Quite a lot, actually!

It’s meant to be a time for relaxation, fun and celebration but for many Christmas can be a great source of stress and difficulty. This week the MPW London Counselling team gives out their best tips to combat this in recognition of the issue.

According to the mental health charity, Mind, one in three of us actively “dreads Christmas”. Research shows that people with anxiety and depression can suffer more acutely around this time and that relationships can also buckle under the pressure, resulting in conflict and relationship breakdown. For those with complex family structures, Christmas can present even greater challenges.

If you ever experience this situation, here is a technique that can be used to help a loved one who might be suffering and need someone to talk to. It can also help to diffuse tension within families and avoid conflict.

Watch this short clip by Jason Headley to see what can often happen when someone comes to us with a problem:

Although to the listener it might be ‘obvious’ what the ‘problem’ is, as the speaker says, what she really needs is for her partner to ‘ listen’ and ‘ stop trying to fix it.’ This is a facet of ‘Active Listening‘- a powerful communication skill and proven psychological technique based on the work of psychologist Carl Rogers. It involves consciously putting aside our own judgements, frames of reference and agendas, fully attuning to the speaker and demonstrating that this is what we are doing via a number of techniques.

Watch this short clip for six of those techniques:

These additional links to can also help in finding out more about how to actively listen and as always please do get in touch if you need someone to talk to.