a range of ways we could work together:

🌹 1:1 therapy
💎 Restore 12 Week Group Course for Overwhelmed Mums
🔧 Mental Health MOTs
⭐️ My free FB group @mentalhealthspaceformums

👩‍💻 If you’d like to book in first that free chat
click this link now:

https://tinyurl.com/FreeInitialChat

If anyone knows who I can credit for this image pls comment or DM me

#aliharristherapy #mumlife #mumsofinstagram #mumssupportingmums #mummylife #mummydiaries #momlife #momsofinstagram #mommy #selfcare #selfcarefirst #stalbansmums #harpendenmums #wheathampsteadmums #hertfordshirelife #selfcarematters #motherhoodjourney #motherhood #therapyworks #therapistsofinstagram #counselling #psychotherapy #feministmemes

☝️Before you can change you need to learn to l

☝️Before you can change you need to learn to love and accept yourself exactly the way you are right now.

🤷‍♀️ Because what you resist persists.

✂️ When you suppress, deny or avoid difficult feelings, thoughts, ideas and experiences you are attempting to cut yourself off from parts of yourself.

😀 It’s easy to love and approve of the parts of yourself you like.

😧 It can be hard to own the aspects of yourself that make you feel sad, ashamed or disappointed.

💖But you need and deserve compassion.

🪞 And the person you need it from most is yourself.

🌱 Positive emotional change begins with self-love.

🌈 If you’d like some support working on that, I’d love to find out if I could help.

🗣 Let’s chat - we can take a whole hour to think about what’s going on for you, you can ask questions about how I work and you can find out if I’m someone you could really talk to.

👥 There’s a range of ways we could work together:

🌹 1:1 therapy
💎 Restore 12 Week Group Course for Overwhelmed Mums
🔧 Mental Health MOTs
⭐️ My free FB group @mentalhealthspaceformums

👩‍💻 If you’d like to book in first that free chat
click this link now:

https://tinyurl.com/FreeInitialChat

Meme by @therapy.with.jordan

#aliharristherapy #therapymemes #therapy #mumlifeuk #mumlife #mumsofinstagram #therapistsofinstagram #mumssupportingmums #mummylife #motherhood #selflove #selfcompassion #selfcompassionjourney #selflovetips #selflovejourney #selfloveisthebestlove #selfacceptance #selfacceptancejourney #stalbansmums #harpendenmums #hertfordshiremums #psychotherapymemes #counselling

🤦🏻‍♀️ Fuck-ups ARE inevitable & CAN be

🤦🏻‍♀️ Fuck-ups ARE inevitable & CAN be useful BUT when you find yourself making the same mistakes over & over, seemingly unable to learn any kind of lesson, it can be kinda depressing, huh?

🥺 You feel hopeless, trapped in error, unable to break free.

🤷‍♀️ Why do I keep doing this to myself?!” you wonder.

😫 You feel doomed to despair.
Incapable of change.

🙈 “Why does this keep on happening to me?!”

🌈 I can help.

💎 I am trained to help you find the meaning in your stuckness.

🤔 To help you understand which belief or idea or experience has been holding you back.

🔎 To help you locate the lesson in your repeating error.

🦋 And help you empower yourself to finally learn that lesson and break free of the pattern of mistakes.

😊 Sound good?

👩‍💻 Get in touch and let’s talk.

👥 I offer everyone a free 60 minute chat.

📲 Book yours here and let’s turn our minds to your emotional liberation!

https://tinyurl.com/FreeInitialChat

Illustration by @katieabey

☔️ Your problems are not going to solve themse

☔️ Your problems are not going to solve themselves - but they can be managed so that they don’t overwhelm you.

☀️ You can learn to manage them so that whatever’s going on for you, you can be ok.

🌈 If you’d like some help with that, I’d love to see if I could support you.

🗣 Let’s chat - we can take a whole hour to think about what’s going on for you, you can ask questions about how I work and you can find out if I’m someone you could really talk to.

