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As someone with a background in both trauma and special educational needs, selective mutism is nothing new. A fair number of children with special educational needs and trauma backgrounds can develop selective mutism so they become so anxious that they cannot speak. Sometimes their selective mutism is restricted to one particular setting, like a school or in front of a particular person, but it can be generalised too. Also, when I was struggling with the worst effects of my post-traumatic stress disorder after my rape in 2024, there were two occasions when I became so overwhelmed and anxious that I was mute for a few hours. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what is selective mutism, what causes it and how is selective mutism treated. Also, I’ll discuss the practical implications for aspiring and qualified clinical and educational psychologists too. If you enjoy learning about child mental health, psychotherapy and educational psychology, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by CBT For Anxiety: A Clinical Psychology Introduction to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Anxiety. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What is Selective Mutism? Selective mutism is a rare childhood anxiety disorder that causes a child to become unable to speak in certain situations and/ or to certain people when they’re exposed to a particular trigger. Also, selective mutism is not a form of shyness even though a person with the condition can appear very shy, and it’s flat out wrong to assume that selective mutism is a choice. It is not. The child just cannot speak. For me, the two times that I was rendered mute was really annoying, because I was struggling with my mental health and then because I was so overwhelmed and anxious, I just couldn’t speak. It’s really annoying as an adult, and I imagine it’s similar for children, because you really want to speak but you physically can’t. This means that you need to text, write down what you want to say and it’s just so annoying. Equally, drawing on my past experience as a special educational needs teaching assistant, there were students who couldn’t speak at school, but they could speak perfectly fine at home. The professionals at the school believed this was because the school environment was so anxiety-inducing for the child that it triggered their selective mutism, and their selective mutism extended to anyone connected with the school environment. I mention the above point because I supported another child who’s selective mutism was limited to only the physical place of the school. Since if the child went outside with teachers, other students or other individuals connected to the school, then they could talk fine to members of the public. Yet as soon as the child returned to a physical educational setting, their selective mutism would be triggered. A final note from my experience is that selective mutism can develop over time for children, because when I spoke to other staff members about children with selective mutism, they all remembered when the children had been able to speak at school. Yet over time as the children found school more overwhelming, they developed selective mutism. Moreover, selective mutism typically has an onset between 3 and 6 years old and most children who develop selective mutism will also go on to develop social phobia or social anxiety disorder. As well as children with the condition might appear cautious and timid in new situations, and they might experience separation anxiety when they’re away from a caregiver. Additionally, selective mutism is important for clinical psychologists to be aware of for two main reasons. Firstly, you might be working in a child and adolescent mental health service and a child with selective mutism comes into your therapy room. If this happens, then it’s important that you understand the symptoms, causes and treatment options so you can best support the client. And I would also add that typically when we think about selective mutism, we get it mixed up with mutism in general. This means that we can forget that just because a child can talk to us fine in a therapy session, their selective mutism gets triggered in other settings. This is why it’s important to bear in mind the truth about selective mutism and become more aware of the condition. On the other hand, selective mutism is important for educational psychologists to become aware of because a lot of their work is done in schools and other educational settings. Especially when it comes to students with special educational needs. As a result, if you go into a SEN school and support a student with selective mutism then you need to understand the condition, explore the treatment options that you and the school can provide the student with and most importantly, you’ll likely have to provide some kind of Continued Professional Development to the SEN staff so they understand what the child is experiencing. Since unfortunately, some staff members might believe that the student is just choosing not to speak, they’re attention-seeking or another myth. It’s the job of an educational psychologist to counteract this false belief. Also, an aspiring or qualified educational psychologist might go into a school for one reason, observe a class or overhear a conversation and end up learning or suspecting another child has selective mutism. You’re only going to be able to do this and fill in the needed documentation and make the referrals, if you have a deeper understanding of the condition. That’s why this podcast episode will be useful to educational and clinical psychologists. What Causes Selective Mutism? Children with selective mutism typically have anxiety disorders in their family history and the neurological basis for the condition is believed to be a sequence of events in the amygdala. This area of the brain is in charge of receiving danger signals from the child’s environment. Therefore, the anxiety that a situation causes a child is perceived to be dangerous so this causes a communication shutdown, and selective mutism often co-exists with other conditions like autism, developmental delays, sensory processing difficulties and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In addition, children with selective mutism, especially teenagers, can develop mood disorders, like depression and agoraphobia, so a person has a fear of leaving home. I’ll skip the practical implications for educational and clinical psychologists in this section because there’s a lot more content in the next section. What are the Symptoms of Selective Mutism? In terms of symptoms of selective mutism, children with the condition can show stiffness, awkward body language and a lack of facial expressions. Also, children who are comfortable in a situation might still be mute but they will have more relaxed physical characteristics, and as I mentioned earlier, a child with selective mutism might be able to speak in some situations or with some people but not others. For instance, it can be normal for children with the condition to be able to speak perfectly fine at school, with loved ones or with close friends, but not at school or in other social settings where there is a pressure to communicate with others. Also, some children with the condition can use nonverbal communication, like moving their hands or nodding their head, whilst other children can appear frozen. Some other signs of selective mutism can include a child appearing insecure, clingy, embarrassed, rude, stiff or they avoid eye-contact. In terms of relationships with close others, the child might be aggressive or angry, and in preparation for school or attending another event where there is the expectation of speaking, the child might experience headaches, stomach aches, diarrhoea or feel nauseous. Finally, for a child to be diagnosed with selective mutism, they need to have been mute for at least a month and this doesn’t include the child’s first month of school. Something I want to add here is that if you work with children with selective mutism then you can hear from parents about how disruptive, aggressive and loud they are when they get home, and I’ll connect this to another point in a moment. This could be because all day the child has been silent, unable to communicate and there probably has been a growing pressure inside them so when they get home and they feel safe enough to communicate then they might “explode” in a way and want to get everything out of themselves that they’ve been suppressing all day. This is another useful reminder about the importance of treatment and supporting children with selective mutism, because whilst it is great that they feel safe enough and their anxiety decreases once they’re home. It probably would be overwhelming, and maybe even a little distressing for their parents and siblings, to see their child being loud, aggressive and angry because they’ve been building up all their frustration all day at not being able to communicate. Therefore, this is another argument for the importance of professionals in educational settings, because by supporting students to lessen their anxiety in the school, it can have larger benefits for the family social system in addition to the school system. A final point I want to make at the end of this section is a reminder about how individual symptoms do not mean that a child has selective mutism. For example, if a child avoids eye contact, they remain expressionless and socially awkward. For me, those symptoms suggest autism and this is further confused because children can be mute because of autism, not because of selective mutism. This is why it’s important for clinical and educational psychologists to have a deeper understanding of selective mutism so they can further inform their assessments and ensure that the child can get the right support. How Is Selective Mutism Treated? If a child is diagnosed with selective mutism then it’s best for the child to receive behavioural or family therapy as soon as possible because the condition is unlikely to go away on its own. When I was a SEN teaching assistant, I occasionally worked with 15- and 16-year-old students with selective mutism and they had had the condition for 10 years. As well as treatment for selective mutism generally involves helping the child to develop skills to better manage their anxiety and “unlearn” their dependence on their mute behaviour as a coping mechanism. Another treatment option can include anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medication too, but long-time listeners of The Psychology World Podcast are probably well aware of my feelings on medication as supported by Read and Moncrief (2022). Furthermore, it’s important for children to receive treatment for their selective mutism because if they don’t, then there’s a very real risk that their selective mutism will follow them into adulthood. This means that their work, their school life, their relationships and other domains of functioning are likely to be impaired, and this harms other developmental milestones too. Nonetheless, I will caveat here and say that there is a problem with special educational need schools in the UK, and probably elsewhere. There is a lack of funding for professionals within SEN schools and because of this lack of funding, senior management doesn’t seem as interested in hiring professionals. A lot of SEN schools prefer to simply hire unqualified teaching assistants who cannot support students instead of professionals, because they’re cheaper and teaching assistants are disposable in my experience. This annoys me because there are a lot of brilliant children who need specialist support but because there’s a shortage of professionals, like educational psychologists, and there isn’t the money or drive from senior management to hire them, there are so many children just falling through the cracks. One senior manager once told me that their school will never be a mental health and special educational needs school. Something that continues to annoy me to this day because you cannot separate the two, as selective mutism clearly shows. Selective mutism can happen in children with special educational needs because of negative mental health caused by anxiety. If you do not treat the anxiety then you cannot support the child with special educational needs to the best of your abilities. Anyway, this argument is part of a larger debate that goes beyond the scope of this podcast episode, but this is why educational and clinical psychologists are so important. As well as in an ideal world, every single school would have an educational psychologist on-site. In terms of what schools and educational psychologists can do to support children with selective mutism, they can support a child by not pressuring them to speak because this can increase their anxiety and stress levels. Schools can allow time for speech therapy and counselling so the child can get the support that they need, and they can allow for smaller class sizes, because these tend to be less anxiety-inducing and overwhelming for children with selective mutism. In addition, schools can allow the child with the condition to sit near the teacher or a friend because this can help reduce their anxiety and concerns, also schools can allow hand gestures as well as nonverbal communication, and teachers need to be aware of bullying. In my experience, some of the things that I’ve done in the past to support children with selective mutism is sit them away from the louder members of the class that were causing them anxiety, so they could relax a little. And it’s also useful to remember the student's likes and dislikes so when you interact with them, you’re not adding to their anxiety. For example, with one particular student I used to support, they didn’t like anyone sitting next to them or near them so when I was supporting them with their work, I always remembered to sit on the other side of the table and even then, I wasn’t right up close to the table, I allowed there to be some space between me and the student. This helped the student to relax and I didn’t end up adding to their anxiety. As a result, if you’re a teaching assistant or aspiring educational psychologist working in education, then if you have a child with selective mutism in your class then it can be useful for you to consider how your own actions and those of other students and your peers can influence the anxiety of that particular student. Not only might this allow you to benefit the student with selective mutism, but you’ll be developing your reflective skills too. A skill set that is flat out critical if you want to become a qualified educational psychologist in the future. Finally, a side note on class sizes. When I was working in special educational needs, class sizes are naturally smaller with only about 15 students per class, so this can be helpful and less overwhelming. Yet depending on the other needs of the student, class size isn’t as important because again, I’ve worked with other students with special educational needs who can thrive in a class of around 30 students and conversations with other professionals informed me that the root cause of this student’s anxiety wasn’t the classroom size or other students. It was the school environment itself. Therefore, this is a useful reminder that we can know the general facts and ways to support a student with a particular condition, like selective mutism, but our work must always be individualised and it’s important to get to know a student or client. This allows us to get to know their unique triggers, fears, anxieties and hopes for the future. As much as our workload might make us want to generalise in our clinical work, it’s important that we always put the client first and foremost, like the vast majority of professionals do. Clinical Psychology Conclusion This was another episode that was a lot of fun for me to research, write about and reflect on, because I’ve had two periods of selective mutism in my life. It is so frustrating, annoying and looking back they were funny in a sad kind of way. And a minor side note, people with selective mutism who speak more than one language can actually still speak the other language at times in an environment where they’re typically a selective mute. For example, if a child can speak English and French, if they’re selectively mute at school, then they might still be able to communicate in French but not English. I mentioned this because when I had my selective mute experiences, I could still talk in French but not English. Anyway, after working in SEN education and learning more about my own trauma, it was a lot of fun to investigate selective mutism more and consider how aspiring and qualified clinical and educational psychologists can support individuals with the condition. As a brief reminder, selective mutism is a rare childhood anxiety disorder that causes a child to become unable to speak in certain situations and/ or to certain people when they’re exposed to a particular trigger. Also, selective mutism is not a form of shyness even though a person with the condition can appear very shy, and it’s flat out wrong to assume that selective mutism is a choice. It is not. The child just cannot speak. Nonetheless, as we’ve seen in today’s episode, with the right support and treatment, a child can overcome their selective mutism to develop more adaptive coping mechanisms, reduce their anxiety and most importantly, thrive. I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET CBT For Anxiety: A Clinical Psychology Introduction to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Anxiety. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Driessen, J., Blom, J. D., Muris, P., Blashfield, R. K., & Molendijk, M. L. (2020). Anxiety in children with selective mutism: a meta-analysis. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 51(2), 330-341. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/selective-mutism Iimura, D., Tsujita, N., Aoki, M., & Hagihara, H. (2025). Meta-analysis of behavioral treatments for selective mutism: findings from selective mutism questionnaire (SMQ) and school speech questionnaire (SSQ). Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 19(1), 40. Koskela, M., Ståhlberg, T., Yunus, W. M. A. W. M., & Sourander, A. (2023). Long-term outcomes of selective mutism: a systematic literature review. BMC psychiatry, 23(1), 779. Muris, P., & Ollendick, T. H. (2021). Current challenges in the diagnosis and management of selective mutism in children. Psychology research and behavior management, 159-167. Poole, K. L., Cunningham, C. E., McHolm, A. E., & Schmidt, L. A. (2021). Distinguishing selective mutism and social anxiety in children: a multi-method study. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 30(7), 1059-1069. Steains, S. Y., Malouff, J. M., & Schutte, N. S. (2021). Efficacy of psychological interventions for selective mutism in children: A meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials. Child: care, health and development, 47(6), 771-781. White, J., & Bond, C. (2022). The role that schools hold in supporting young people with selective mutism: a systematic literature review. Journal of research in special educational needs, 22(3), 232-242. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.

In a previous podcast episode, What is the Menopause for Psychologists, we learnt about the menopause, how it impacts people and how educational and clinical psychologists can use this knowledge to improve lives. In this clinical psychology podcast episode, I want to go one step further and really drill down into how the menopause can impact a person’s mental health. By the end of this psychology podcast episode, you’ll understand how the menopause harms mental health, what is brain fog and other signs of the menopause and we’ll touch on how to support someone going through the menopause. If you enjoy learning about mental health across the lifespan, biological psychology and applied psychology, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Biological Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What is the Menopause? To ensure that we’re all on the same page, I want to remind us what the menopause is before we explore how this natural biological process can impact people’s mental health. As a result, the menopause is the time when periods stop and people can no longer naturally get pregnant, and this leads to a wide range of positive and negative impacts on our mind and body. Also, it’s important to talk about the menopause because whilst there are some symptoms that are very well-known, like a hot flush, there are other symptoms that aren’t as well-known. In addition, menopause can impact a person for years before their periods fully end. As well as some people might not notice the effects of the menopause whereas other people can find them really difficult to handle and this can lead to negative mental health outcomes. This is why it’s important to be aware of the menopause, know the symptoms and understand that experiencing the menopause will get better over time with the right support as well as treatment. Furthermore, in terms of who experiences the menopause, it commonly impacts females in their 40s and 50s. As well as it is possible to have early onset menopause, which is when your periods stop before the age of 45, or late onset menopause. This is when your periods stop after the age of 55. On a final introductory note, I want to mention that the reason why I’m trying to be gender-inclusive when it comes to the menopause is because trans and non-binary people can also go through the menopause depending on their age, the biological sex they were assigned at birth, any hormone treatments that they’ve taken in the past or currently taking as well as if they’ve had any gender-affirming surgeries or treatments. This is important to note because experiencing the menopause can be even more distressing for transgender and non-binary people because it might increase feelings of gender dysphoria and the associated negative mental health impacts. As well as treatment and support for the menopause when you’re transgender can be even more difficult because the services might not meet your needs or they aren’t inclusive. What are the Physical Effects of Menopause? Briefly before we explore menopause and mental health for the rest of the episode, I want to take a moment to introduce the physical effects of menopause. These effects can be different for everyone but they can include night sweats, hot flushes, changes to their periods, dry skin or eyes, increased sensitivity to stimuli, vaginal dryness, pain, discomfort and itching. This dryness can be made worse with sex. Furthermore, the physical effects of menopause can include joint pain, feeling more clumsy than usual, feeling dizzy and vertigo, headaches, hearing buzzing or ringing in the ears, numbness or tingling in feet, arms, hands or legs, hair loss or hair growth and changes in body shape. These physical symptoms can impact a person’s mental health so it’s important that we acknowledge the impact of physical health on our mental health. For instance, a person might be stressed or tired from coping with the physical discomfort and pain of menopause. Equally, a person might feel self-conscious or like they need to avoid certain situations or places because they don’t want others to see the physical symptoms of menopause. How does the Menopause Impact Mental Health? It should go without saying but everyone’s experience of mental health during menopause will be individualised and differ in terms of symptoms and severity. This is useful to point out because someone might be struggling with minor brain fog during the menopause but if they’re able to function across a range of domains of life, like work, relationships and their home life, then they might not need to see a mental health professional. Yet if someone is struggling with their mental health and it’s negatively impacting their life so they can’t function, then it might be a very good idea to seek out professional support. As a result, in the rest of this episode, we’ll learn about symptoms like low mood, anxiety, anger, brain fog amongst other symptoms of mental health difficulties during the menopause. Then we’ll investigate how the menopause can impact existing mental health conditions and more. How Can Menopause Impact Self-Critical Thoughts? The menopause can have a massive impact on a person’s self-esteem for a range of reasons. For example, they’re experiencing all these changes, their quality of life is decreasing because of hot flushes and all the other physical and mental health symptoms and their connection to their womanhood is changing. For some people, the ability to have a period is very important to their identity as a woman, so the inability to have a period and being infertile can be very distressing. As a result of this large impact on self-esteem, people going through the menopause might experience thoughts like they’re less confident and capable than they used to be, they can’t trust themselves or their own judgement, and they don’t have any value or they’re