Blog

You might notice a pattern where you feel the need to check that everything is okay. Perhaps you ask if someone is upset, if they still care, or if the relationship is alright. When they reassure you, there’s often a sense of relief, but it doesn’t always last. Before long, the doubt returns, and with it, the urge to check again. The cycle of reassurance From a CBT perspective, this can become a repeating cycle. Something small changes—a tone, a delay, a brief interaction—and a thought appears: “Something isn’t right”. That thought creates anxiety. Asking for reassurance feels like the...

There’s a particular kind of loneliness that doesn’t look lonely at all. It shows up at crowded dinner tables, in busy living rooms, in the middle of celebrations that are supposed to feel warm and full. Around Easter, especially, there’s often an expectation of togetherness - family gatherings, shared meals, and meaningful connection. Yet, many people find themselves feeling alone in the very moments they’re “supposed” to feel most connected. From a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) perspective, this experience is both understandable and more common than we might think. CBT helps us explore the relationship between our thoughts, emotions, and...

You might notice that a lot of your attention naturally goes toward how other people are feeling. In conversations, part of your mind is often scanning—picking up on tone, expressions, small shifts in mood. You might find yourself thinking about whether someone seems quieter than usual, whether something you said may have come across the wrong way, or whether there’s something you should do to make things feel easier. You may go out of your way to keep things calm, choose your words carefully, hold back certain thoughts, soften how you say things, or sometimes not say them at all....