👥 There’s a range of ways we could work together:

🌹 1:1 therapy (wait-list only atm)
💎 Restore 12 Week Group Course for Overwhelmed Mums
🔧 Mental Health MOTs
⭐️ My free FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/602340900479751/?ref=share

👩‍💻 If you’d like to book in first that free chat
click this link now:

https://tinyurl.com/FreeInitialChat

Illustration by @mytherapisthelps

#aliharristherapy #therapymemes #mumlifeuk #mumlife #mumsofinstagram #mummylife #motherhoodjourney #motherhoodmoments #stalbansmums #harpendenmums #redbournmums #hertfordshiremums #themotherhood #memestagram #therapyworks #counselling #psychotherapy #depressionawareness #anxietyawareness #changeispossible #mindsetmatters #changeyourthoughts #changequotes #problemsolving #momproblems #anxietyproblems #solutionfocused

👉 There she is, in the mirror, the only person

👉 There she is, in the mirror, the only person that can really make your life better.

😔 No matter how powerless you might feel.

🤦🏻‍♀️ However down, depressed, anxiety-ridden or dispirited.

💎 That woman in the mirror knows you better than anyone, and can change everything for you, if needs be - given the chance.

😫 Now it’s possible that people and/or circumstances have convinced you that you’re no good, worthless, talentless, doomed, chronically unlucky and utterly hopeless.

💩 So I just popped by to remind you that this is bullshit.

🌰 There may be parts of you that are lying like seeds in your being.

🤷‍♀️ Seeds don’t look very inspiring at first, I know.

🤔 They seem dry and dead - utterly lifeless.

🌱 But put them in conditions even remotely resembling good enough to grow.

🌸 Between paving stones, wall crevices, wherever, and watch those babies BLOOM!

😊 It’s no different with you.

💩 Take all the shit that you have gone through and let’s use it as fertiliser to grow better things for you.

🤝 If you need help or support just reach out and I’ll do my best to help, either personally or via referrals.

👩‍💻 Let’s chat - book in using this link - initial chats are free and do not necessarily have to end with you signing up for counselling 😊

https://tinyurl.com/FreeInitialChat

#stalbansmums #harpendenmums #hertfordshiremums

This is so true @katieabey!! whenever I have a str

This is so true @katieabey!! whenever I have a strong and seemingly over-the-top reaction to someone I KNOW it’s probably because they remind me of an aspect of myself that I’m uncomfortable with.

Once you connect to that feeling and you’re able to accept and maybe even soften a little towards yourself (and the other person) it usually goes away.

What do you think?

#aliharristherapy #katieabey #selflovejourney #selfreflection #mumlifeuk #motherhoodjourney #motherhoodunfiltered #mumsofinstagram #mummylife #counselling #psychotherapy #therapyworks #depressionhelp #depressionawareness #anxietyrelief #anxietyawareness #anxietysupport #selfknowledge #mindsposelflove #knowthyself #knowyourself #selfreminder #selfawareness #selfgrowth #stalbansmums #harpendenmums #wheathsmpsteadmums

🤦🏻‍♀️ Slapping on a happy face when yo

🤦🏻‍♀️ Slapping on a happy face when you actually feel crappy just makes a bad situation feel worse.

☹️ Sometimes it feels necessary - you might worry that you’ll become known as a bit of a fun-sponge if you don’t hide how you really feel.

🥳 You fear that people only want to hang out with the ‘happy’ or ‘fun’ version of you.

🤷‍♀️ And there are people like that out there.

People who can’t bear to be in the presence of emotional discomfort, so they platitude you into a psychological corner:

🙄 “Think positive!!”
🙄 “We all feel down sometimes but...”
🙄 “You chose your own reality!”

🏃‍♀️ Until you plaster on a smile, or run for the hills.

🏔 Personally, I recommend the hills in such cases.

😀 They’re quiet and they tolerate emotional authenticity quite well.

🤷‍♀️ You can’t help how you feel.

😫 And trying to avoid your real feelings only makes your mental health worse.

👀 Seek out people and places where you can be your real self without fear of reproach.

🌈 If those feel a bit thin on the ground, therapy is a great option too.

⏰ If you’d like to find out more about that, get in touch and book your free 60 minute chat.

🦋 We can talk about what’s going on for you, you can ask me any questions and get a sense if I’m someone who you could really talk to.

💖 Sound good?

👩‍💻 Use the link to book your chat now!

https://tinyurl.com/FreeInitialChat

Meme by @intro_verts

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