worthless anymore. Another set of negative thoughts about themselves can include that the menopause makes them less attractive, relevant or important than they used to be. A person might be self-conscious about the effects that the menopause is having on their personality, mind and body. As well as they might feel like they’re lonely, isolated or no one cares about them. A final set of negative thoughts include grief over your old self, feeling like the best parts of your life are over, as well as feeling anxious or sad that they’re getting old. If you’re going through the menopause, these feelings can be overwhelming and hard to cope with, so it’s important that mental health support is provided to help people deal with these self-critical thoughts. Since over time and with the right support, these feelings can be reduced or gotten rid of entirely. On the whole, the menopause can harm mental health because it can lead to people feeling bad about themselves. They might believe that they cannot trust their own judgement, they’re less confident or capable than before and they’re grieving for their old self amongst other negative thoughts. If you apply this to clinical psychology, then I want to mention here that at first, especially if you’re a male clinical psychologist, you might believe that you need to rework your entire way of working just because the root of the client’s mental health difficulties is the menopause, but I don’t believe that’s entirely true. Of course, you will need to individualise your psychological treatment to the client’s needs like always. Yet even though the client is going through the menopause, you still need to help the client grow a more resilient and stable sense of self and help them come to terms with their new reality, similar to how you would with any other client going through a major life event. And having knowledge about the menopause, what it is, how it works and how it impacts mental health can be a great way to support a client and have some understanding of what they’re going through. How Does Menopause Impact Feelings of Numbness or Emptiness? Another way how menopause impacts a person is by making them feel like they’re losing themselves, or a person undergoing menopause doesn’t feel things or emotions as strongly as they used to. This means that a person might not enjoy things that they used to, they might believe that their mind or personality is broken or lost, or they’re emotionless or indifferent about things they used to care about. Equally, the person undergoing to the menopause might be dissatisfied with their life without knowing why, they might believe everything is pointless and they might be unable to socialise or enjoy seeing other people. A final set is people might not have the same sexual interest or desire as they did before the menopause and they might feel like they don’t have the same levels of affection, empathy and warmth for others as before the menopause, even for the people they love. This is important for us to focus on for a moment from an identity perspective, because your identity was centred around being active and always doing a lot of things. Then during the menopause, you find that you don’t enjoy activities or doing things as much as you used to, this is likely to be very jerking and it will harm your mental health. You would have lost a massive part of who you are and this might make you feel very numb and empty as a person, and this is only because you’re going through the menopause. As a person, this will likely be distressing because you might panic about if you’ll ever enjoy those activities again, if you’ll ever be able to be busy again and enjoy it, and most importantly, you’ll likely panic about who you are if you aren’t busy and doing activities. This is why some identity work might be useful from a psychological perspective. However, if we explicitly apply this for aspiring and qualified clinical psychologists, then using our toolkit of psychological techniques, like behavioural activation, we need to give clients hope for a better future and we need to guide them towards getting back into the activities they love. Or we need to help give them the tools to find new passions, new interests and create a new identity for themselves so they can fill the gaps that were lost during the menopause. How Does Menopause Impact Anger? One cultural narrative that I always dislike aimed at women is the idea of women being horrible, angry people during periods and that their biology makes them foul to be around. That isn’t true and it is a harmful narrative to push about women. Anyway, a third way how menopause can impact people is that people undergoing menopause might be more frustrated, irritable and angry compared to usual, or that things that didn’t used to bother them, now do. As well as their anger might be difficult to control or predict, they might feel scared or guilty or confused about feeling angry. Even more so if this is out of character for the person. This is even more likely to happen if their experience of the menopause isn’t being listened to or taken seriously. Something that is unfortunately, and rather disgustingly, all too common. Nonetheless, it’s important to realise that anger is a normal and healthy response that can actually help us in certain situations. Therefore, whilst anger can be difficult to cope with, it’s important that aspiring and qualified psychologists work with clients to understand the root of their anger, understand that it’s a healthy and normal reaction to express and how they can deal with their anger in a more adaptive way if needed. This would benefit clients because it would reduce their guilt and self-critical thoughts about their actions that would harm their mental health. What is Brain Fog During Menopause? Brain fog is a very common symptom of menopause because it can negatively impact a person’s thought processes, memory as well as concentration. This means that a person with brain fog might lose things more often, forget what you’re talking about in the middle of saying it, being easily distracted or forget things like numbers, appointments or names. In addition, someone with brain fog might not be able to think as clearly or quickly as before, they might struggle to find the right words or explain themselves and they might go to places or rooms and then forget why they went there in the first place. As well as they might struggle with motivation or switching between tasks. Now this is important to bear in mind because generally speaking, the menopause starts between the ages of 45 and 55. This is still within a person’s working life. Therefore, it doesn’t really matter what sort of job you do, whether you’re an office worker, a teacher, a psychologist or personal assistant. You still need to be able to concentrate, remember information and explain yourself clearly and professionally. Brain fog can rob you of these abilities and for me, that is terrifying. As a result, it’s little wonder that brain fog can be very difficult to cope with because a lot of people feel angry and frustrated about not being able to think how they used to. As well as people might be worried that they have a neurological condition or dementia so this can make people feel even worse about themselves, and it can make them anxious or self-conscious around others at work. If we apply this knowledge to educational and clinical psychology, then brain fog is important to know about because within the mental health and educational services we work in, we might have a peer going through the menopause. This means they might experience brain fog, they might forget things, make mistakes and their work performance might decrease. Understandably whilst this might "harm" the service because it means productivity might decrease, clients and cases might be delayed and other issues might arise. We shouldn't be angry at the woman because this isn't her fault. Instead, we need to bring some of the compassion, empathy and non-judgemental attitude from the therapy room into our working environment. We need to be kind to the person experiencing brain fog, we need to support them and we need to challenge people who are being unfair. Of course, these errors are likely to be frustrating because it creates more work for everyone else. Yet the menopause doesn't last forever, but if you shout, berate or belittle the person with brain fog, then the harm that you do to your working relationship can last forever. And I know from personal experience, and if we draw on Ecological Systems theory, if there's a disruption or degrading of relationships between peers, then this can create a ripple effect that negatively impacts other areas and people. For example, if there's a breakdown in the relationship between senior management and teachers or a psychologist because they're experiencing the menopause and brain fog, with senior management failing to understand how it impacts a person. Then the working environment is likely to be more stressful for the teacher or psychologist, so they might have to put more effort into covering themselves and preventing themselves from getting into trouble with senior management. Instead of them focusing as much on their students or their clients, and their therapeutic work or teaching quality might suffer as a result. This is why it's important to be understanding, supportive and compassionate to peers going through menopause and experiencing really awful symptoms like brain fog. How Does Menopause Impact Sleep? As I spoke about in a previous podcast episode “How Does a Consistent Sleep Schedule Improve Mental Health?”, sleep is a very important factor in maintaining our mental health. If your sleep gets disturbed or if you experience too much sleep deprivation then this can negatively impact your mental health and make symptoms even worse. Therefore, sleep problems are very common during menopause and people might find that they struggle to get to sleep or that they wake up a lot. This can happen because of night sweats as well as hot flushes, or the anxiety and low mood associated with menopause can also disrupt sleep. As a result, it’s important that you try to develop a consistent sleep problem, you learn about good sleep hygiene and if the reason for sleep problems is related to anxiety or panic, then it can be useful to talk to a mental health professional. Since after these anxious symptoms are dealt with, a person’s sleep quality should improve. Personally, if we apply this knowledge to clinical psychology, then I like to compare a consistent sleep schedule as a type of mental health first aid. Since during the worst of my Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and my anorexia, my inability to sleep and my weird sleep schedule really did harm my mental health. It was only when I forced myself into a more consistent sleep schedule that I was able to improve my sleep, my mental health and it decreased the worst of my symptoms. Therefore, for aspiring and qualified clinical psychologists, it can be really important to address sleep early on in therapy, because if a client is coming to therapy dysregulated, tired and unable to focus then they aren’t going to be in the right headspace to engage with therapy as much as if they were fully rested and were sleeping well. Of course, some of their sleeping difficulties will be tied to their mental health, but sometimes it might not be. For example, in menopause, the sleep problems tend to be down to the physical symptoms and they can make mental health symptoms worse. It stands to reason that if you target the sleep problems then you might be able to prevent the mental health symptoms from getting worse. Just some thoughts. How Does Menopause Impact Anxious Feelings? Another common feeling during the menopause is anxiety, and this can make people worry a lot about themselves, others and the world or their future, people might be scared for no clear reason as well as they might be scared or unable to do things that they used to do. For example, their anxiety might stop them from driving, going to work or doing social activities with friends and loved ones. Equally, anxiety might make someone going through the menopause to become paranoid, experience overwhelm, make them think a lot about bad memories or regrets. As well as they might experience heart palpitations or tightness in their chests, they might have tension or a lump in their throat and they might experience phobias. Whether these are new or menopause might make pre-existing phobias more severe. A final set of reasons how menopause can impact anxiety is it can make people experience panic attacks, especially at night or at the same time as a hot flush, people might be bothered by things that they never used to worry about, and they might experience intrusive thoughts. These are distressing thoughts, urges or feelings that keep popping into someone’s mind and they don’t go away. This is another important reminder about why it’s important to learn about menopause and mental health, because whenever you typically think about menopause, we always think about the hot flushes and not anxiety. As well as if we apply this information to clinical psychology, then at first, we might want to just treat this as we do with any other form of anxiety. We would offer the client individualised treatment, do some behavioural experiments and other cognitive interventions. Yet when it comes to anxiety that is rooted in a client’s menopause then we do need to adapt our approach because there is a critical factor that separates more “traditional” anxiety and menopause anxiety. The menopause, the changes and the things that the people is typically anxious about is actually happening to the client. This is different from more “traditional” anxiety because if you’re supporting someone with social anxiety, then the client will typically have anxious feelings about “what if” a person judges me and everyone will stare at me if I go to that party or social event. These are all anxious feelings that aren’t based in reality. They are concerns and fears about things that haven’t happened. Anxiety that’s linked to the menopause is similar, but if a client is anxious about their work performance decreasing because of their feelings of overwhelm, their brain fog and the other cognitive difficulties associated with menopause, and they’ve already received a written warning because of their work decreasing. Then that is a little different. As well as our client can see the biological changes happening to them in real time and they’re experiencing them every day. Therefore, whilst cognitive behavioural interventions can be effective for all forms of anxiety, I strongly believe when it comes to supporting someone with anxiety undergoing the menopause, we do need to take a step back, reflect on how the menopause is impacting our client and actually have an open and honest conversation about menopause. Try to understand the menopause for the client, especially if you’re male, because this will help the client feel listened to, supported and valued. This can have an immensely beneficial impact on the therapeutic alliance. How Does Menopause Impact Depressive Feelings and Suicidal Thoughts? The menopause can have an immense impact on a person’s mood because it can make them feel like they can’t cope with daily life, like life is slow or empty and like there’s a heavy weight or burden on their mind or body. As well as they might feel sad or unhappy more often than usual, they despair or have a feeling of dread about the world or future, they’re emotional or tearful a lot of the time and they’re hopeless about the future. Also, they can’t do the things they normally do and the techniques the client used to use to improve their mood no longer work. In addition, it’s unfortunately common to have suicidal thoughts during menopause, and when this happens, these thoughts about ending their life can be very scary, overwhelming and confusing. Equally, a client might be feeling numb or empty whilst they think about taking their own life. Moreover, a client undergoing menopause might feel very suicidal but then their mood changes quite quickly and they feel okay again. Whilst this is good in terms of it means the client no longer feels suicidal, these thoughts and feelings can be hard to understand and control, or a client might experience these thoughts all the time. It’s important to remind a person going through the menopause that they aren’t alone and things can get better with support, treatment and over time. The same goes when it comes to suicidal thoughts. Personally, whilst I’ll never go through the menopause, I do have a history with suicide so I want to take a few moments to stress that I know what it’s like. I know what it’s like to be in so much emotional pain and suffering that you just want a release, you just want all the hurt and pain to disappear and you want to be at peace. I know what it’s like to feel so numb that you just want to feel something, even the pain of death, and I understand how appealing suicide is because it really can seem like the only way out of the endless suffering that life can become. Yet I promise you that it isn’t endless. I tried to end my own life three times in late 2024, and I’m so glad that I wasn’t successful. Since my mental health and my life has improved so much and I’m so grateful for it. Your life can and will get better too with the right support, treatment and over time. If I had died two years ago then I wouldn’t get to interact with my amazing podcast listeners and readers, I won’t get to learn more about psychology or politics and I wouldn’t have gotten to meet all my friends and more. And most importantly, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy all my boys’ love anime that I’m devouring at the moment. Your life can get better, because I am living proof of it. So please, seek professional mental health support, look after yourself and please do not end your life. You are so much more important and loved and valued than you realise. Ultimately, if we apply this knowledge to clinical psychology then whilst suicide risk is always a part of our therapeutic work and we always ask about it. I think it’s important that we acknowledge that suicidal thoughts and feelings are a natural part of menopause and we need to manage the risk throughout therapy. As well as even within educational psychology, I think it’s important that we ask a member of staff experiencing mental health difficulties, whether it’s related to the menopause or not, if they’re experiencing any suicidal thoughts. Since if you ask them then you are not planting the thought in their head, you’re creating an opportunity for them to speak to you openly and you might be able to refer them or help them get support. This relates to educational psychology because helping a staff member get mental health support will have a great benefit for the children and their education compared to the immensely devastating effect that a suicide will have on the school community. How Does Menopause Impact Existing Mental Health Difficulties? So far in this episode, we’ve focused on mental health difficulties that developed during or after menopause, but what happens during menopause if you already have mental health conditions or difficulties? If a person already has a mental health difficulty before menopause then they can find that menopause impacts the condition. During menopause, the person might find it more difficult to manage their mental health, the things that used to help manage the condition don’t work as well as they used to and the client needs to make changes to their self-care or treatment during menopause. As well as the symptoms of their mental health condition might get worse or they notice new symptoms. On the other hand, some people have reported that during menopause, they don’t find that their mental health condition gets worse, some people argue that the difficulty becomes easier to manage and their mental health doesn’t change too much during menopause. As always, if you’re struggling with your mental health, then please talk to a mental health professional. Building upon this, if we outright apply this section to clinical psychology then this is why I wanted to do this podcast episode. Since the impact of menopause isn’t spoken about and if we have a client who didn’t have menopause at the start of treatment, but let’s say, halfway through they start the menopause and their mental health symptoms change. Then as aspiring or qualified clinical psychologists, we will need to adapt to this knowledge and biological process. As well as we cannot adapt our therapeutic work in light of menopause if we don’t know about it, and that is why podcast episodes like this one are so important. In addition, another thought that just popped into my head is the ending work seen in cognitive behavioural therapy. At the end of CBT, we’re focusing on consolidating and making sure that the client has all the tools and techniques they need in the future to deal with their mental health. If the client is going to experience the menopause, then maybe we should have a brief conversation about it with them, so they know that their mental health changing is okay, normal and it’s a part of the process. And most importantly, they won’t be alone in their struggles. Also, we could give them some links to online resources to help them manage their symptoms when the time comes. Therapy is all about making sure that our clients can deal with whatever the world throws at them, and that includes menopause. How Do You Know Whether Menopause is Causing Your Mental Health Difficulties? Like I always say, your mental health will never have a single cause because mental health never happens in isolation. Neither does menopause, because whilst experiencing menopause, it’s like that people will be coping with other things and challenges too. They might be dealing with relationships, caring responsibilities, children or money worries. Also, the person might have experienced discrimination, trauma, abuse or bereavement and this all interacts with the menopause to further harm a person’s mental health. As a result, it can be really difficult to understand if menopause is the cause, and this is why it’s important to realise that whilst our mental health is often impacted by a mixture of things. If a person gets treatment as well as support for menopause symptoms then they might help a person to feel better able to cope with everything, even if menopause treatment doesn’t help with everything in their life. So please, if you’re going through the menopause and struggling with your mental health, seek professional support. Clinical Psychology Conclusion I always enjoy psychology podcast episodes that focus on topics no one really talks about, because topics like the menopause are so natural, normal and every female goes through it. Yet because of the systemic inequality and the patriarchal world we live in, women and others are typically shamed or silenced into thinking that they’re weird, “crazy” or weak for experiencing these difficulties and “allowing” the menopause to impact their mental health. I really hope that this episode has highlighted how the menopause can negatively impact a person’s mental health, and I’ve given aspiring or qualified psychologists a lot of food for thought about how to use this knowledge to impact lives. Therefore, as a small recap, here are the main ways how menopause can impact mental health: · Feeling anxious · Feeling depressed · Brain · Feeling empty or numb · Anger · Feeling self-critical · Sleep problems · Suicidal feelings. And we also spoke about how menopause can impact existing mental health difficulties too I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Biological Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Brown, L., Hunter, M. S., Chen, R., Crandall, C. J., Gordon, J. L., Mishra, G. D., ... & Hickey, M. (2024). Promoting good mental health over the menopause transition. The Lancet, 403(10430), 969-983. Dotlic, J., Radovanovic, S., Rancic, B., Milosevic, B., Nicevic, S., Kurtagic, I., ... & Gazibara, T. (2021). Mental health aspect of quality of life in the menopausal transition. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 42(1), 40-49. Garg, R., & Munshi, A. (2025). Menopause and mental health. Journal of Mid-life Health, 16(2), 119-123. Hooper, S. C., Marshall, V. B., Becker, C. B., LaCroix, A. Z., Keel, P. K., & Kilpela, L. S. (2022). Mental health and quality of life in postmenopausal women as a function of retrospective menopause symptom severity. Menopause, 29(6), 707-713. https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/menopause-and-mental-health/how-can-menopause-affect-mental-health O'Reilly, K., McDermid, F., McInnes, S., & Peters, K. (2024). “I was just a shell”: Mental health concerns for women in perimenopause and menopause. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 33(3), 693-702. Thurston, R. C., Thomas, H. N., Castle, A. J., & Gibson, C. J. (2025). Menopause as a biological and psychological transition. Nature Reviews Psychology, 4(8), 530-543. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.

Traditionally, whenever we think about grief, we tend to limit it to the loss of a loved one, a social or romantic relationship that we valued but it is now lost and we grieve when we go through traumatic events. Yet a lot of people traditionally don’t acknowledge that LGBT+ individuals grieve for the childhood, adolescence and life that was stolen from them because of the homophobic environment where they grew up, and how they needed to hide themselves for their own safety. This is what I talk about in my podcast episode that talks about the second adolescence that LGBT+ individuals experience after coming out and when they have more control over their lives. Therefore, in this social psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn why is grief part of queer healing, what is queer healing and how we can support and nurture queer people during their healing process. If you enjoy learning about trauma, discrimination and mental health then this will be a brilliant episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Social Psychology: A Guide To Social and Cultural Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Why Is Grief Part of Queer Healing? As I mentioned in the introduction, we tend to limit our understanding of grief to the loss of a loved one but in reality, we can experience grief over a lot of different experiences. Like the loss of friendship, rejection from a potential date, loss of a job and so on. Grief is a very painful experience that starts off as a pain response to the loss of something that we seriously value and the pain of longing for something that we simply cannot have. Then as we heal, we start to move on and experience less pain because of the loss, even if it is something that will always be with us. This connects to LGBT+ individuals because a lot of us adults seriously wish that things had been different for us growing up. I’ve talked about before on the podcast and in my books that I had an awful childhood from an LGBT+ perspective. I lived in an intensely homophobic environment, I was in fear of my life every second or every day and I was constantly being told that “we needed to beat the gay out of people with a big stick”. My mental health was awful, I was self-harming and I was just struggling to survive because of the sheer intensity of the homophobia and how I truly believed if my social environment found out I was gay. I would be killed. This isn’t an uncommon experience for a lot of LGBT+ adults. The majority of LGBT+ adults developed a lot of internalised shame during their childhood and adolescence because they felt different from other people, and the world told them this was wrong. This led LGBT+ people to hide themselves, deny who they were and intentionally or unconsciously try to change who they were because of their difficult adolescence. This is something I actually never thought I would ever admit in public or at all. No one knows this about me. Yet because I was so convinced I was going to die if my environment found out I was gay, I tried to “make myself straight” about three times as a teenager. I remember one of the times I tried to “go straight” by enjoying Hermine Granger and Draco Malfoy fanfiction, because I was really attracted to Tom Felton as a teenager. Of course, it didn’t work at all and it was awful and I never recommend that on anyone, but I wanted to try it just to survive and make sure I didn’t get killed. Ultimately, this leads a lot of LGBT+ people to miss out on meaningful, lovely experiences that our cisgender, straight peers take for granted and always have access to. For example, the majority of my straight friends had their first relationship at 13 years old, they had sex at 16 years old (that’s the age of consent in the UK) and so on. I had my first relationship at 23 years old and I lost my virginity at 24. This leads us onto the second adolescence that a lot of LGBT+ adults experience and I’ve already done a podcast episode on it so I won’t rehash it here. I will give a definition though from that episode. We can define the second adolescence as “the framework for healing and having the freedom to explore what being gay is to that person and they can understand what happened to them and how they can move on in adulthood.” Actually, since I wrote the original podcast episode where I introduced and discussed our second adolescence, I have lived a little more and I have to admit that your second adolescence is amazing, positive and I will always wish I had these experiences in my “actual” adolescence. But they were just as sweet, heartwarming and lovely now at the age of 24. Getting into a relationship for the first time, holding my ex-partner’s hand and kissing them for the first time was so lovely, so wonderful and it was everything I had ever wanted. Not only because of how beautiful my ex was, but also because I could be gay, I could be authentic and I could just experience gay stuff for the first time in my life. It was great to be able to live authentically for a change. Nonetheless, one topic I didn’t mention or stress too much in that original post was the grief portion of the second adolescence. Since the second adolescence is all about healing and giving ourselves the freedom to move and heal beyond the trauma that our younger selves endured growing up in an anti-LGBT+ world and what we wish we could have done for our younger selves. Grieving for what we’ve lost, what other people took from us and for what other people did to us, that is all core to the second adolescence. For example, to be able to heal and actually have a second adolescence, we need to grieve for the opportunities that we never had in our childhood and adolescence, and we need to grieve for the awful wounds that were inflicted upon us instead. I had to grieve for that I was never able or allowed to explore dating or sex in romantic relationships, I grieved how I was never able to ask anyone to Prom and I had to go to Prom with a straight female friend of mine and that was just awful. I hated that so much. I grieved for not being able to add to relationship and dating conversations with my friends, I grieved for never having a “meet the parents” situation and so on. Instead I was abused, had awful mental health and I suffered from chronic shame and fear and it’s foul. And as much as none of us really want to grieve because grief is painful and a lot of us are brilliant at pushing our emotions to one side just so we can survive. If we don’t allow ourselves to grieve then you will never be able to heal and if you leave your trauma unprocessed, then it can become toxic and really harm your mental health. This is why it’s critical that we grieve with and for the younger versions of ourselves. How Do We Grieve For and With Our Younger Selves? After my breakdown in August 2023, I went to private counselling and she recommended that I do this idea of grieving for my younger self, and this is a weird idea to me. I have never heard of this in a clinical psychology lecture, this doesn’t sound empirical and this sounds a little woo-woo. To me, this was a good reminder that psychotherapy is a mixture of science and an art form because grieving for our young selves might make us feel embarrassed or odd but this can be a really powerful tool for processing a form of grief. Reaching out to trained mental health professional is very important too. I’ll talk more about my own experience of grieving for my younger self later on in this episode. The first technique that people can use to grieve for their younger selves is to visualise an image of your younger self. You can bring to mind a particular version that you feel pulled too and it’s important that you really let yourself imagine them. Focus on what they’re wearing, how do they like to spend their time, what are they interested in, what kind of pain are they carrying and so on. After you’ve really imagined what they look and act like, sit with this image and notice what you feel as you see this younger version of yourself and hold onto this image of your younger self as if you are a living being. Personally, when I was grieving for my younger self, I always imagined a terrified 16-year-old child who was crawled up on their bed in a dark room with the curtains closed so no one could see them, hurt them and beat them. They were terrified, alone and convinced they were going to die at any moment. Seeing that younger version of myself used to make me feel sad, terrible and I wanted nothing more than to hug them and talk to them. That’s actually the next tip. The second way how people can grieve for the younger version of themselves is to communicate with the younger self about the experience of growing up in an anti-LGBT+ world. I always did this as a letter so you can do this, or you can imagine they’re sitting in a chair opposite you and you can talk aloud to the younger self. Like the previous activity, make sure you’re holding an image of the younger self in your mind and really let yourself see them and feel their presence. Afterwards, just start sharing with them what you know about their life. Tell them that you understand how scared or terrified or another emotion that they’re feeling, let them know you understand how scary the world seems and acknowledge all their hopes, desires, fears and pain. Give yourself the validation that you were denied as a child. The next step is to offer support and companionship that your younger self likely never received as a kid, so tell them that it isn’t okay that the world and people around them are making them feel this way. As well as mention how valuable and worthy the younger self is and counter some of the evil criticisms and sources of shame that they’re dealing with. In addition, let your younger self know that you’re grieving too about how you wish you could have kissed X that night, you could have asked out Y and you could have held your best friend’s hand when they were scared but you were too scared about being seen as “gay” and so on. Allow yourself to share a lot with your younger self and be empathetic for everything that you were denied for no fault of your own. Finally, for this technique, allow yourself to feel as you have this conversation with your younger self. Notice how you feel for them and what you’re feeling for them and let yourself imagine what it might be like for your younger self to hear what you’re saying to them. Then don’t forget the importance of endings and your parting words, thank your younger self for talking with you today, tell them how you’re trying to heal and live a life now that they could only dream of. Just tell your younger self what you think is important before you say goodbye for now. Personally, this was a very valuable exercise for me that I did twice and it really helped me to incorporate that abandoned, terrified, traumatised part of my self back into myself so I could become whole again. I really recommend that you do this exercise. A final technique how you can grieve for and with your younger self is to reflect on what it was like for you growing up in an anti-LGBT- world. You can do this through journaling or talking out loud. You can explore questions like the following: · What do you wish you didn’t have to endure? · What was life for your younger self like as an LGBT+ person? · How did your younger self feel about themselves? · Was your younger self aware of your LGBT+ identity or feeling that they were different? · And so on. Social Psychology Conclusion Healing as an LGBT+ person takes a lot of effort, energy and time. There were moments on my queer healing journey where I thought I would never heal, I would always be traumatised, terrified and alone in the world. Yet it does get better because I put in the effort, I sort out the right counsellor and I really did move heaven and earth to help myself move on. As well as I met some wonderful people along the way that helped me more than they will ever know. And yes, my child trauma because of the intense homophobia destroyed those relationships, but those relationships impacted and helped me more than those people will ever know and I love them for it. Even if they will probably avoid me like the plague if we ever meet again. Healing is possible. As a result, whether you go through the three techniques and exercises that I spoke about above or you do something similar, it’s important to find ways to be with, express and move through your queer grief. Since if you don’t go through your grief, you will never be able to heal from the impact of the anti-LGBT+ world we grew up in and are still currently living in. As much as we all wish it wasn’t, healing is a gradual, slow process of unpacking what happened to us. It’s important that we start slow and small and we do it for your younger selves. Let’s give our younger selves the love, justice and compassion that we were denied. I really hope you enjoyed today’s social psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Social Psychology: A Guide To Social and Cultural Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Alexander, Q. D., & Carruthers, C. A. (2022). “How We Are with Each Other”: Conversations on Queer Healing and Black Liberation. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 9(3), 209-215. Arani, A., & Winget, A. R. (2022). Introduction to “Queer healing and transformative justice”: A special issue of QED. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 9(3), 1-9. Awadalla, A. (2022). The Magic of the Margins: Rethinking Healing from the Perspective of Queer Exile. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 9(3), 194-200. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/second-adolescence/202306/the-grief-in-queer-healing Singh, A. A., Finan, R., & Estevez, R. (2023). Queer and trans resilience: Moving from affirmation to liberation in our collective healing. In Identity as resilience in minoritized communities: Strengths-based approaches to research and practice (pp. 1-22). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.

This week at the time of writing marked the second school-based job interview that I’ve been in that required me to demonstrate my knowledge of restorative action plans and my awareness of a restorative culture within a school setting. It turned out my knowledge was already pretty good, but I wasn’t sure what a restorative culture was, I had no idea how to concisely phrase it in an interview and I wasn’t able to mention the full extent of my knowledge. A lot of other aspiring psychologists and qualified educational psychologists are not aware of what a restorative culture is within a school, much less how to cultivate a restorative culture. Therefore, in this educational psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what is a restorative culture in schools, how to develop one and I’ll focus on how to phrase this knowledge in a potential interview. If you enjoy learning about educational psychology, improving classroom behaviour and psychology job interviews, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Gamification of Autism: A Guide to Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Mental Health. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What is a Restorative Culture in Schools? Restorative approaches offer schools a flexible and innovative alternative to the punitive systems and sanctions that are typically used in schools, like detentions, exclusions and isolations, to manage behaviour in schools. These approaches aren’t a soft solution but they’re an additional tool that schools can use to create positive outcomes from negative behaviour and actively reinforce the view that inappropriate behaviour isn’t acceptable and it needs to be addressed. In addition, restorative approaches were first used by the native cultures of New Zealand because communities would come together to discuss wrongdoings and agree reparation. Then these approaches grew to become used in the criminal justice systems of Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. These restorative approaches have been found to significantly reduce reoffending and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of crimes. Afterwards, restorative approaches started to be used in schools in New Zealand and Australia in the 1990s and in the UK, Lewisham Borough Council subsequently piloted the use of restorative approaches in schools with great success. These approaches quickly spread to a range of other schools. In addition, restorative approaches are used in schools to help deal with bullying, truancy, classroom disruptions, friendship disputes, anti-social behaviour, relationship breakdown between staff and pupil as well as building a stronger sense of community and belonging. Furthermore, compared to traditional punitive interventions, restorative interventions see conflict as causing harm to a community and an individual, these interventions give the harmed party or those affected a chance to participate, encourages accountability, reintegration, and responsibility so this promotes change, and it brings those affected together to consider all viewpoints and find a solution together. Personally, this is why I am a massive supporter of restorative approaches because let’s use the example of a classroom disruption where a child is shouting and screaming. This will impact a lot of people outside of the traditional viewpoint of the classroom disruption only impacts the child-teacher relationship. It will impact the staff in the other corridors and classrooms, it will impact all the children in the classroom and it might impact other children in other classrooms. Traditional interventions do not take this information into account, and no child screams and shouts for no reason. There was a function behind this behaviour. This is why restorative approaches allow you to understand the viewpoint, the reasons and why this happened in the first place, so you can understand how to prevent it in the future. And if you just throw the child in isolation for the day because of the shouting and screaming then they aren’t going to learn the devastating impact their behaviour had on others, it will not help them find better, more adaptive coping mechanisms for the future and it will not prevent this disruptive behaviour from happening again. In fact, it might actually make it worse because if the child is simply thrown in isolation. Then it doesn’t allow the child to learn, sort out the distress and the root cause of the behaviour so they’re likely to be angry at the teacher, the teacher is likely to be annoyed at the student for disrupting their lesson and this will harm the pupil-teacher relationship. Therefore, in the future, the pupil might be less engaged in the teacher’s lessons, they might be more disruptive and they might cause more difficulties. When in reality, all this drama and trouble could be avoided if the student was simply allowed to be listened to and understood and the student was helped to understand the harm of their shouting and screaming. On the whole, restorative approaches can lead to a lot of positive outcomes in schools because schools that incorporate restorative approaches into their whole-school culture report significant benefits for staff as well as pupils. As well as restorative approaches focus on the following questions: · What happened instead of what have you done · Who has been harmed or affected instead of why have you done that · How can we involve everyone who has been affected in repairing the harm and finding a way forward instead of who is to blame · How can everyone do things differently in the future instead of what is the appropriate response to deter and punish the person at fault so they don’t do the behaviour again. As you can see restorative approaches and their mindset focus on the solution instead of the problem, so everyone can find a solution, decrease the chance of it happening again and making sure that everyone is okay for the long-term. What Are Some Other Benefits of Restorative Approaches in Schools? Some other benefits of embedding restorative approaches in schools can include improvements in learning and teaching. Since restorative approaches reduce time spent dealing with re-occurring conflicts and they have a positive impact on attainment. This is because it means that teachers can actually focus on teaching instead of being classroom managers and having to deal with detentions and other ineffective punitive measures. As well as students can focus on learning. Restorative approaches can improve the learning environment because it decreases exclusions and improves attendance at school, it reduces youth criminal anti-social behaviour, it reduces conflict and behaviour that disrupts the learning environment, and it ensures that pupils develop and consolidate valuable life skills. And restorative approaches improve job satisfaction amongst staff. Now, I really want to take a moment to focus on the increase of job satisfaction amongst staff. This is critical in education for a wide range of reasons, but I want to focus on the recruitment and retention angle. In the UK, and many other countries around the world, there is a massive recruitment problem when it comes to teachers and from a young age, students are told point-blank by teachers themselves do not become teachers, do anything else. As well as you only need to look at the employment and government figures to realise that the vast, vast majority of teachers and other staff members in schools leave within five years, if not within the first year. This is one of the factors behind the degradation and annihilation of the UK’s education system. Therefore, if restorative approaches are an effective way to improve staff job satisfaction, retain them and prevent teachers and other staff from leaving the profession then this is a major reason why we have to incorporate restorative approaches into schools. Moreover, it makes pupils feel heard and valued because it develops empathy in harmers as they hear how their actions have impacted others, it encourages students to take responsibility for their behaviour, it meets pupils’ needs when they’re harmed, it empowers young people to be part of the solution to the problem as well as it provides the opportunity to learn from the experience in a safe environment. Personally, something that I am starting to notice more and more as I explore this topic is that essentially, restorative approaches are about bringing in the empathetic, compassionate and non-judgemental clinical skills that we use in psychological work and embedding them within the school to create a fairer, more understanding and compassionate educational system that actually allows children to thrive. Lastly, restorative approaches can benefit school relationships because these approaches focus on restoring broken relationships and building positive relationship skills. The restorative approaches build these skills by developing emotional intelligence, it encourages adults to listen to young people and allow young people the opportunity to feel heard, it promotes healthy relationships between staff, parents and students, as well as it repairs, maintains and builds relationships between students and their peers. In my opinion, the brilliant thing about restorative approaches in schools is that it teaches children life skills that aren’t being taught at the moment. Of course, restorative approaches complement the national UK curriculum in resilience building, Citizenship and PSHE and emotional literacy and intelligence, but the current teaching in schools just doesn’t go far enough. Children are struggling with how to respect others, how to develop healthy relationships and how to understand others. This is leading to a wide range of negative impacts and crimes, and as I’ve written about in my rape-focused podcast episodes if we teach children and young people how to have consensual, respectful and healthy relationships then the number of sex crimes will decrease. Thankfully, restorative approaches in schools helps educators to provide teaching, knowledge and emotional intelligence for young people. Summary of Benefits of Restorative Approaches in Schools On the whole, we can summarise the benefits of using restorative approaches in schools as the following: · restorative approaches benefit students because these approaches meet their needs when they’re harmed, it encourages them to take responsibility for their behaviour, it enables pupils to develop and consolidate life skills, hear how their actions have impacted others, be a part of the solution, learn from the experience and makes them feel listened to and valued through the process. · restorative approaches benefit staff because it repairs, builds and maintains relationships between pupils and their peers, it enhances a positive learning environment, reduces time spent dealing with recurring conflict and promotes healthy relationships between pupils, parents and staff. As well as it promotes job satisfaction, develops emotional intelligence and has positive impacts on attainment. · These approaches benefit the whole school because it reduces exclusions and the need for internal sanctions, increases school attendance and attainment, reduces disruptive behaviour, creates a greater sense of school community, creates a positive learning environment, builds stronger relationships, reduces staff absences and better support for staff and better support from parents. How Can Schools Implement Restorative Approaches? As an aspiring or qualified educational psychologist, or even in a job interview for a school-based role, you might be asked about how to implement a restorative approach in your school. Therefore, in the rest of this psychology podcast episode, we’ll learn how to implement a restorative approach in the school and how you might phrase this understanding in a job interview. How Do You Implement A Restorative Culture in Schools Using A Shared and Restorative Language? Firstly, to implement a restorative approach in your school, you need to have a shared language because schools need to identify the appropriate language that will be used throughout the whole school by staff and pupils. This is because poor language can damage relationships and cause both staff and pupils to become defensive, so this can create inappropriate responses that can easily lead to poor behaviour. Some examples of poor language by teachers can include: · Why is it always you? · He’s just like his brother. He’s nothing like his sister. · I can’t do anything with that kid. · I’m not interested. · What have you done now? Some examples of poor language by students can include: · We were only joking · It wasn’t my fault · Other teachers let me do that · It’s not fair · They wouldn’t listen to me Whilst this language is perfectly normal within a school and I’ve heard it a thousand times over my years in education, this is all problematic when it comes to creating a restorative approach within a school. Since the majority of the poor language by the teachers focuses on the problem, blaming the student and not focusing on the context and why it happened. Whereas the majority of the poor language from students focus on them not taking responsibility for their behaviour or understanding that their actions harmed others. These are all the opposite of what a restorative approach hopes to achieve. On the other hand, restorative language focuses on using open-ended questions as well as reflective statements to encourage productive discussions and problem-solving. This is another way of de-escalating conflict. Some examples of good open-ended questions to use can include: · How did you feel when… · How do you feel now? · What happened? · What happened before that? · What happened next? · What did you think when… · What do you think now? · How can we put this behind us? · What can we do so this doesn’t happen again? I’ll elaborate more on this point in a moment, but these questions, the wording and everything else that I’m about to mention will be very useful in job interviews for you, so please take note. Another important aspect of restorative language is assertive statements because these allow teachers to set limits without creating conflict. For example, a teacher might openly say that they’re going to challenge a student about what they just said because it was inappropriate so the teacher and the student need to talk about it. Then the teacher can be assertive and add when the student behaves that way in their class it makes teaching very hard and the teacher feels disrespected and frustrated. This is effective because it allows the teacher to feel heard and valued and set firm limits, it allows the student to start to understand the harm that they’ve caused and none of that wording was about blame or creating more conflict. Finally, teachers and pupils should use “I” Statements because it helps both staff and students to state their side of a situation without laying blame or accusing anyone else. This is something that I’ve written about a lot over the years when it comes to reducing conflict. On the whole, restorative language is about being open and respectful because it allows people to express themselves without blaming or accusing others. This means that everyone is less likely to become defensive or aggressive and this sets the stage for conflict to be resolved effectively using communication skills and empathy. Personally, in terms of using this information in an interview, this section is immensely useful because there are always interview jobs in schools (at least for the roles I go for) that involve something about deescalating. I tend to answer having an open, honest and compassionate conversation that allows me to understand why a situation happened and what we can do in the future to prevent it. Yet now I can use the information from this section to improve my answer, be more detailed and use more examples. For instance, I could give an interview answer along the lines of: “To de-escalate the situation I would use techniques from restorative approaches so I would focus on having an open, honest and empathetic conversation with the student, because there had to be a reason behind the disruptive behaviour. I would ask questions like, what happened, what did you think when the situation happened, how did you feel when it happened and how can we put this behind us? These questions will allow me to understand what happened without blaming or accusing the student of anything. This means the student is less likely to get aggressive or defensive so we can have a productive discussion and use our problem-solving skills to identify ways to reduce this disruptive behaviour from happening again. In addition, I would encourage the student and staff member to use “I” statements so they can explain their sides of the situation without blame or accusation. As well as I would use “assertive statements” to set limits without creating conflict.” That was a mock interview answer that I just created off the top of my head, but I hope that it starts to get you thinking about how to use this information in job interviews, job applications and tasks to help you show off your knowledge and understanding. What are Peer Support Programmes for a Restorative Culture in Schools? Another way how educational psychologists can work with schools to create a restorative culture is to use peer support programmes. Since peer support programmes help students to build skills and it creates an emotionally literate culture in the school that a restorative culture needs to be able to thrive. Therefore, schools typically use either one or a mixture of peer mentoring, peer mediation and peer restorative facilitators. Furthermore, the overall benefits of peer support programmes can include that it teaches students life skills, it promotes a culture of problem solving as well as cooperation, it raises self-confidence and self-esteem, it gives young people the opportunity to take responsibility, it creates open discussions on bullying and how it can be dealt with, it builds resilience in children and young people, it allows young people to resolve conflicts for themselves without involving adults and this saves teachers’ time, and it increases social skills and integration. What are Peer Mentoring Programmes in Schools? Peer mentoring programmes are relationship-based support schemes that match older and younger students together, and I’m sure that a lot of psychology students are familiar with this sort of scheme. I know when I was at university, there was a peer mentoring scheme where final year students could be paired up and mentor first year students. As well as when I reached third year, it was strongly encouraged that we joined the mentoring scheme so we could support younger students. Anyway, peer mentoring programmes help students to get advice and older students serve as role models for younger students. As well as peer mentors can offer short- or long-term support who might be experiencing a variety of difficulties that negatively impact their school life. This reminds me when I used to be a SEN teaching assistant and I was supporting a diabetic child, one of my ideas to help him adjust to his new diagnosis was for him to be paired up with another type 1 diabetic student from the mainstream school. This would provide the SEN diabetic child with someone of the same age to talk to, share strategies with and it just might have been a little more helpful than a bunch of adults saying that everything was going to be fine. It might have carried more weight if the same information came from another young person. In addition, peer mentors can be used in both primary and secondary schools (I think for our international audience that is junior high and high school), and peer mentoring programmes can be tailored to meet the individual needs of the school. For example, a playground buddy, support the transition of new students into the school and a peer tutor. Learning about peer mentoring programmes are important for aspiring and qualified educational psychologists because they highlight how to improve the sense of community within a school, how to effectively support students without hiring or delegating more staff and it can help the school to develop a supportive culture between staff and students. What are Peer Restorative Facilitators? Whereas peer restorative facilitators are when students in older year groups are trained to become peer conference facilitators. This is a critical part of a whole school approach to restorative approaches because it saves time spent by staff managing low level conflict because trained students can manage some of these issues. As well as this helps reinforce the shared language point from earlier because both the students and the staff are using the same practices to resolve conflict. Personally, I think this is definitely something that I could talk about in psychology job interviews in the future, because this isn’t a topic that is very well known about. Therefore, this might help me to seem extra knowledgeable, creative and it might help me standout in interviews compared to other candidates. As well as I can mention how there are nationally recognised courses in the UK for young people to become restorative practitioners, like the Restorative Approaches Practitioner Training developed by SALUS. This training will also help students gain employable skills that will help them thrive in the future. A mock interview answer might include: “To further reinforce the whole school approach to developing a restorative culture, I would work with older students for them to become restorative practitioners using the nationally recognised Restorative Approaches Practitioner Training course developed by SALUS. This benefits the school because it means students can deal with some of the re-occurring low-level disruptive behaviours so staff can focus on teaching, it will give students employable skills and it will help create an emotionally literate culture in the school. This is critical for our restorative approach to work,” As an aspiring educational psychologist, another reason why peer restorative facilitators are interesting to me is because I can see this as a method of boosting motivation, attendance within schools and it can make students feel heard, valued and trusted. A lot of students just don’t feel respected or listened to by teachers and staff members so this is why they can lack motivation to come and apply themselves in education. This is a good solution. As well as if we apply my favourite psychological theory “Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory” then peer restorative facilitators can improve the relationships between the student body and teaching staff, between peers and the student’s individual relationship with the school altogether. What is Peer Mediation? A final peer support programme for developing a restorative culture includes peer mediation. This is a useful intervention that schools can use to de-escalate incidents from potential conflict because peer mediation focuses on creating a constructive and positive agreement by focusing on the future and not the past. And unlike restorative conferencing, mediation can be successful even if no student or staff accepts responsibility for causing the harm. What are Restorative Conversations and Circles? Whilst the two other interventions or methods for developing a restorative culture within a school are specific interventions, restorative conversations and circles are a part of the everyday, smaller practices that schools can embed within their school culture to create a restorative approach at every level. Since restorative conversations and circles can promote emotional literacy and empathy, they can act as early intervention strategies to avoid the need for restorative conferencing, they can build healthy relationships between all members of the school community as well as they can be relatively flexible and informal whilst being very effective at reinforcing appropriate and consistent boundaries. What I personally like about the flexibility and informalness of restorative conversations is that because they’re informal, they are much less likely to make the student defensive, resistant and want to blame others compared to if you take them to a formal room for a serious conversation. You can do these restorative conversations as part of a “corridor chat” or something else that’s informal. Therefore, restorative conversations are, as you might expect, conversations that use restorative language between an adult and one or more young people. These conversations tend to go in the following way: · Hey student name, we need to talk about you being late. · What’s been happening? · What were you thinking or feeling when you were coming to class late? · Now that you’ve had time to think about what’s been happening, what do you think about it now? · Who’s affected by you being late? · What do you need to do to put things right? · What do I (the staff member) need to do to help you? As you can see, this approach to a conversation about lateness isn’t about blame, punishment or making a student feel bad about themselves. This is simply an opportunity to them to explain what happened, why it happened and it gets them to take responsibility for their actions and think about what they can do in the future to ensure this doesn’t keep happening. This is useful for aspiring and qualified psychologists to be aware of because they’re often asked to make recommendations and a lot of an educational psychologist’s work focuses on whole school approaches. Therefore, whilst it’s always useful to focus on the macro-system and the larger impact of the school system on students and staff. It is important to focus on the small actions that can be embedded into basic school practice to help reinforce and develop a larger restorative culture. These small practices can also help to reduce the gap between management and school policy and what’s actually happening on the ground and in classrooms. In terms of psychology job interviews, I think being aware of restorative conversations can be very useful, because it gives you another example to draw on, write about and explain how you would embed restorative conversations into the school as part of a restorative action plan and similar situations. In addition, restorative circles take place between an adult and a group of young people, like a class, and these circles allow an issue to be discussed using restorative language. Also, they help to develop a sense of community responsibility, they educate pupils on restorative principles and practices and how the students themselves fit into these principles, as well as they allow each student to perform a “check in” and “check out” and this helps to create a more respectful and caring environment. Two final benefits are that restorative circles help to tackle classroom disruptions because all students are expected to take responsibility and they help to build better relationships between staff when used as the format for staff meetings. These restorative circles tend to use the following type of questions: · We need to talk about being late to class. To do this we’re going to look at everyone’s needs and see if we can find a way forward. · What’s been happening? · What do you think or feel when someone comes into class late? · Now that you’ve had time to think about what’s been happening, what do you think about it now? · Who are affected by students coming into class late? · What needs to happen to put things right? · What do I (as staff member) need to do to help you? Personally, I really like this approach because if you’re a student and a teacher is telling you that you’re disrupting other students and you’re causing harm to them, are you really going to believe them? I probably would as a child because I loved teachers, but there were likely a lot of other people in my class that wouldn’t believe the teacher. Therefore, by getting the students to tell other students about the harm in their own words, that can be very powerful, useful and it helps students to take responsibility for their actions. Moreover, whilst the questions that a member of staff uses are important because they help to guide the conversation, need it restorative and they help everyone to benefit, they shouldn’t dominate the conversation. Instead, the conversation needs to be dominated by the students so they can have a conversation where there is no blame attached, it is respectful and dignified and the relationship between the students and teacher is maintained, or hopefully strengthened. This is even more important to consider when we remember that simply asking a student “why are you late” can be rather confrontational and it doesn’t help resolve the issue for the future. What is Restorative Justice Conferencing? The final method of how to develop a restorative culture in a school is restorative justice conferencing. This is a formal conference process that requires a higher degree of preparation, planning, structure and follow up. Since this intervention needs a trained facilitator to co-ordinate the process because of the number of people participating and the nature of their roles. For example, social workers, carers, police, family and students. As well as restorative justice conferencing tends to be used in situations like the breakdown of the parent-school relationship, when incidents occur in the wider community, when other restorative practices have failed, the student being re-integrated after exclusion, after an incident and the student is at risk of being excluded, after an assault that isn’t being dealt with by the police, after the breakdown in friendship groups and after incidences of bullying. Furthermore, restorative justice conferencing can be effective because let’s say a student did something seriously wrong in a school, like they broke a window because they were messing around. No one was hurt, it was cleaned up quickly and it didn’t cause any clear harm to any staff or students. Under the traditional punitive system, this student would likely be excluded because they damaged and broke school property. However, if this student went to a restorative justice conference with themselves, the student’s head of year or pastoral manager, their parents, the school caretaker and a conference facilitator. Then they could help the student to realise the harm that the broken window caused to the school and the school community, the school could understand what was happening in the student’s life and why they did it, and they could work together to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. As well as it helps the student to stay in education, learn and they can thrive. Building upon this, the likely consequences for the student who broke the window after a restorative justice conference can include an apology letter to the Head of Year, the student to help caretake after the school and the student to help organise a “safety at school” session for the year group. I like this approach because at least some good actually comes out of this disruptive and negative behaviour, so others don’t make the same mistake. Finally, in future psychology job interviews, this is something I would have to write about in any interview tasks because this sort of pops up from time to time. At least now I can understand and write about the sort of consequences and I can stress the need for helping the student to take responsibility for their actions and compassionately understand how best to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. A mock interview answer might include: “To help a student reintegrate into the school after an exclusion, I would call and coordinate a restorative justice conference. I would facilitate, plan, organise and follow up after the conference. I would ensure that it was attended by myself, the student’s Head of Year, the student and at least one parent. During the conference, I would use restorative language to help understand why the student was excluded in the first place, what they were thinking or feeling during the incident and I would ask how now that they’ve had time to think about the incident, how do they feel about it now. Also, I would ask the student and parent what we all can do together to ensure that the incident doesn’t happen again. This will ensure the student takes responsibility for their actions, they understand the harm they caused and we can productively find solutions to stop it happening again,” Then if I was doing a mock interview answer on another situation, I would write about the consequences and not exclude them. Educational Psychology Conclusion I have really enjoyed today’s podcast episode because this is what I was talking about with my parents when I was really stressed about still being unemployed, I enjoy learning from my job interviews. I realised that one area I was not confident in and my knowledge was lacking in was restorative action plans and how to use restorative approaches within schools. This is why I researched and created today’s podcast episode. I wanted to learn, get better and reflect on how to use this information in job interviews. Since in my experience, it is brilliant if you know the information, but if you can’t explain it in a job interview that comes across as knowledgeable, confident and actionable then it’s next to useless. Therefore, I really enjoyed learning about restorative approaches, understanding how to use them in schools and most importantly, how to possibly talk about them in job interviews. To briefly recap this episode, restorative approaches offer schools a flexible and innovative alternative to the punitive systems and sanctions that are typically used in schools, like detentions, exclusions and isolations, to manage behaviour in schools. These approaches aren’t a soft solution but they’re an additional tool that schools can use to create positive outcomes from negative behaviour and actively reinforce the view that inappropriate behaviour isn’t acceptable and it needs to be addressed. As well as restorative approaches are used in schools to help deal with bullying, truancy, classroom disruptions, friendship disputes, anti-social behaviour, relationship breakdown between staff and pupil as well as building a stronger sense of community and belonging. Finally, to wrap up this episode, if you’re ever in a job interview for a psychology-related role and you’re asked about restorative approaches, please remember: · To write about restorative language- respect, dignity and no blame · The need to help students take responsibility for their actions · Understand the harm that their actions caused · Restorative approaches are about understanding what happened and how to find solutions so the disruptive behaviour doesn’t happen again If you remember those basics at the very least then you should be able to write more correct, confident and knowledgeable answers in your job interviews that just might help you stand out and hopefully get the job. I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Gamification of Autism: A Guide to Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Mental Health. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Educational Psychology References and Further Reading A Guide to Developing a Restorative Culture in Schools by SALUS Hopkins, B. (2023). The restorative classroom: Using restorative approaches to foster effective learning. Routledge. Lodi, E., Perrella, L., Lepri, G. L., Scarpa, M. L., & Patrizi, P. (2021). Use of restorative justice and restorative practices at school: A systematic literature review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(1), 96. Mas-Expósito, L., Krieger, V., Amador-Campos, J. A., Casañas, R., Albertí, M., & Lalucat-Jo, L. (2022). Implementation of whole school restorative approaches to promote positive youth development: Review of relevant literature and practice guidelines. Education Sciences, 12(3), 187. McCluskey, G. (2018). Restorative approaches in schools: Current practices, future directions. In The Palgrave international handbook of school discipline, surveillance, and social control (pp. 573-593). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Weber, C., & Vereenooghe, L. (2020). Reducing conflicts in school environments using restorative practices: A systematic review. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 1, 100009. Zakszeski, B., & Rutherford, L. (2021). Mind the gap: A systematic review of research on restorative practices in schools. School Psychology Review, 50(2-3), 371-387. Gomez, J. A., Rucinski, C. L., & Higgins-D’Alessandro, A. (2021). Promising pathways from school restorative practices to educational equity. Journal of Moral Education, 50(4), 452-470. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.

Ever since I was born, I have always had a stutter (or stammer if we’re using UK English). This meant when I was a child, I had horrific difficulties with speech, forming sentences and I really struggled talking in general. Thankfully, as I’ve gotten older and more comfortable in myself and different situations, I have largely removed my stutter, but this week was a painful reminder at how badly I stutter in new situations. In fact, the other week in a job interview because I was stuttering, the interviewer actually asked me point-blank something along the lines of this role will involve talking to over 200 people in a hall, is that something you can do? I had to literally tell them whilst my interview performance wasn’t showing it, I was fine talking to massive groups of people and delivering large presentations when I was at university. I didn’t get the job and I strongly believe it was clearly because of my stutter and how they treated me as if I was stupid because of it. This reflects the sheer number of myths and misconceptions about stuttering. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what is stuttering, what causes it and how is stuttering treated. As well as what are the myths and misconceptions about stuttering and how can we support people who stutter. If you enjoy learning about speech difficulties, clinical psychology and mental health, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Developmental Psychology: A Guide to Developmental and Child Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What is Stuttering for Psychologists? According to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, stuttering is when someone repeats sounds or syllables, like “mu-mu-mu-mummy”, as a word gets stuck or doesn’t come out at all and/ or a person makes sounds longer like “mmmmmmummmmy”. As well as the intensity and frequency of stuttering does vary from person to person and it depends on the situation, so someone might have periods of stuttering followed by times when they can speak relatively fluently. Personally, when I was a child I would tend to get stuck on certain words and sounds, and sometimes they just wouldn’t come out at all. Also, I would definitely prolong my sounds and I would use filters a lot of the time. For example, whilst I tend to edit most of these out in the podcast you have heard me say “though” and “like” a lot. This is normally during my stuttering that I try to edit out of the podcast as best as I can. Equally, as a child, I used to repeat “yes so then” a lot before I started speaking and I would constantly repeat the syllables “li-li-like” and “well,” before and during my speech, because talking was just so hard because of my stuttering. Building upon the situational point, even now this is a very annoying part of stuttering because talking with people I know, like my friends, my peers and my family. I am fine, I do not stutter much and my speech is very close to being perfect. Yet if you put me in a situation that is new, that is filled with people I don’t know and I am concerned, then my stuttering increases dramatically. For example, job interviews and canvassing (also known as door-knocking) I tend to stutter an awful lot. Additionally, studies show that around 1 in 12 children go through a phase of stuttering, around 2 in 3 children with stuttering go on to speak fluently and stuttering affects around 1 in 50 adults with men being 3 to 4 times more likely to stutter compared to women. On the whole, stuttering is important for psychologists to understand because stuttering can decrease someone’s confidence, their ability to be taken seriously, their self-esteem, their ability to be employed and so much more. This can impact their mental health in turn. What are the Types of Stuttering? There are two types of stuttering. Firstly, you have acquired or late-onset stuttering and this is a relatively rare form of stuttering and it happens in older children and adults. This is caused by a stroke, head injury or a progressive neurological condition. As well as it can be caused by certain drugs, psychological or emotional trauma or medicines. Secondly, you have developmental stuttering and this is the most common type because developmental stuttering develops in early childhood when speech and language skills are developing quickly. I definitely have developmental stuttering because I’ve had this difficulty since childhood. Overall, it’s important for psychologists to be aware of the two types of stuttering because this allows you to understand the causes, potential treatments and how best to support your client who’s struggling with stuttering. How Does Stuttering Affect a Person? Personally, it’s really important to me that we all understand how stuttering can impact a person, because on the surface it just looks like a person who stutters just can’t speak. Yet that isn’t a problem and it isn’t actually true. A person who stutters can be remarkably intelligent, fluent and they can be very confident in certain situations, but we’ll explore that more in the next section of the episode that focuses on myths and misconceptions. Yet stuttering can impact someone in a wide range of ways. For example, stuttering can involve using a lot of filler words during speech. Such as “like”, “um” and “ah.” Personally, I use a lot of filler words and “like” is my favourite it seems and sometimes my use of filler words is extremely painful. Sometimes it seems like every other word that I say is a filler word and I actually feel sorry for the people who have to listen to me because it means they have to decode my sentence and get rid of the filler words. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen as often as it used to when I was a kid. Another typical feature of stuttering includes the prolonging of certain sounds and not being able to move onto the next sound. This is something that you might have heard a few times on The Psychology World Podcast because there are some sounds that I seriously struggle with. For example, the “ex” in experience. That really causes me to stutter for some reason. For other people, this feature of stuttering can look like “mmmmmmmmmmmmmilk”. Thirdly, stuttering can cause a person to avoid eye contact with other people whilst struggling with sounds and words. Penultimately, stuttering can cause a person to repeat certain words, sounds and syllables when talking, so instead of saying “apple” a person who stutters might say “a-a-a-a-a-a-apple”. I know I’ve done this a million times and it was horrifically severe when I was a child but no specific examples thankfully spring to mind. And I will be very open on this episode that this is actually a little difficult for me to write about. It’s probably why I haven’t done a podcast episode on stuttering in the 7 years and over 400 episodes of The Psychology World Podcast. Since my stuttering did result in a lot of bullying in my childhood and even now, my stuttering is causing me to miss out on job opportunities and it’s causing people to think that I’m less intelligent than I am. And it sucks. A final feature of stuttering includes lengthy pauses between certain words and sounds and it can seem as though a child is struggling to say the right word, sentence or phrase. Personally, this is really annoying for me because I know what I want to say, I just can’t get the word out and then someone corrects me as though I don’t know what I’m talking about. It just annoys me to no end. Another way how stuttering impacts a person is that stuttering is more likely to happen when a young child has a lot to say, they’re excited and they’re saying something that’s important to them. As well as stuttering is often worse in situations where a child feels self-conscious about their speech and they’re typically under pressure not to stutter. For example, when reading aloud, speaking on the phone, talking to a person in authority and saying their name in registration at school. Personally, I completely agree because even now these situations still impact me. I was doing some phone banking for a local cause a few weeks ago and I stuttered a lot during that, because I find it hard to talk on the phone, I had to follow a script and it’s just hard. Since I have a lot to say to these people and it’s important to me. I was tempted to joke to some of the people if I ever saw them in person something along the lines of “hey it’s Connor, we spoke on the phone, and as you can see I can actually talk and string a sentence together in-person,” Lastly, stuttering can impact a person because there are certain behaviours associated with it. For example a child who stutters might develop involuntary movements like quivering lips, grimaces, eye blinking, tapping their fingers or stamping their feet. Yet they might also change the way they speak to prevent stuttering, so this can include talking very softly or slowly or with an accent, they might avoid social situations because of their fear of stuttering and this can include not asking for items in shops or going to birthday parties, as well as they might avoid saying certain words or sounds that they normally stutter on. Also, a child with a stutter might adopt strategies to hide their stuttering, like claiming to have forgotten what they were trying to say when they’re having trouble getting the words out. In my experience, quivering lips is a massive pain because sometimes my face and mouth really contort when I stutter. I don’t know why but it’s just my muscles and mouth trying to get the words out. As well as this is a useful reminder about why learning about stuttering is important for psychologists because if you’re seeing a client who stutters and they’re socially isolating themselves by not going to birthday parties, not going to social situations that might cause them to stutter and they feel fear, shame or frustration because of their stutter. Then this will negatively impact their mental health and their self-esteem. This is why psychologists might be immensely useful because we can work with the client to overcome their fear and their social anxiety whilst they hopefully see a speech and language therapist if required. What are Some Myths about Stuttering? Before we talk about the causes of stuttering, I want to focus on some myths and misconceptions about stuttering. This ensures that we’re all on the same page, we aren’t accidentally bringing in our biases or myths into our clinical work and it helps to ensure that we’re delivering the best possible care and support to our current or future clients. Firstly, it is a myth that nervousness or stress causes stuttering. Since a lot of people unfortunately believe that stuttering is caused by fear or anxiety, and research shows that this isn’t true because stuttering is rooted in brain function, not our emotions. Of course, it is true that emotions, like stress and anxiety, can make stuttering more severe, but it isn’t the underlying cause. As well as what I think is the most important fact here is that people, like me, tend to feel anxious because they stutter, not because their anxiety makes them stutter. This is one of the reasons why my stutter gets worse in job interviews is because I’m anxious that I’ll stutter, look less intelligent and I’ll miss out on the job because of my stutter. Secondly, it is a myth that people who stutter are less intelligent. This is a myth that drives me utterly insane because as I mentioned in the introduction to this psychology blog post. The other week in a job interview because I was stuttering, the interviewer actually asked me point-blank something along the lines of this role will involve talking to over 200 people in a hall, is that something you can do? I had to literally tell them whilst my interview performance wasn’t showing it, I was fine talking to massive groups of people and delivering large presentations when I was at university. I didn’t get the job and I strongly believe it was clearly because of my stutter and how they treated me as if I was stupid because of it. Therefore, the truth about stuttering is that stuttering reflects speech fluency, not a person’s cognitive ability. This means that people can be highly intelligent, successful and creative in any field and still stutter. Personally, if we look at myself, I have a BSc in Psychology and Clinical Psychology with a Placement Year, I have an MSc in Clinical Psychology, I write books, I podcast and I do a lot of other things. This means that I am intelligent, I am very creative and I am successful in my life. Yet because I stutter a lot of people think that I’m less intelligent than I am and that annoys me so much. Thirdly, it is a myth that stuttering is caused by a personality trait, like introversion. As we’ve already learnt stuttering is caused by neurological differences in the brain, it is not caused by personality factors. Since people who stutter can be confident, outspoken and assertive but past negative experiences can influence the person’s likelihood to hesitate. In my opinion, I am extremely outspoken on certain topics like mental health, politics and psychology, and I am confident, compassionate and I am very driven. And yet I stutter, so I am further evidence of this myth being false. Moreover, it is a myth that ignoring stuttering will make it go away. Unfortunately, some people believe that avoiding attention or discussion about stuttering will make it go away but this isn’t true. We’ll look at what improves stuttering later in the episode, but creating an open, honest and supportive space with good communication and evidence-based therapy are critical to improving stuttering. The final myth that we’ll learn about is that simple advice like “slow down” and “take a deep breath” will cure stuttering. This is something I hear constantly and a lot of people tell me to simply slow down. The reason why this advice is unhelpful for people who stutter is because this increases self-consciousness and can make stuttering worse. What actually happens a person with their stuttering is the people around them listening patiently, modelling clear speech and professional therapy that is tailored to the individual. On the whole, these myths about stuttering are important for psychologists to learn about because these facts provide us with clear insights into how to best support clients, it allows us to be a reflective practitioner and understand how our perceived notions about stuttering might impact our clinical work and most importantly, this knowledge means we can gently and compassionately challenge the client’s own beliefs about their stuttering. What Causes Stuttering? Whilst we are not 100% sure what causes stuttering, we do know that inherited and developmental factors play a large role in the development of stuttering, and small differences in how efficiently the speech areas of the brain operate. As well as we know that stuttering isn’t caused by anything that the parents have done. How Can Speech Development Cause Stuttering? Firstly, speech development can cause stuttering because speech development is a complex process (I’m sure any psychology student will tell you that) because speech development involves communication between the brain and muscles responsible for speaking and breathing and different areas of the brain. When these complex processes work, this means that the right words are spoken in the right order with the correct emphasis, pauses and rhythm. However, stuttering can happen if some parts of this developing system aren’t coordinated correctly and this can cause stoppages as well as repetitions. Especially, when a child has a lot they want to say, they’re excited and they feel under pressure. Personally, I strongly believe this is where the myths of “anxiety causes stuttering” and “slow down” will cure stuttering. Since when I’m under pressure in a job interview, my stuttering gets worse and slowing down isn’t really going to help me because it will not improve the coordination of my brain and speech system. The same goes for my stuttering getting worse when I’m excited and have a lot to say, slowing down will not help me much because it will not cure the neurological difficulties in my brain. And I’m proud of who I am, my difficulties and my neurological challenges, so I don’t want them to be fixed or cured. In addition, over the years, as the brain continues to develop, stuttering can be resolved or the brain might compensate for the neurological differences and this is why a lot of children stop stuttering as they get older. Or like me, it improves dramatically. How do Genes and Sex Differences Cause Stuttering? When it comes to how genes and sex differences cause stuttering, stuttering is more common in boys than girls but we don’t understand why this happens. As well as we understand that genes play in a role in the development of stuttering because around roughly 2 in 3 people who stutter have a family history of stuttering. This suggests the genes that a child inherits from their parents might make them more likely to develop a stutter. How is Stuttering Treated? The type of treatment offered to people who stutter depends on their age and their situation because typically a speech and language therapist will work with the parents, child and educational staff to make a suitable treatment plan for the child. Equally, a speech and language therapist can also work with adults to find ways to improve the fluency of their speech and reduce the impact that stuttering has on their life. Then psychology can be useful because people who stutter can be referred to psychological therapy if they have any emotional difficulties linked to their speech difficulties. Building upon this, when it comes to speech therapy for younger children, in the United Kingdom, the Lidcombe programme is a widely used direct behavioural therapy for the treatment of stuttering. The programme is based on the principle of providing consistent feedback to your child about their speech in a friendly, supportive and non-judgemental way. Furthermore, if a child’s stuttering has persisted into school-age then stuttering is significantly harder to treat as I know all too well. As we’ve spoken about already in this episode, if a child continues to stutter by the age they go to school then it can lead to anxiety about speaking, feelings of fear and embarrassment and it can cause other social and emotional difficulties. This is why direct therapy in older children who stutter focuses on improving their speaking behaviour as well as taking into account the social, psychological and emotional aspects of stuttering. This direct therapy for school-age children focuses on helping to improve fluency, share experiences with others who stutter, improve communication skills, develop positive attitudes and self-confidence, work on feelings associated with stuttering like anxiety and fear and help the child understand more about stuttering. What is Indirect Therapy in the Treatment of Stuttering? Indirect therapy is when parents make changes to the way they communicate in the home environment instead of focusing on their child’s talking. Since indirect approaches are based on the idea that children start to stutter when they cannot keep up with the demands on their language skills, and these so-called demands might come from the people around them or from the child’s own enthusiasm as well as determination to communicate. This is one reason why this is recommended for children who stutter under 5 to try first instead of direct therapy. Since the aim of indirect therapy is to create an environment where a child feels under less pressure when speaking. To achieve this, parents might speak calmly and slowly to their child, encourage taking turns and listening within the family, not criticising and interrupting their child, making the family environment as calm and relaxing as possible and doing more of what seems to help a child’s fluency. For instance, talking about what the parent and child are doing together, like looking at favourite books, walking to school and playing together. How to Help a Person who Stutters When Talking to Them? The reason why I saved this section until last is because this is a very important section for me as a person who stutters. If different people around me knew this information then maybe my stutter could decrease, I wouldn’t be subjected to the awful myth that I am less intelligent because I stutter and I wouldn’t have experienced so much bullying as a child. Therefore, when you’re talking to someone who stutters, it’s important that you don’t, or at least try to avoid, finishing their sentences and you give them enough time to finish what they’re saying without interrupting. Since if you do this, it will have a negative impact on their self-esteem, it will draw attention to their stuttering and it can make it worse. It just isn’t helpful. In addition, when talking to someone who stutters show interest in what they’re saying instead of how they’re saying it and maintain eye contact. This will help the person who stutters to feel at ease, like they don’t need to rush to maintain your interest and it’s more helpful. As well as avoid asking them to speak faster or more slowly. Personally, I never find it helpful when someone says this to me because it just makes me more self-conscious and it doesn’t help me in the slightest. Furthermore, this is important for psychologists to be aware of because we might have a client one day who stutters, and as part of the therapeutic alliance, we need to make sure that the client feels comfortable with us. We’re asking the client to reveal their deepest and darkest thoughts, feelings and emotions so it’s important that we help them to feel comfortable, at ease and they want to open up to us to maximise the likely success of the therapy. These tips about how to talk to someone who stutters can be very helpful in building that early rapport and maintaining it when the therapy gets difficult. Another reason why this information is useful for psychologists is because if you’re an educational psychologist, then you can share this information with schools, teaching staff and parents of children who stutter. This helps to create a more welcoming, inclusive and supportive educational environment for the child so they can enjoy school and contribute to the learning environment without feeling stressed, fearful or less intelligent because of their stutter. As well as if you’re a clinical psychologist working with the speech and language team because your client stutters, then you might want to share or reinforce this approach with the family system. This means that you and the speech and language team are on the same page, you’re giving consistent advice and this increases the likelihood of the family system taking it on board. Speaking of which, it’s helpful to speak calmly and slowly when talking to a young child who stutters and you should use short sentences and simple language to reduce the communication demands on the child. Of course, I am flat out not saying you should talk to your child as if they are less intelligent, but you’ll be supporting their language development and reducing their stuttering if you place less demands on their language abilities. Finally, it’s best if parents (and psychologists working with children) don’t overwhelm their child by talking too quickly, because you need to make sure that you give the child time to understand as well as process what you’ve just said, and work out their own response. Again, this applies to aspiring and qualified psychologists in a range of ways, but I want to focus on one situation. If you’re a psychologist who just transferred from an adult mental health service to a children and adolescent mental health service then you might be used to talking at your normal speed, using more complex words and you might not realise the extent to which you need to adapt your language for children. This self-awareness about the way you speak, communicate and the speed of your responses are even more important to reflect on when working with children who stutter. And a final point that I just thought about was if you’re an aspiring educational psychologist, if you have children who stutter in your educational setting then you might want to ask about creating some kind of Continued Professional Development session to educate other staff members about stuttering. You could use the session to combat myths, explain what stuttering is really about and how to best support children who stutter in the educational setting. The advantage of creating this CPD session is that it shows you can apply psychological theories to education, you have experience in delivering CPD content like qualified educational psychologists and you have experience of using psychology to improve schools. Just a little thought. Clinical Psychology Conclusion Personally, certain parts of this episode were difficult for me, because my stutter has had a major impact on my life. It led to a lot of painful bullying, a lot of people being nasty to me and even now, at the age of 25, I am missing out on career opportunities because employers think that I can’t speak, I’m less intelligent and I won’t be able to do the job. All because of my stutter that is nowhere near as severe as it used to be and most of the time, I don’t really stutter. Therefore, whilst we’ve covered a lot of great information like what is stuttering, how it impacts people, what the treatment options are, how this information applies to psychologists and so much more. I want to wrap up this episode with a little reminder. As a result, according to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, stuttering is when someone repeats sounds or syllables, like “mu-mu-mu-mummy”, a word gets stuck or doesn’t come out at all and/ or a person makes sounds longer “mmmmmmummmmy”. As well as the intensity and frequency of stuttering does vary from person to person and it depends on the situation, so someone might have periods of stuttering followed by times when they can speak relatively fluently. Finally, I would add that now we know this information, it’s our duty as aspiring and qualified psychologists to share this information, incorporate it into our clinical and educational work and use it to make the world a better place for everyone. Including people who stutter. So, I’ll leave you with a simple question: · What small act could you do today to improve the life of someone who stutters? I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Developmental Psychology: A Guide to Developmental and Child Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Gembäck, C., McAllister, A., Femrell, L., & Lagerberg, T. E. (2025). Online indirect group treatment for preschool children who stutter—Effects on stuttering severity and the impact of stuttering on child and parents. International journal of language & communication disorders, 60(2), e70008. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stammering/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stammering/symptoms/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stammering/treatment/ https://www.stutteringhelp.org/five-myths-about-stuttering https://www.westutter.org/post/myths-about-stuttering Johnson, G., Onslow, M., Horton, S., & Kefalianos, E. (2023). Psychosocial features of stuttering for school‐age children: A systematic review. International journal of language & communication disorders, 58(5), 1829-1845. Kohmäscher, A., Primaßin, A., Heiler, S., Avelar, P. D. C., Franken, M. C., & Heim, S. (2023). Effectiveness of stuttering modification treatment in school-age children who stutter: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66(11), 4191-4205. Nonis, D., Unicomb, R., & Hewat, S. (2022). Parental perceptions of stuttering in children: A systematic review of the literature. Speech, Language and Hearing, 25(4), 481-491. Rasoli Jokar, A. H., Salehi, S., & Yaruss, J. S. (2025). Variability of stuttering in young children: Caregivers' perceptions and experiences. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 34(4), 1992-2009. Walsh, B. M., Grobbel, H., Christ, S. L., Tichenor, S. E., & Gerwin, K. L. (2023). Exploring the relationship between resilience and the adverse impact of stuttering in children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66(7), 2278-2295. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.

Across all of society, artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbots are becoming more common and they’ve seeped into all aspects of our daily lives. From internet searches to education to our workplace, artificial intelligence is everywhere. However, there is a debate currently going on about whether artificial intelligence should become a part of the clinical psychology doctorate training. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, I’ll reflect on my experience, my thoughts and I’ll propose what this debate means for our great profession. If you enjoy learning about cyberpsychology, psychology training and the future of psychology, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Beyond The Lecture Volume 7: 20 Reflections on Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Should AI Chatbots Be Used to Train Future Clinical Psychologists? Last week, I took part in a new psychology study that a lecturer who I’m friendly with was running and he wanted to conduct his study using clinical psychology master's students. Besides from his preferred research sample, I didn’t really know anything else about the research study. Artificial intelligence had been mentioned but besides from that, nothing else was said. His master's students emailed me a day later and we arranged a date and time to meet. I mention this because here’s a little tip, if you are contacting a research participant and you have no idea what they look like and if they have no idea what you look like. Please, do not ask them to meet you in a public space that will be very busy. Give them a specific room or location. Ideally the place where you’re going to be doing the experiment. Anyway, the study involved me having 12 minutes to ask questions to this chatbot that was pretending to have anxiety and depression. I needed to interact with it how I would with a client in the real-world during the psychological assessment. I needed to find out their presenting difficulties, their life situation, how long they have had their mental health difficulties amongst other factors. To do this, I needed to type in my questions to the chatbot and a second or two later, it would give me a response. That answered my question very well and similar to how a real client would answer it with the pauses, nervousness and accurate wording. When the 12 minutes were up, the researcher came back into the room and she asked me a few questions about my experience, would I recommend using this chatbot in clinical psychology training and how could it be improved amongst other questions. Personally, I want to reflect on this study because I strongly believe that this will be used in the future of clinical psychology. Artificial intelligence is already dominating and revolutionising our world. For example, there is artificial intelligence baked in all electronic devices these days allowing for smarter, easier and faster search. It might not always be accurate but it is there. A lot more tools and pieces of software are incorporating artificial intelligence, businesses are using AI more and more to make work easier and more effective. You cannot escape artificial intelligence. Even within clinical psychology, artificial intelligence is already being used to deliver psychological therapy as part of mobile mental health apps as I discuss in my book Could Apps Improve Our Mental Health? Therefore, it is truly impossible to escape the impact of artificial intelligence on our profession. Moreover, I do realise that my responses are slightly biased in a way because I am not part of the ideal research sample. The aim of the study I later found out was to see if clinical psychology masters students’ opinions on whether this chatbot should be used in professional training. Nonetheless, it’s important that this chatbot should be researched with actual trainee clinical psychologists because they have the training, they have the professional experience and they have the clinical expertise to “truly” judge if this chatbot is remotely effective at developing the psychological assessment skills that qualified clinical psychologists need. Just a reflective note. Should Artificial Intelligence Be Used In Clinical Psychology Training? I’ll start off with what I like about this training chatbot. I appreciated how it responded very realistically, similar to how a client would in the real-world. It paused, conveyed nervousness and sometimes the client didn’t know how to answer the question I was kindly asking them. Also, I remember that the majority of answers involved the client picking at the fabric of their sleeve to show that they were nervous. This is similar to what a lot of clients would do in a real therapy session, so I will admit that it’s realistic in that sense. In addition, it was good how the chatbot was a little difficult to get to open up. Similar to working with some clients who you need to find a certain angle or line of questioning before everything starts to flow out of them and you can really start to get to the core of their mental health difficulties. However, I did have a few issues with the chatbot and this is why I do not believe artificial intelligence and chatbots should be used in clinical psychology training. Firstly, my issue is that whenever you do psychological assessments, besides from getting certain information that you need from clients, you need to use a range of therapeutic skills. For example, you need to show active listening, you need to respond to what the client is saying so they feel listened to, and you need to phrase your questions in non-judgmental and compassionate ways. However, the issue with using an AI chatbot is that because I only had 12-minutes to try and get as much information as possible, and I was having to type out each question. After a while, I stopped trying to respond carefully and considerately to what the chatbot was telling me. I was just typing in my questions and asking them. The chatbot wasn’t able to tell this wasn’t how I was actually meant to ask questions, because the study wasn’t looking at my ability to conduct an effective assessment. As a result, I don’t believe that the chatbot would be useful in developing the interpersonal skills that psychological assessments require, because it doesn’t get me to practice how you need to ask them in the real world. A second issue with the chatbot being used in training is that it doesn’t reflect the real world. In a real psychology assessment, even one on video call, I would be able to see the client, read their body language and hear their voice. As well as I would need to think about my body language a lot more because the client would be interpreting my actions too. Yet a chatbot isn’t a real person and whilst the text responses did give me some details about the client’s body language, it is one thing to read it and quite another to see it and then reformulate my questions and approach based on that body language feedback. As well as using a chatbot fails to get me to think about my own body language and how I am presenting myself to the client. These factors could all harm or help the therapeutic alliance to form, and if the client is uncomfortable round me then that will have a large negative impact on the assessment. Finally, I have a minor issue with how chatbots might be used in the training programmes. As an aspiring clinical psychologist, I want to do the doctorate of clinical psychology because I want to help people, I want to help make the world a better place and I want to improve lives. I can only achieve these aims if I am able to talk and interact with real clients, interacting with a chatbot will not help me. Therefore, I think there could be a perception issue within clinical psychology. If clinical training providers want to use chatbots as part of training then I think they will need to work on selling this idea to trainee clinical psychologists. They will need to sell them on the idea that chatbots are useful, that chatbots will not take away from their real-world experiences and that the trainees are still going to be getting their money’s or time’s worth out of the training programme. Since I believe in the future because of how advanced artificial intelligence is getting, I imagine anyone will be able to get or create a chatbot that can pretend to be a client with depression or anxiety. In this future, this chatbot might be nothing new so in an extreme case, why should people join a doctoral programme to become fully qualified when they can simply use the same artificial intelligence chatbot in the comfort of their own home? On the whole, I think there is a place for artificial intelligence in clinical psychology training, but I want us as a profession to be extremely careful. We work with humans so trainees must always get experience with other people before some AI chatbot that will never be as good or useful in the development of the key therapeutic skills that clinical psychologists need. What do you think? Should chatbots be used in training or not? I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Beyond The Lecture Volume 7: 20 Reflections on Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy.. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology Reference Whiteley, C. (2026) Beyond The Lecture Volume 7: 20 Reflections on Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy. CGD Publishing. England. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.

If you’ve been a long-time listener of The Psychology World Podcast then you might be well aware that I flat out love anime and manga. Especially, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Go For It, Nakamura and Stranger on the Shore. Those are some amazing animes from Japan. For a while, and more to support my obsession or autistic special interest in them, I’ve been wondering about the clinical psychology or possible mental health implications, because in my experience autistic individuals and other nerdy people tend to be drawn to these niche interests. Of course, there is barely any research on the topic but I managed to find a fascinating study from Hajek and Konig (2024) that explores the relationship between interest in anime and manga and mental health, social connectedness and more. Therefore, by the end of this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll understand more about anime and manga, how interest in these forms of Japanese entertainment relate to mental health and other wellbeing outcomes and I’ll discuss possible implications for aspiring and qualified clinical and educational psychologists too. If you enjoy learning about social psychology, popular culture and mental health, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Your Unshakable Self: A Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and Mental Health Guide to Sense of Self. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What are Anime and Manga for Psychologists? As I mentioned in the introduction to the blog post, the main source for this episode comes from Hajek and Konig (2024) and the study made use of over 5,000 people between the ages of 18 and 74 from Germany. As well as because I flat out love animes, like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Go For It, Nakamura and Stranger on the Shore. Therefore, to ensure that everyone is on the same page about anime and manga we first need to define them. As a result, animes are animated films and series that come from Japan and mangas are Japanese comics, and whilst they come from Japan, they are increasingly becoming popular across the world. For example, Demonslayer, Dragon Ball, Pokémon and Sailor Moon are extremely popular animes and mangas across the world. As well as across the world, mangas and animes are giving rise to pop culture phenomena where people are becoming really interested and almost obsessed with different series. What are Some Reasons Why Mangas and Animes are Popular? Whilst I could go into the depths of how different animes and series gave rise to subgenres in different countries, I am not because this is a psychology podcast. Therefore, I want to briefly mention my take on mangas and animes from a more psychological point of view. Firstly, I think animes are brilliant for neurodivergent people because the issue I have with Western media is that if you want a genuinely good programme with great characters, gripping plot and great emotion, you need to commit to a 45-minute programme. I do not know a single piece of Western media that’s a 20-minute episode and can deliver the great characters, plot and emotion that I want. I cannot commit to a 45-minute episode. I am busy, 45-minutes is a long time to me and I have signs of ADHD so sitting still for 45-minutes to watch an episode isn’t my idea of fun. However, animes are brilliant because in a 20-minute episode, you get amazing characters, amazing plots and you get such in-depth emotion that I don’t see the point of watching a 45-minute programme. Of course, there are some anime episodes that stretch on for 45-minute or 50-minutes, like the season opening and ending of some of the later seasons of Demonslayer. Yet I don’t mind because I know they’re going to be brilliant. Therefore, one take on anime is that they are great for people with neurodivergence and busy people because they are so impactful and quick. For example, the boy love anime film “Stranger on the Shore” was only 53-minutes but because it had such a deep, emotional and profound impact on me that it was better than any 2-hour Western film. Another reason why I believe animes and mangas are very popular is because they deal with a lot of themes incredibly well. For example, Demonslayer deals with trauma, loss, grief and so many more relatable themes for a lot of young people. Such as, the reason why I flat out love Tokito from Demonslayer is because he was so traumatised as a kid, he lost everything and his larger story is so relatable and I can see parts of myself in Tokito and that’s what anime does very well compared to Western media. Another quick point I want to make is that animes and mangas allow individuals to explore topics, like sexuality, a lot better than Western media. Since if we look at the major LGBT+ programmes in the western world, you have Heated Rivalry and Red, White and Royal Blue, these are okay programmes but they focus on sex. I stopped watching both of those because I felt that these western programmes focused more on sex than actually building strong characters. As well as I flat out loved season 1 of Heartstopper because it was really sweet, it focused on the relationship and it focused on the characters. I wasn’t sure about the later seasons. Anyway, when you look at boy love animes and mangas, yes there are the sexual ones, but most of them are very much focused on characters, acceptance and figuring out who you are. They’re very relatable and it’s why I love Go For It Nakamura. It's so sweet watching these two boys fall in love. Nakamura is still clueless but he really cares about Hirose, he respects him and all his little quirks are so true to what teenage love is like. Like in episode 5 when Hirose and his friend are pretending to be a couple, I don't blame Nakamura for being jealous. If any of my teenage crushes were holding hands, flirting and showing interest in a guy that wasn't me, I would also be jealous. And it is that quirkiness of real teenage love that I love about this anime. My point is that these are some of the reasons why animes and mangas are very popular. Cultural Shifts in Anime and Manga Perception In addition, there are a lot of events around the world where anime and manga fans can come together, like in certain cinema events, comic conventions and people can cosplay so they dress up as some of their favourite anime characters. Back in September 2025 when the new Demonslayer Infinity Castle came out, I went to see the film in my Tokito t-shirt but there were some people who went in cosplay. It was fun to see. Interestingly, there has been a cultural shift in perceptions towards people who enjoy anime and manga in recent years, because in the past, someone who had a strong passion, or even an obsession, for Japanese things like anime and manga were seen as weird, nerdy and completely uncool. Yet in more recent years, anime and manga have gone mainstream and you can have more open conversations about it. For instance, last month, I was at a job interview and I ended up talking about Demonslayer is one of the interviewers and it led to a useful conversation about interests, being able to bond with young people and so on. I didn’t get the job but it wasn’t because of my niche interest in anime and manga. A few years ago, you would never ever dream of talking about such a nerdy topic in an interview. This cultural shift is one of the reasons why there’s been an increase in research interest into how people who enjoy anime and manga perceive themselves and their state of their health as well as their subjective wellbeing. Since some of the discriminatory or more judgemental Japanese terms used to describe someone who has a strong passion for manga and anime tends to refer to someone as socially isolated. A previous study found that non-fans of anime and manga typically saw someone who enjoyed anime and manga as creative, socially awkward, introverted and these people often find solace and refuge in their enjoyment of anime and manga as shown in Ryesen et al. (2016). Why Should Psychologists Care about Interest In Anime and Manga? Before we continue, there are two reasons why this is already of interest to aspiring and qualified psychologists. Firstly, if it’s true that people who are interested in anime and manga are at risk of becoming socially isolated and detached from reality because they find solace and refuge in their anime and manga. Then this raises a few questions for us. Why does the client feel the need to find a refuge, and if these are children, then we can question what is it about the school or home environment that makes the child feel the need to have a refuge. Also, whilst we should never deter someone from enjoying manga and anime because it is innocent and harmless, is there a need to create some form of social intervention to make the student feel more connected to their peers to make them less socially awkward? Those are just some thoughts. Secondly, if it is true again that interest in anime and manga is associated with social isolation, then seeing or hearing a child being interested in this topic might be a way to subtly refer them to some kind of support. Yet honestly, I am not sold on this idea because I’ve worked with SEN kids before who are passionate and obsessed with anime, some of them are socially awkward and socially isolated, others seriously are not. Then I have spoken with a lot of adults who are interested in anime and manga and again, they are not socially isolated and they are able to function fine in their everyday life. Therefore, I am not sure this relationship is cut and dry at the moment. Let’s continue. How Do People Treat Others Who Enjoy Manga and Anime? Another reason why this is interesting for psychologists is because there’s a range of factors, like the perceived introversion of people who enjoy anime and manga, that actually makes people want to distance themselves from individuals who enjoy anime and manga. Another factor is because non-fans perceive anime and manga as detached from reality, socially awkward and these factors influence prejudice towards people who enjoy anime and manga. This is important for psychologists to understand because it can lead to people making fun of others who enjoy anime and manga, and it can lead to maladaptive coping mechanisms to handle the stigma like concealing parts of their identity (Reysen et al. 2021). This was actually shown rather well in episode 2 of Go For it Nakamura, because in a part of this episode he was fighting hard to keep it a secret that he read boy love mangas because he didn’t want his classmates to know he was gay. Yet you could tell that in a lighhearted way this was taking a toll on him and it meant everything to him when his love interest Hirose (who he assumes is straight) tells him that he doesn’t need to hide it because different strokes for different people. Furthermore, research from Reysen et al. (2021) found that anime fans have some experience with bullying in the past and as they age, the bullying increased. Yet research also shows that increased interactions with other fans increases subjective wellbeing. So this highlights how someone might be being bullied because of their membership to a certain social group, but the membership of the social group can be a protective factor for their mental health. On the whole, researchers generally agree that whilst it’s understandable that there would be negative associations with enjoying anime and manga, there are also a lot of positive benefits of liking these forms of Japanese entertainment. Since as the anime and manga niches continue to grow around the world and their communities get larger, this will have a lot of social benefits. Even though, these larger communities do not automatically lead to the development and maintenance of relationships because cultural preferences in anime and manga foster connections with like-minded individuals according to the principle of homophily (McPherson et al. 2001). As a small side note, the idea of cultural preferences is very interesting because whilst I love the anime Go For It Nakamura, there are 2 questionable scenes in the original manga that left Western anime and manga fans to bully the author so badly that she had to quit social media. It’s been argued online that in Japanese cultures these scenes were fine because it’s culturally okay and there’s an understanding that these animes and mangas are just fiction and not real life, and online critics of the digital pile-on have argued that Western anime and manga fans just need to understand the difference between fiction and reality. Therefore, this is a useful reminder how just because one scene is okay in one culture, it doesn’t make it okay in another culture. What’s The Relationship Between Anime, Manga and Mental Health? The main aim of Hajek and Konig (2024)’s study was to investigate the relationship between someone’s interest in anime and manga and the association it had with their mental health, their subjective wellbeing, their joy and their social disconnectedness. The study found that having higher interest in anime and manga was associated with negative mental health as well as social disconnectedness. Although, a higher interest in manga and anime was also associated with increased joy and there are interesting differences between these findings depending on the independent variable that the study used. In addition, the association between having an increased interest in anime and manga and negative mental health outcomes, like increased loneliness as well as perceived social isolation, isn’t casual and it can be explained by a range of factors. For example, a person’s excessive immersion in anime or manga culture could contribute to social withdrawal or social isolation, and this is even more true if a person focuses on virtual relationships compared to real-life social connections (Williams et al. 2011). Therefore, it could be argued that because a person has prolonged engagement with fictional narratives then this might decrease their development of meaningful interpersonal relationships with others that do not like anime or manga, and this might contribute to feelings of isolation or loneliness. Another possible explanation for the negative mental health outcomes associated with manga and anime interest is the potential stigma for liking such a niche interest. This stigma might contribute to further marginalisation and increase the person’s feelings of not belonging to society (Reysen et al. 2016). As well as I will note that anime communities are very well known for being extremely toxic places and there can be immense elitism in fan groups (Plante et al. 2020) so this can be a problem for mental health as this elitism can contribute to feelings of exclusion even within the anime community. Moreover, there are certain themes in anime and manga that can represent or nihilistic content (Olivier 2007), like my former best friend was telling me about the manga “Suicide Boy” a few years ago and this entire manga is dedicated to a teenage boy determined to end his own life. Therefore, this content might exacerbate depressive symptoms or trigger anxiety symptoms (Forsythe and Mongrain 2023) in vulnerable people. I do want to take a moment here to mention that so far in this section, we are not exactly learning many good things about anime and manga. Yet later on in the episode, we will talk about the positives of manga and anime, and personally, I think this really comes back to you need to live your life with balance, purpose and variety. For example, as I talk about in my books, especially Social Psychology and Your Unshakable Self, if you want a resilient sense of self that will help you to protect your mental health then it’s a good idea to get your self-esteem and positive self-image from a range of internal and external sources. Internal sources are always going to be best but still. My point is that if your entire identity is wrapped up in anime and manga then it will end up decreasing your mental health for reasons that I talk about in my other books. This is why whilst I flat out love anime, especially Demonslayer and the boy love genre, I make sure that I get my sense of achievement, happiness and self-esteem from writing, running a business, podcasting, being with my friends and my family, doing good in my local community and so on. There is so much more to my identity than anime and manga. Anyway, moving on to the more positive aspects of the study’s results were that a greater interest in anime and manga was associated with a lower preference for solitude and this is interesting because people interested in anime and manga tend to be introverted. The explanation for these findings are that the anime and manga community provide people with opportunities for social interactions and socialise through online forums and conventions. As well as anime fans who cosplay have higher levels of extraversion than non-cosplayers (Reysen et al. 2018c). These social opportunities give people interested in anime and manga a chance to share their experiences and to develop long-lasting and meaningful relationships with others (Reysen et al., 2024). Hence, this means people can find fulfilment and satisfaction in the anime and manga communities so they don’t desire solitude and the benefits of these communities can be used to explain why interest in manga was associated with lower objective social isolation. Building upon this, having a strong interest in anime and manga and having increased subjective wellbeing and joy outcomes can also be explained by a range of factors. For instance, if you engage in the fictional narratives of mangas and animes then it can provide individuals with some escapism and this can help them cope with the stressors of daily life, and over time, this could improve subjective well-being. As well as similar to what I mentioned earlier, a lot of the stories in anime and manga stress the important themes of resilience, friendship and personal growth (Born 2010; Cooper-Chen 2011). As a result, these themes can inspire viewers and readers, especially if they strongly identify with their favourite character which anime and manga fans typically do (Reysen et al. 2022b), to tackle their own challenges with improved determination and optimism (Ramasubramanian and Kornfield 2012). For example, I really strongly identified with the side character Tokito in Demonslayer and at the time when I was watching Season 4 (the season that he is a main feature in) I was dealing with my anorexia and my insecure attachment and his story, his feelings and his own trauma really did inspire me in ways that I never thought were possible. Tokito led me to research new ideas, write new books and it was brilliant how the character inspired me to deal with my difficulties in new ways. In fact, my book Your Unshakable Self only happened because of a quote that Tokito says in the English subtitles of the anime. In addition, one of the most powerful benefits of anime and manga is that the community gives people with a higher interest in this form of entertainment a sense of belonging as well as acceptance (Reysen et al., 2024). Since anime and manga communities are vast and there are entire online forums, websites and pockets of social media that are dedicated to fans sharing their experiences and interests without fearing judgment from others (Krishnamurti et al., 2023). This can lead to higher interest in anime and manga improving mental health and joy scores because it is the mutual understanding as well as camaraderie that makes people feel good and less alone. Personally, because I love Tokito as a character so much, I follow a few Tokito-focused twitter accounts and sometimes I’m flicking through the posts and I go “oh, you would never ever be able to get away with saying that in person”, but these anime and manga communities provide a safe, accepting and non-judgemental space. A final positive outcome associated with higher interest in anime and manga was how a higher interest in anime was associated with higher levels of subjective wellbeing but there was no such significant association for higher level in manga. As someone who is starting to watch a lot of anime, I find this really interesting because I love anime and manga. When I read the last five volumes of the Demonslayer manga, I was really hooked, interested and it was flat out amazing and I got the same feelings when I watched the Demonslayer Infinity Castle film, so these are interesting results. The researchers proposed that one possible reason for these findings could be that an interest in reading manga might reflect a more solitary activity compared to watching anime. Since watching anime can be done with friends or in social communities, like some cinemas host anime events. Another explanation might be that streaming services have made it easier for individuals to consume anime alone, but we also know that streaming services could also be used to share anime for friends. I definitely agree with that idea because to be honest, it’s only been in the last two weeks that I’ve really been watching anime alone. When I used to live in Canterbury, I watched anime with my friends and my ex-partner, and me and my ex-boyfriend watched anime together when I was back here living in Medway. Watching anime really can be done as a social activity. These results are further reinforced by the findings of Reysen et al. (2018b) because the researchers found that cosplayers reported higher levels of wellbeing compared to non-cosplayers. This might suggest that for anime and manga to have a benefit for mental health that it’s important that the person is fully immersed within their hobby, but we also know from earlier results that that is unlikely to be true. Reysen et al. (2024) is another study that supports these results because their study highlights how fandom, the social component of fan identity, predicts psychological wellbeing. In other words, the study found that fan friendships mediate the association between psychological wellbeing and fandom identification. As a result, Hajek and Konig (2024) assumed that the social aspect of real life interactions that are associated with high interest in anime and the media consumption associated with it might lead to higher levels of subjective well-being. For me, where my mind goes in terms of applying this information for aspiring and qualified psychologists is two-fold. Firstly, as an aspiring or qualified educational psychologist, it’s important that we encourage schools to allow students to follow their passions and give them spaces to really connect. We know from research that especially after the COVID lockdowns that children are struggling with communication and social skills in general, and even more so in schools and colleges. This means that we need to come up with interventions, new ideas and new ways to provide students with rewarding social interactions where they can connect and form communities with their peers. If you’re working in a school and you learn that some students have an interest in anime and manga, then suggest that the school, the librarian or someone provides the students with a space to come together, connect and form those social relationships to improve their mental health. Secondly, if you’re an aspiring or qualified clinical psychologist then it might be an idea to suggest that your client joins an anime or manga community. If you learn that your client has an interest in this form of entertainment, then you could share with them ways to connect with others online. Of course, the main aim of therapy or counselling will always be to address the developmental and maintaining factors of the condition and help them develop in-person, real-life relationships, but online connections might be a good bridging idea for a little while. It allows the client to develop their social skills, talk to like-minded individuals and it can improve their mental health whilst you work on other things. Just a thought. What are the Strengths and Limitations of Hajek and Konig (2024)? Additionally, just as a little critical thinking section, it was good that the study used established and validated tools to quantify the outcome measures, so this increased the credibility of the study. Also, I really like how the study used a large sample size to give them a lot of data points to support their conclusions with and their quota-based online sample was representative in terms of age, sex and federal state in Germany. Yet there are some issues with the study. For instance, the study might not have been completely representative because the study was only available in the German language and because the study used a cross-sectional design, they cannot establish directionality. Such as, they cannot tell if it is a change in loneliness and social disconnection that causes an increased interest in anime and manga, or if an increased interest in manga causes social disconnection. There were some other issues with the study mentioned in the research paper, but I want to mention another issue that the researchers did not. In the anime community, Germany is a bit of a strange case because when it comes to German voiceovers according to an ex of mine, there are basically only four voice actors who do the anime dubs in German. This means that the same four people basically appear in every single anime in Germany, and we also have to bear in mind that the German language, which is very similar to a lot of languages, is still different to languages like English. Therefore, I suppose the point that I am trying to make here is that because this study was only done in one language, in one country on one continent, I would be very interested to see how these results replicate or change in other cultures. As well as I understand that anime and manga are very big in the United States because after its original cinema run, Demonslayer Infinity Castle did a second cinema run in the USA and this was hailed as a massive success. Overall, I just think it would be interesting to see how these results be replicated if done in other cultures that have stronger or weaker national interest in anime and manga. Clinical Psychology Conclusion As someone with a high level of interest in anime and manga, especially Demonslayer, Deathnote and Go For It Nakamura, this episode was so much fun to put together. Since I have heard a lot of prejudice and dislike aimed towards people and students who like anime and manga, so it was fun to look at the truth behind how high levels of interest in these forms of Japanese media can impact mental health. As a result, in this episode, we looked at the relationship between having an interest in anime and manga and how it impacted social disconnectedness, mental health, joy and subjective wellbeing scores. We learnt that having a higher interest in anime and manga was associated with negative outcomes, like decreased mental health and increased social disconnection, but there were positive outcomes too. For example, higher interest in anime and manga was associated with improved wellbeing and feelings of joy. I feel like this entire episode highlights the importance of looking at behaviour and mental health in a very nuanced way, because it’s clear that anime and manga does harm mental health in some people but in others, it improves it. Why? This reminds me of my book, Social Media Psychology, because social media isn’t good or bad for mental health. It’s all about how you use it because people who engage in active social media use like commenting, sharing and engaging with posts, these people tend to report better mental health outcomes. Yet people who engage in passive social media use so they aren’t liking, they aren’t commenting and they’re only scrolling on social media, they report negative mental health outcomes. I have a feeling that interest in anime and manga might be something similar. Nonetheless, now that we have this research, we can expand on it. The main problem that the relationship between mental health and anime and manga have at the moment is there is just next to no research on it. This means that further studies, that must include cross-cultural comparisons, must be done. Also, future research can look at different constructs within the anime and manga communities, like how the construct of fandom “I love the manga community” differs from fanship “I love manga” in relation to impact on mental health, and the researchers Hajek and Konig floated other ideas for future studies too. Now if you excuse me, I have some anime to watch myself. I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Your Unshakable Self: A Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and Mental Health Guide to Sense of Self. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Hajek, A., & König, H. H. (2024). Interest in anime and manga: relationship with (mental) health, social disconnectedness, social joy and subjective well-being. Journal of Public Health, 1-11. Ramasubramanian, S., & Kornfield, S. (2012). Japanese anime heroines as role models for US youth: Wishful identification, parasocial interaction, and intercultural entertainment effects. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 5(3), 189-207. Reysen, S., Baring, R., Plante, C., Sarmiento, P. J., Samia, C., Bonus, B., & Lumanlan, P. (2022). A brief report on sex differences in identification and engagement with anime. Phoenix Papers, 5, 36-46. Reysen, S., Plante, C. N., Chadborn, D., Roberts, S. E., & Gerbasi, K. C. (2021). Transported to another world: The psychology of anime fans. Stephen Reysen. Reysen, S., Plante, C. N., Chadborn, D., Roberts, S. E., & Gerbasi, K. C. (2022). Intragroup helping as a mediator of the association between fandom identification and self-esteem and well-being. Leisure/loisir, 46(3), 321-345. Reysen, S., Plante, C. N., Chadborn, D., Roberts, S. E., & Gerbasi, K. C. (2021). Transported to another world: The psychology of anime fans. Stephen Reysen. Reysen, S., Plante, C. N., Chadborn, D., Roberts, S. E., Gerbasi, K. C., Miller, J. I., & Ray, A. (2018). A brief report on the prevalence of self-reported mood disorders, anxiety disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorder in anime, brony, and furry fandoms. Phoenix Papers, 3, 64-75. Reysen, S., Plante, C. N., Roberts, S. E., & Gerbasi, K. C. (2018). A brief report on differences in big five personality dimensions between anime fan cosplayers and non-cosplayers. Phoenix Papers, 3, 46-53. Reysen, S., Plante, C. N., Roberts, S. E., & Gerbasi, K. C. (2024). Social activities mediate the relation between fandom identification and psychological well-being. Leisure Sciences, 46(5), 681-701. Reysen, S., Plante, C. N., Roberts, S. E., & Gerbasi, K. C. (2024). Social activities mediate the relation between fandom identification and psychological well-being. Leisure Sciences, 46(5), 681-701. Reysen, S., Plante, C. N., Roberts, S. E., Gerbasi, K. C., Mohebpour, I., & Gamboa, A. (2016). Pale and geeky: Prevailing stereotypes of anime fans. The Phoenix Papers, 2(1), 78-103. Reysen, S., Plante, C., Roberts, S. E., & Gerbasi, K. C. (2022). Empirically testing the veracity of otaku stereotypes. Phoenix Papers, 5(1), 210-233. Reysen, S., Plante, C., Roberts, S., & Gerbasi, K. (2018). " Coming Out" as an Anime Fan: cosplayers in the anime fandom, fan disclosure, and well-being. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.

This week I have an online job interview for the role of an education mental health practitioner, and as part of my interview preparation I want to make sure that I have a good understanding of what the job is, what an education mental health practitioner is expected to do and more. Also, it helps that because of my neurodivergence, creating a podcast episode on the topic is a very helpful way to make me focus. Therefore, by the end of this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll understand what is an education mental health practitioner, what skills and experiences the role requires and so much more, including how to phrase this information in a job interview. Since I’m sure that I’ll be tested on my understanding of the role in my interview. This is somewhere that I normally fail on so I want to change that. If you enjoy learning about careers in psychology, working in education and applying psychology to improve lives, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Your Unshakable Self: A Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and Mental Health Guide to Sense of Self. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What are Education Mental Health Practitioners? Education mental health practitioners are mental health professionals who provide mental health support to children and young people in colleges and schools. This means that they are trained to help children and young people to manage common mental health difficulties, especially mild to moderate symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as behavioural problems. In addition, becoming an education mental health practitioner is a great idea for people who want to make a difference, work flexible and part-time hours and I think it can be a great stepping stone towards becoming an educational or clinical psychologist. Since this position will help you to develop your clinical experience working with children and young people with mental health difficulties, and you’ll have experience offering psychological treatments and interventions. Something that a lot of people, myself included, find incredibly difficult to gain experience in despite my qualifications. Moreover, education mental health practitioners use cognitive therapy-based interventions to address emerging mental health difficulties, and if you become an education mental health practitioner then you would be trained to support schools and colleges with whole-organisation approaches to wellbeing and mental health. This means that you might advise people on the importance and how to have good sleep hygiene, how to problem solve and advise on panic attacks. You might educate young people how to manage depression as well as anxiety, and promote approaches that improve student emotional wellbeing and health. Also, you would advise education staff and signpost them towards services so they can get further information to help staff give the right support to students. Something that I particularly enjoy about the idea of becoming an education mental health practitioner is that if you work in a primary school or an educational setting for students with special educational needs then you might also need to work with parents and carers. I really enjoy the idea of this because I’m familiar with this from when I was a SEN teaching assistant in charge of the medical care of a type 1 diabetic student. This required me to coordinate care with teachers, other support staff, the school’s medical team and the child’s parents. As well as this means that I can apply my favourite psychological theory, Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, into practice. This theory proposes that the different social systems that a child directly and indirectly interacts with has an impact on their education. This includes macro-systems like local government and school management that the child never directly interacts with. Something that I will mention is there are points that I can already see that I would need to highlight in a job interview. I would recommend that I talk about my knowledge and experience of whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing, I would list some of the expectations of what an education mental health practitioner is expected to do to show I’m familiar with the role and I would talk about my experience of liaising as well. When it comes to being familiar with whole-school approaches, I would probably draw on my understanding of restorative cultures in schools. Restorative approaches offer schools a flexible and innovative alternative to the punitive systems and sanctions that are typically used in schools, like detentions, exclusions and isolations, to manage behaviour in schools. These approaches aren’t a soft solution but they’re an additional tool that schools can use to create positive outcomes from negative behaviour and actively reinforce the view that inappropriate behaviour isn’t acceptable and it needs to be addressed. As well as restorative approaches are used in schools to help deal with bullying, truancy, classroom disruptions, friendship disputes, anti-social behaviour, relationship breakdown between staff and pupil as well as building a stronger sense of community and belonging. I do talk more about restorative approaches in schools and how to develop them in another podcast episode called How to Develop a Restorative Culture in Schools. As a result, if I was asked in an interview “what’s your understanding of the role of an education mental health practitioner” I would probably answer something along the lines of: “An education mental health practitioner is a trained professional who works in schools and colleges to support children and young people with mental health difficulties, including mild to moderate depression, anxiety and behavioural problems. In their work, they draw on cognitive therapy-based interventions and they might be expected to advise students on how to manage their mental health difficulties, how to improve their emotional health and wellbeing and advise on sleep hygiene. Also, education mental health practitioners are expected to liaise with parents and carers if they work in a primary school or SEN setting, I have experience in coordinating care and liaising with other professionals and parents from when I was a SEN teaching assistant managing the care of a type 1 diabetic child. Every day I liaised with parents, teachers and support staff. Finally, an educational mental health practitioner supports whole-school approaches to improving emotional and mental health. I have knowledge of whole-school approaches from my education around restorative approaches and using shared language, peer support programmes and restorative everyday classroom practices, like restorative conversations.” I am going to try and commit that mock interview answer to memory for my interview to show I understand the range of roles and duties of an education mental health practitioner. How Do You Become an Education Mental Health Practitioner? To become an education mental health practitioner you need to complete a year-long training course to qualify with around 60 days at university spread throughout the year. The rest of your time will be spent on work-based placements and you’ll need to do some self-study too. Also, this can be a postgraduate or graduate diploma depending on whether you already have a degree or not. Also, whilst you don’t need a degree to apply for this training programme, you will need to demonstrate your ability to work at degree level and have experience working with children and young people to support their mental health. In addition, the course is paid for by the National Health Service and you’re guaranteed a job as part of a mental health support team in a school or college once you’ve qualified. And something that I am very happy about is educational mental health practitioners can now register with the British Psychological Society or the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies. I won’t lie. I have no idea why that makes me happy but I think it just adds another layer of professionalism to the role, and yes, I understand I’m weird at times and I’m proud of it. Furthermore, as part of your training as an education mental health practitioner, you would be employed by a healthcare organisation but you would only work in or around education settings, like SEN schools, colleges, mainstream schools or pupil referral units as part of a mental health support team. These teams are designed to help meet the mental health needs of children and young people between the ages of 5 and 18 years old. What Skills Do You Need as an Education Mental Health Practitioner? Our final section will look at the skills you need to become an educational mental health practitioner, and this is an important section to focus on because this can help you to prepare your interview answers. Since it might be a good idea to tailor your interview answers to highlight these skills. As a result, to be an education mental health practitioner you need to have excellent interpersonal skills, a good understanding of the education system and the ability to build close, trusting and productive relationships with children and young people. This is a reason why in my interview I need to remember to talk about a time in my former SEN school when I was able to have a very productive working relationship with a SEN student who was in isolation, because the wider example will demonstrate my ability to effectively form good, close and productive working relationships with children. For you, you might want to think about what examples from your working life could be used to demonstrate your ability to form professional relationships with children and young people. Some other skills include the ability to work well within a multidisciplinary team, a good understanding of mental health issues and the ability to work independently and use your initiative to think quickly on the spot in often challenging situations. For me, like I normally do, I would either draw on my experience of working in a multidisciplinary team in the Gender Identity Clinic or my learning disability placement, or discuss how I worked with other professionals to manage the healthcare of a type 1 diabetic child and I often had to make quick clinical judgements to manage his care throughout the day. This example would tap into another useful skill for this role and that is to have creativity to solve problems and tackle obstacles. A final set of must-have skills for education mental health practitioners are strong written and verbal communication tailored to a range of audiences and effective time management for tight deadlines and managing competing demands. The example that I would draw on in an interview is again probably the diabetic care one because it shows how I had to manage my time to manage the healthcare whilst still being a teaching assistant to the rest of the education setting. Yet I would also comment on my experience of my mental health campaign to create psychology licensing degrees as I’ve had to have strong verbal and written communication skills where I’ve had to write for my podcast audience, other psychology students, heads of schools of psychology at universities as well as Members of Parliament. For yourself, you might want to think about examples of documents, statements of any kind when you’ve had to adapt the way you’ve communicated information for different audiences. If you’ve ever worked in a mental health service then this might be explaining the same mental health information but in different ways to a client, their partner or parents or another mental health professional. Finally, it can be useful for educational mental health practitioners to have good presentation skills and additional languages. These other languages are useful because if you work in an area with a high number of individuals and children with English as their second language then it might be useful for you to communicate with them in their native or first language. I’ve spoken before on The Psychology World Podcast during on psychology news section about how when you speak in a second or third language, it decreases your creativity. And come to think of it, it is critical that you can increase your creative problem-solving skills when considering how best to manage your own mental health and how to draw on your internal resources. This is why speaking a second language can be useful for mental health practitioners. As this isn’t an essential criteria, I am not going to mention it during my interview because my French reading ability is really good, but I cannot speak French to save my life. Also, good presentation skills are useful as an educational mental health practitioner because you’ll be presenting information to children and young people about sleep hygiene, managing panic attacks and their mental health and you’ll likely deliver Continued Professional Development sessions to staff. Therefore, in my interview, I’ll try to remember to mention my past experience of designing and delivering a wide range of presentations for the University of Kent’s Outreach and Widening Participation Department. For yourself, you might want to draw on your presentation experience at university to show you have these additional skills. Clinical Psychology Conclusion This version of interview preparation reminds me of one of the many reasons why I flat out love this podcast, because this podcast gives me the excuse and motivation to really focus on a topic, apply knowledge and consider how to use this information to benefit me. I’ve had past podcast episodes as part of my interview preparation but I prefer how I’ve done this episode in terms of applying the information. Since you can know information like the back of your hands but if you don’t know how to either present the information in an interview or apply the information to your own life, then it’s next to useless. I’m excited for my job interview to become a trainee educational mental health practitioner because this job sounds great, fun and really interesting. And if you like the sound of this role then set up job alerts, apply for these roles and try. You never know if you’ll be able to become an education mental health practitioner unless you try. To wrap up today’s episode, an education mental health practitioner is a trained professional who works in schools and colleges to support children and young people with mental health difficulties, including mild to moderate depression, anxiety and behavioural problems. In their work, they draw on cognitive therapy-based interventions and they might be expected to advise students on how to manage their mental health difficulties, how to improve their emotional health and wellbeing and advise on sleep hygiene. Also, education mental health practitioners are expected to liaise with parents and carers if they work in a primary school or SEN setting. Finally, an educational mental health practitioner supports whole-school approaches to improving emotional and mental health. I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Your Unshakable Self: A Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and Mental Health Guide to Sense of Self. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology Reference https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/psychological-therapies/roles-psychological-therapies/education-mental-health-practitioner I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.

There are some nights when I’m lying on my soft, warm bedsheets and my bedroom is perfectly dark and silent, but I cannot sleep. I worry how a lack of sleep will impact me the next day, and there are always other things weighing on my mind. I’m hardly the only person who experiences these challenges. We often get ourselves in anxious cycles of being stressed and worried about things outside of our sleep that negatively impact it, then because we’re worrying and anxious and can’t sleep, we start to worry about our sleep. This becomes a vicious cycle that causes further problems to our sleep patterns. This is even truer for students who tend to be stressed and anxious about assignments, readings and other university work. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn why does anxiety and rumination disrupt sleep, what is the cognitive model of insomnia and more great information on the psychology of insomnia. If you enjoy learning about anxiety, sleeping problems and more, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by CBT For Depression: A Clinical Psychology Introduction to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Depression. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Why is Sleep Important for Our Mental Health? To kick off this episode, I want to share some extracts from my podcast episode “How Does A Consistent Sleep Schedule Improve Mental Health?” to help us have a good foundational understanding of how sleep impacts our mental health before we move onto the rest of the episode. “Ultimately, by having a consistent sleep schedule you can stabilise your mood in the short term as well as in the long term protect yourself against mood disorders, like anxiety and depression.” As well as “having a consistent sleep schedule helps our bodies to effectively regulate our circadian rhythms, so our biological processes that impact the neurochemicals and hormones related to our stress responses and mood can occur in a healthy way. Yet when we disrupt our circadian rhythms by getting inconsistent sleep then we mess up these circadian rhythms and this has negative impacts on our mental health.” The last extract is “I want to focus on some research that shows a person’s inconsistent sleep schedule can increase their risk of developing depression. Our first study comes from Fang et al. (2021) who looked at the impact of sleep routines on over 1,000 medical students’ day-to-day mood. Their results showed that irregular sleep routines were a big risk factor for developing depressive symptoms. Interestingly, this is even worse for medical students because they often experience an inconsistent work schedule so they can’t have a consistent sleep pattern, so the effects were easier to see in this population.” Building upon these extracts, and I want to stress here that there are a lot of references available at the bottom of the blog post over on my website, stress and sleep disturbances are some of the most common mental health difficulties around the world. If we look at a range of mental health conditions, a large number of them include sleep disturbances. For example, if you have an anxiety disorder then you might be so anxious that you struggle to fall asleep. I know when I had my Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after my rape, most nights I couldn’t sleep because I was so anxious, I was having too many flashbacks and I was too distressed. If we look at depression, you have disturbed sleep because people with depression tend to sleep too much or too little. As well as mental health conditions negatively impact your ability to have a consistent sleep schedule so this reinforces and plays a developmental role in a mental health condition. If we focus on the stress experienced by young people, because research shows that young people are very vulnerable to stress. This can be because of interpersonal factors like their relationships with peers, teachers, academic staff, family as well as academic pressures. This is even more important when we consider that the extra stress created by university and other forms of education can exacerbate pre-existing mental health difficulties. However, if we take a systemic approach and if we view the social and societal systems that the young person lives in, then we can understand that there’s a global and cultural context that increases their stress. In turn, this increased stress can contribute to poor sleep quality, and this has a negative knock-on effect for their mental health. For example, in Europe, it isn’t uncommon for young people to face financial insecurity, mental health difficulties more often and job loss, compared to older age groups. Personally, this is a massive problem in the UK at the moment. I’ve spoken before on the podcast about the unemployment crisis in the UK, and how the unemployment rate for young people is 10% higher than the national average. It is next to impossible to find a job as a young person and then there’s the pressure of the housing market, the increase in fuel cost because of America’s war with Iran and other factors that only makes life more expensive. All in all, between relationships, academic pressures and society-level stressors, this has a negative impact on the mental health of young people. What is Anxiety and Rumination in Mental Health and Sleep? As this entire podcast episode focuses on why and how anxiety and rumination disrupts sleep, we need to make sure that we’re all on the same page about these two terms before we dive into how this negatively impacts sleep. Therefore, rumination refers to prolonged, repetitive as well as negative thinking about our distressing experiences, feelings and worries without taking any action to positively change that state. As you can imagine, rumination is a very common symptom in a range of mental health conditions. For example, I know when I had depression, I was constantly ruminating on how pointless my life was, how I was never going to get better and my life was a failure because of my mental health. Equally, when I had my social anxiety after my rape, I constantly ruminated about how bad I didn’t want to get raped again, I was scared of everything and I thought that everyone could hurt me. And as a final example when I experienced the worst of my anorexia, I was ruminating on the distressing nature of food, how I didn’t want to gain weight and how I wanted to lose as much weight as possible. On the other hand, anxiety and worry are a sequence of negative images and thoughts that are hard to control and they’re often accompanied by ways to mentally resolve problems with uncertain outcomes. These outcomes can be negative. For instance, when I’m lying awake late at night before a job interview and I’m worried about the interview. Then this is worry because there are negative thoughts because I am worried about failing the job interview, I’m worried about my financial situation and I’m worried about the outcome. If I don’t get the job then I won’t have money coming in and so on. The best way to remember the difference is that rumination focuses on past failures and worries whereas worry refers to future events. As a result, whilst rumination and worry are different, they both involve repetitive thinking about negative emotional experiences and they shift our focus away from the present to the past or future. Building upon the differences, rumination focuses on issues related to a person’s self-worth, loss and meaning whereas worry focuses on anticipated potential threats. Also, the conscious motivation for rumination is to gain insight into a given situation whereas the motivation for worry is to predict and prepare ourselves for potential threats. The main reason why I’m spending a section on these definitions is because we have to understand the similarities and differences between worry and rumination because they both have a separate impact on our mental health and sleep (Clancy et al., 2020; Tousignant et al., 2019). Why is Stress Related to Sleep Quality? Research tells us that stress is associated with a range of mental health difficulties, like depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, insomnia and anxiety, and research focuses on the relationship between stress and sleep disturbances. For instance, amongst university students, perceived stress is associated with insomnia symptoms, shorter sleep duration as well as lower sleep quality. With between 47% and 60% of university students reporting poor sleep quality. It’s worth noting that in academia “sleep quality” is made up of the subjective aspects of sleep, like the feeling of being well-rested and the depth of the sleep, as well as the more objective aspects. Such as the latency and duration of sleep. In addition, as I mentioned earlier, disturbed sleep is common in a range of mental health conditions because sleep relates to the neurological and cognitive functions of the brain and internalised difficulties, like depression and anxiety. And what I find really interesting about this relationship is that it can reinforce mental health difficulties because this relationship is bidirectional in the first place. I mean if you struggle sleeping in the first place for a few nights then as my episode on the importance of a consistent sleep schedule shows, then this increases your risk of developing mental health difficulties. Therefore, you might have trouble sleeping for a few nights because of noisy neighbours, a constant party going on next door or your walls are painfully thin so you hear what your neighbours are doing in the bedroom next to you. Then because you’re sleep deprived and because of the cognitive and neurological functions that this impairs, it can lead to increased mental health difficulties. All the references for this podcast episode are at the bottom of the blog post. On the other hand, if you have a mental health difficulty or condition like depression, anxiety or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder then you might struggle to sleep in the first place. I definitely experienced this during the aftermath of my rape. As a result, your mental health condition makes it difficult to sleep so you become tired, sleep-deprived and this has a negative knock-on effect for your already distressed and biased cognitive and neurological processes. Hence, the creation of the vicious cycle where your mental health difficulties cause poor sleep quality then your sleep quality causes your mental health difficulties to get worse, this leads to even poorer sleep quality and so on. What is the Cognitive Model of Insomnia? Now that we understand the importance of sleep and why rumination and anxiety negatively impact sleep and our mental health, we need to start looking at the why. Why exactly does rumination and anxiety impact sleep quality. As a result, a lot of research studies have shown that certain cognitive mechanisms as well as high general arousal might affect the relationship between sleep difficulties and the stress we experience. These research findings have led to the creation of several theories, including the Cognitive Model of Insomnia. The Cognitive Model of Insomnia by Harvey (2020) proposes that individuals with insomnia are more likely to experience excessive worry about their sleep and the consequences of their disrupted sleep on their health. This is definitely something that I experience because there will be times when I’m lying in bed, I can’t sleep and then I start to get concerned about how this disrupted sleep will impact me the next day. For example, if I have a job interview, I’m out with friends or loved ones or I have something else important that I can’t be tired for. Then I get concerned about it because I don’t want to feel exhausted, tired or any other negative state of being. In addition, this negative cognitive process that arises from worry and our rumination activates autonomic arousal and this disrupts our sleep. The Model assumes that our insomnia happens because of a combination of stressors, genetic vulnerability, learned behaviours, cognitive activities, like worry and rumination, as well as dysfunctional behaviour patterns. Building upon this, cortical, cognitive and somatic activity results in excessive general arousal and this can lead to anxiety, worry, high levels of daytime distress, a real sleep deficit and physiological arousal. In turn, this creates a cycle where the connection between our stress and our sleep quality is bidirectional as I explained earlier. Personally, I want to jump in here and add that I definitely agree with the theory so far. Since if I truly think about what I was experiencing during the worst of my PTSD and other negative mental health outcomes after my rape. I experienced constant cortical activity because my brain was constantly filled with thoughts, dreams and perceptions of danger because of my hypervigilance. I constantly experienced heightened somatic activity because I was shaking a lot, I felt the physical sensations of my rapist raping me over and over as well as my body was constantly tense because I was always in fight-or-flight. As well as I was always anxious, hypervigilant and other cognitive processes were going on, so all these heightened processes explained why my sleep was so bad. On the other hand, another theory of hyperarousal by Morrin et al. (2003) suggests that it is the coping skills that we use to manage our arousal that mediates the sleep-stress relationship. For example, it is how we appraise our stressors as well as how we perceive the amount of control we have over these stressors that increases our vulnerability to sleep difficulties. Morrin et al.’s research found that both good and poor sleepers had the same number of minor life stressors, but the difference between a good sleeper and a poor sleep was that good sleepers reported less pre-sleep arousal and they perceived their lives as less stressful than the poor sleepers. I can see where this theory is coming from because as I went for my specialist rape counselling, I learnt more skills and I was able to increase my feelings of control over my symptoms, my life and my relationships. I was able to start sleeping better, so there is no way for me to know if it was the decrease in my mental health difficulties or the increased sense of control over my stressors that led to improved sleep quality. There might be something to this theory. Personally, I believe it probably was a mixture of the two factors with the decrease of my mental health symptoms causing the most positive impact on my sleep quality. Clinical Psychology Conclusion Whilst this psychology podcast episode was more information-dense than usual, I really did enjoy it because it was fun to develop a deeper understanding of how our thoughts, feelings and other mental health factors can disrupt our sleep. I know from personal experience just how important having good sleep habits are, and after all my mental health struggles in the past decade, I know how disrupted our sleep can become because of excessive arousal, worry and rumination. It was really interesting to finally understand why. Also, we’ll probably explore this in more depth in future podcast episodes but everything that we learnt today can be directly applied to clinical practice. Since these research findings and theories are applied to a wide range of psychological interventions that are used to treat insomnia. For example, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia, better known as CBT-I. Therefore, to wrap up today’s episode, anxiety and rumination disrupt our sleep because they trigger physiological and cognitive hyperarousal. Since according to different psychological models, the repetitive negative thinking patterns associated with future-focused threats for worry and past-focused threats for rumination, they activate the sympathetic nervous system and heighten our cognitive, cortical and somatic arousal. This disrupts our sleep because it means we cannot turn our minds off and rumination disrupts sleep as it prolongs our emotional processing, increases pre-sleep arousal and it makes minor stressors feel more intense. Then as our arousal increases, we become more anxious because we aren’t sleeping and we’re concerned about how our disrupted sleep will impact us so this creates a vicious cycle. Ultimately, leading to decreased sleep quality and increased stress. Finally, to truly wrap up the episode, I would unofficially recommend that when we’re struggling to get to sleep because you’re worried and/ or you’re ruminating, you might want to try some breathwork to deactivate your sympathetic nervous system, you could practise Thought Stopping from cognitive behavioural therapy so you could just “shout” stop in your mind or out loud to get the thoughts to stop and this can disrupt them so you don’t constantly ruminate. As well as please consider practising self-compassion. If you’re struggling with sleep then this is okay, it’s normal and it’s understandable given your situation, so please be kind to yourself. Beating yourself up will not help you go to sleep any faster. Being kind to yourself is one of the best things you can do. I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET CBT For Depression: A Clinical Psychology Introduction to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Depression. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Clancy, F., Prestwich, A., Caperon, L., Tsipa, A., & O’connor, D. B. (2020). The association between worry and rumination with sleep in non-clinical populations: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Health Psychology Review, 14(4), 427-448. Davey, G. C., Meeten, F., & Field, A. P. (2022). What’s worrying our students? Increasing worry levels over two decades and a new measure of student worry frequency and domains. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 46(2), 406-419. Emran, M. G. I., Mahmud, S., Khan, A. H., Bristy, N. N., Das, A. K., Barma, R., ... & Roy, M. (2024). Factors influencing stress levels among students: A virtual exploration. European Journal of Medical and Health Sciences, 6(6), 67-75. Harvey, A. G. (2002). A cognitive model of insomnia. Behaviour research and therapy, 40(8), 869-893. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12294785/#sec1-ijerph-22-01001 Iqbal, N., & Dar, K. A. (2015). Negative affectivity, depression, and anxiety: Does rumination mediate the links?. Journal of affective disorders, 181, 18-23. Jansson-Fröjmark, M., Sunnhed, R., Carney, C. E., & Rosendahl, I. (2024). Conceptual overlap of negative thought processes in insomnia: A focus on catastrophizing, worry, and rumination in a student sample. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 22(6), 857-872. Joubert, A. E., Moulds, M. L., Werner‐Seidler, A., Sharrock, M., Popovic, B., & Newby, J. M. (2022). Understanding the experience of rumination and worry: A descriptive qualitative survey study. British journal of clinical psychology, 61(4), 929-946. Lancet, T. (2022). An age of uncertainty: mental health in young people. Lancet (London, England), 400(10352), 539. Liu, Z., Xie, Y., Sun, Z., Liu, D., Yin, H., & Shi, L. (2023). Factors associated with academic burnout and its prevalence among university students: a cross-sectional study. BMC medical education, 23(1), 317. Manzar, M. D., Salahuddin, M., Pandi-Perumal, S. R., & Bahammam, A. S. (2021). Insomnia may mediate the relationship between stress and anxiety: a cross-sectional study in university students. Nature and Science of Sleep, 31-38. Morin, C. M., Rodrigue, S., & Ivers, H. (2003). Role of stress, arousal, and coping skills in primary insomnia. Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine, 65(2), 259-267. Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Watkins, E. R. (2011). A heuristic for developing transdiagnostic models of psychopathology: Explaining multifinality and divergent trajectories. Perspectives on psychological science, 6(6), 589-609. Petak, A., & Maričić, J. (2025). The role of rumination and worry in the bidirectional relationship between stress and sleep quality in students. International journal of environmental research and public health, 22(7), 1001. Riemann, D., Spiegelhalder, K., Feige, B., Voderholzer, U., Berger, M., Perlis, M., & Nissen, C. (2010). The hyperarousal model of insomnia: a review of the concept and its evidence. Sleep medicine reviews, 14(1), 19-31. Schmickler, J. M., Blaschke, S., Robbins, R., & Mess, F. (2023). Determinants of sleep quality: a cross-sectional study in university students. International journal of environmental research and public health, 20(3), 2019. Segerstrom, S. C., Tsao, J. C., Alden, L. E., & Craske, M. G. (2000). Worry and rumination: Repetitive thought as a concomitant and predictor of negative mood. Cognitive therapy and Research, 24(6), 671-688. Thomsen, D. K., Mehlsen, M. Y., Christensen, S., & Zachariae, R. (2003). Rumination—relationship with negative mood and sleep quality. Personality and Individual Differences, 34(7), 1293-1301. Tousignant, O. H., Taylor, N. D., Suvak, M. K., & Fireman, G. D. (2019). Effects of rumination and worry on sleep. Behavior therapy, 50(3), 558-570. Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. Psychological bulletin, 134(2), 163. Zhang, J., Li, X., Tang, Z., Xiang, S., Tang, Y., Hu, W., ... & Wang, X. (2024). Effects of stress on sleep quality: multiple mediating effects of rumination and social anxiety. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, 37(1), 10. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.

I simply cannot put this psychology podcast episode off anymore. On the day that this podcast episode goes out I will be returning from a wonderful long weekend away with my parents and my godmother to a little country escape in England. It will be a great weekend because the destination sounds good, we’ll be doing a lot of things and I enjoy spending time with my family. Yet this doesn’t hide the fact that I am nervous, anxious and in the days leading up to the holiday, I am a little dysregulated because of my autism and signs of ADHD. I am really nervous about the break away from my routines, if there will be enough stimulation for me in the evenings and even though the holiday is only for four days, it is still a massive change for me. Autistic people don’t always do well with change. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, we’re going to be exploring why travel is difficult for neurodivergent people, what some of the challenges are and most importantly, how can we support people with neurodivergence to thrive during traveling. I’ll also discuss implications for aspiring and qualified clinical psychologists. If you enjoy learning about ADHD, autism and real-world problems, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Gamification of Autism: A Guide to Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Mental Health. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Why is Traveling Difficult as a Neurodivergent Person? To kick off this psychology podcast episode, I want to briefly remind us what exactly some neurodivergent conditions are, then I’ll explain how these conditions can negatively impact someone’s experience of travel. Yet first, I want to mention that just because someone has autism, ADHD or another condition, it doesn’t mean that they hate traveling. Traveling and going on holiday as well as seeing the world can be great fun, beautiful and it can be an eye-opening experience. However, neurodivergent people can experience difficulties that neurotypical people do not. As a result, autism is a developmental disorder that affects information processing so people with autism have difficulties with communication and social skills. As well as autistic people have restrictive interests, engage in repetitive behaviours and they experience sensitivity or distress from sensory stimulation. For instance, bright lights and sounds. Then there is the additional symptom that autistic people love structure, routine and they don’t like change. Therefore, autism can make traveling more challenging for someone because traveling involves a large break away from their regular routines that help to keep them regulated. Airports, train stations and other places involved in traveling are often noisy, loud and very busy with a lot of pushing and shuffling, this all increases the sensory overwhelm that autistic people experience. Personally, there have been numerous times in my young life when my autism was more severe when I had wanted to scream, self-harm or just cry because traveling was just too much for me. This was even worse in 2024, because I had the sensory overwhelm and the associated distress because of my autism, but then I also had the extreme distress of the PTSD because of my rape. Traveling was a lot for me and it really did harm my mental health. In addition, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurobehavioural disorder that’s characterised by hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattentiveness and distractibility. This means that people with ADHD can struggle to concentrate on tasks, they might daydream frequently and they might struggle to stay organised, manage their time as well as keep track of their belongings. Also, people with ADHD like to fidget. As a result, ADHD can make travel challenging because there is a lot to remember when you’re traveling. You need to manage your time effectively so you don’t miss trains, flights or layovers. You need to keep track of your passport, tickets, clothes and everything else that you need when you’re packing, when you’re at the hotel and so on. Sometimes this is difficult enough for neurotypical adults to manage so I hate to imagine how difficult it is for someone with ADHD. Furthermore, as I spoke about in a previous podcast episode, Why Does ADHD Make it Difficult to get Started, a regular routine is a very important and effective strategy to help a person with ADHD to get started, to regulate and manage their condition. When you’re traveling this goes out the window so it can be harder for a person with ADHD to manage their symptoms. Personally, something that I worry about when it comes to traveling with some signs of ADHD is that I need stimulation so badly. I really don’t want to get dysregulated and bored and fidgety, like I was on Christmas Day. Even though my family are amazing and supportive, I don’t want them to kindly suggest that I go upstairs and do things on my laptop so I’m busy, I have my stimulation and I’m not pacing. Of course, this is a lot harder to do on holiday, especially in the evenings. Normally, in the evenings, I go on my laptop, I do writing, business or anything else that needs doing. At the moment in my evenings, I’m promoting my UK Government petition to improve the lives and employment prospects of psychology students. Yet I cannot do that on holiday and that concerns me. I don’t want to spoil the holiday for my family if I get dysregulated and… I just get anxious about it. Finally for this section, I’ve covered dyspraxia before on the podcast in-depth, but this impacts coordination, understanding sense of direction and a few other aspects that directly impacts travel. Truth be told, there is a joke in my family at the moment that because we’re going to Swanage that I shouldn’t drive because we should end up in Swansea in Wales (another country). This was because of my dyslexia and dyspraxia I thought Swansea and Swanage were the same exact place for the longest time. Therefore, whilst this isn’t a concern on this holiday, having a diagnosis of dyspraxia and/ or dyslexia can be concerning and stressful for neurodivergent people. Since it can raise concerns about if they’ve understood the holiday information right, what if they misread the destination name, the booking information or they’ve made another massive mistake that might mess up the holiday. Then you get into concerns about what are the other people you’re going on holiday with going to think about you and so on. It just adds to the immense stress of going on holiday. Some other challenges of traveling as a neurodivergent person can include communication difficulties so neurodivergent travellers might struggle with social cues as well as communication. This can make interactions more difficult in new environments and more stressful. As well as navigating brand-new public transport systems can be immensely stressful because public transport systems often lack features designed to accommodate neurodivergent needs. This decreases the amount of accessible options available to neurodivergent travellers whilst increasing the stress they experience. As well as there are personal safety concerns because neurodivergent people can be fearful of harassment and other safety issues so they can become less confident and less willing to go traveling. Why Does the Difficulty of Traveling as a Neurodivergent Person Matter to Clinical Psychologists? The difficulty of traveling as a neurodivergent person matters to aspiring and qualified clinical psychologists, because as you can imagine, we will never know who’s going to come into our therapy room, our mental health service and we will never know what our work will entail. You might be asked by a local authority, national government or another public service to consult on making the transport system or another aspect of daily life more neurodivergent-friendly. This knowledge will be immensely useful to you, and you’ll be able to apply the information from this podcast episode directly to your clinical work. Another benefit of knowing about this topic is you might have an autistic client who is making good progress in therapy, then they come to you and express their anxiety and distress about a holiday that their partner, family or loved one has booked for them in between now and your last session. They want your advice and guidance on how to cope with it because they know this trip is important to the loved one and they don’t want to disappoint. As a result, the content of this episode will help give you more awareness, understanding and empathy for the client in this normal-to-you situation. Lastly for this section, an aspiring or qualified clinical psychologist might be supporting a neurotypical partner or parent in therapy and they explain that going on holiday would mean so much for them, but they don’t know how to make it less stressful for themselves, the family system and their autistic or ADHD partner or child. The knowledge in this episode might help you suggest a few ideas, explore different options and it will give you a starting point to help your client. How to Make Traveling Easier as a Neurodivergent Person? Thankfully, there are a range of tips and tricks that neurodivergent people can use to improve their travel experience, self-regulate and make the trip easier on themselves and others. Ensure Neurodivergent Needs are Baked into the Planning of Travel Firstly, ensure that your neurodivergent needs are met and involved in the planning phase of the travel. This ensures that the destination aligns with your sensory needs, your needs for stimulation and rest as well as your accessibility requirements. For instance, I don’t need any rest planned into my trip but I have had neurodivergent friends in the past who needed frequent rest breaks, so this should always be factored in. In terms of destination, you might want to think about how the climate might impact you and your sensory needs, what the hotel and country is known for and more. For example, if you find hot weather, getting sweaty and humidity to be distressing because of your sensory needs, then a hot country might not be the best destination for you. Equally, if you have a sensitivity to bright lights, loud noises and more, then a hotel known for its clubbing isn’t a good idea. Another useful tip when it comes to holiday planning is allow flexibility in timings and schedules. When I first read that tip I panicked a little because I flat out hate the idea of plans being changed, things not happening and people not sticking to the schedule. My autism hates that with an utter passion. Yet it’s important that you incorporate buffer time between your activities and these can be scheduled breaks that allow for decompression and self-regulation. As well as it can be a good idea to not overload your schedule so you don’t get overwhelmed, fatigued and you don’t experience autistic burnout. This allows you to enjoy the wonderfully relaxing comfort of a structured routine but it still allows you to have some spontaneity. A final tip for this first section is as part of your neurodivergent needs, it is perfectly okay for you to think about, bring and use items that soothe or stimulate you as required. Such as, a fidget toy, noise-cancelling headphones, preferred snacks and so on. As well as it can be a good idea to travel during off-peak hours or out of season to decrease some of the sensory overwhelm during travel. Ultimately, I would always stress that your needs have to come first. You are the most important person to you so your needs always need to be respected, appreciated and accommodated for within reason. As a result, there is nothing wrong with saying to your friends, your family or your partner about your sensory needs and what you need to make it enjoyable for you. It is not right that everyone else gets to enjoy the holiday or traveling except you. You matter. Therefore, as aspiring or qualified clinical psychologists, I firmly believe that this is something that we can support a client with during therapy or counselling. We can help the neurodivergent client to improve their self-advocacy skills, their self-confidence and their ability to manage resistance to their needs and boundaries. All of these are important life skills, but they are even more important when it comes to a distressing experience like travel. Neurodivergent People can Create a Self-Regulation Toolkit for Traveling This is a tip for neurodivergent people whilst traveling that I am starting to turn my own mind towards. I understand that my routines will be disrupted, I will not be able to do a lot of the normal activities that I use to keep me regulated and this is a cause for concern. Therefore, whilst by its very nature travel does disrupt our routines so this can be very destabilising for autistic people, there are ways around this. Something I learnt during my rape counselling and I talk more about this in my book Healing As a Survivor, you can create a list of all the activities that help you to self-regulate and self-soothe. You can also divide them into different categories like self-soothing activities when I’m out, at home, with friends or I only have a few minutes before I need to do something else. Creating this list helps you to see all your self-regulation activities and you can pick a handful of them that you can take on holiday with you. For example, because it has been ages since I last went on holiday, and I haven’t been on holiday since my rape, I have no idea what self-regulation activities I can and cannot easily do whilst on holiday. Yet I have a rough idea. I will still be in the UK and I never use my mobile data so even if the caravan doesn’t have free Wi-Fi, I will have internet access. This means I can still be incredibly sad and autistic and maintain some of my routines. For instance, on the Friday evening, I can go on the UK Government’s petition website and sign all the petitions published that day that I support and agree with. That’s one way of maintaining my daily routine. Also, I can listen to my music that self-soothes me from the anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. As well as I can do a little bit of writing on my phone. Finally, I can do some reading because I always have a bunch of books to read on my Google Books and Kobo account. When I combine reading with using my mobile data so I can use my free likes on my dating apps, then this helps me to bring a little more of my bedtime routine and structure on holiday with me. As well as I am seriously debating getting a Crunchyroll subscription in the next few days so I can watch anime when I’m on holiday. Thankfully, Crunchyroll allows for offline viewing. On the whole, when you really think about it, there are a lot of self-soothing activities that you can bring on holiday with you. Whether these activities help you to self-regulate or just create a small sense of your structured routine from home, these activities can be immensely powerful and useful in helping to make travel easier for you. As aspiring or qualified clinical psychologists, this is something that you might want to do with neurodivergent clients in a therapy or counselling session. Me and my rape counsellor spent a good chunk of time coming up with different ideas for different categories and it was really helpful, useful and even nowadays (18 months later), I still come back to that useful session to help self-regulate. What are Some ADHD-Specific Travel Tips? As I mentioned earlier, people with ADHD can have additional struggles when it comes to travel because they can experience time-blindness, decision paralysis, impulsivity amongst other psychological or behavioural symptoms that can derail or negatively impact their travel plans. This is why it can be useful to use digital tools to organise your travel plans and set reminders. Some people with ADHD recommend Triplt or PackPoint. I have not used these online tools personally so these are not recommendations. Other tips for people with ADHD can be to set reminders as well as alarms so you can remind yourself when you need to get going or start transitioning towards the next activity. Additionally, people with ADHD might benefit from allowing extra time whilst traveling to pack and they could ask their travel companion, their loved one or friend to help keep them accountable. A final specific tip for people with ADHD is to put essential items like chargers, comfort items and medication in a dedicated pouch that you always carry with you. In terms of aspiring or qualified clinical psychologists, it can be useful to remember to work to a client’s specific condition and challenges. Since whilst the vast, vast majority of this episode will apply to all neurodivergent conditions, some individual clients will benefit or not from different tips. For example, all the bits mentioned in this ADHD section wouldn’t be useful to me personally, but that’s because I have autism, not a diagnosable level of ADHD. Therefore, the practical application of this section is a helpful reminder that we always need to focus on the specific needs, strengths and challenges of the client instead of assuming just because they’re neurodivergent they “must” struggle with x, y and z. Consider Checking Out Online Creators for Neurodivergent Travel Tips Personally, there was a lot of toing and throwing about whether I added this section into this episode, because I am incredibly wary of suggesting content creators, so I will not recommend any. I have this sense of wariness because I am always concerned of bad actors in the online creator space where people claim to put out science-based insights that are heavily researched, supported by clinical practitioners and more. When in reality, they are just making stuff up, pushing their own beliefs or they’re pushing pseudo-science. This is why I always mention that I’m a clinical psychology graduate in the introduction of my podcast episodes so you know I have university-level qualifications in psychology and I always include a heavy reference section at the end of the blog posts. This helps you to know that the information I put out into the world is coming from a good source. Other online creators aren’t so good when it comes to this verification. Anyway, jumping off my little soapbox, content creators do play an important role in building a sense of shared life experience as well as community. Also, it is really good when someone shares their life experience with other people (and they label it as their own experience and not fact or a universal truth). Therefore, you could go online, social media or YouTube and research neurodivergent travel tips so you can get hacks, tips and tricks for navigating airports, emotional support strategies and more as a neurodivergent person. This is helpful because it helps to normalise the difficulties that neurodivergent people experience when traveling. Whilst there isn’t anything too applicable in this section for aspiring or qualified clinical psychologists, I think there are some applications in self-efficacy. Since one of the reasons why I am able to manage my own mental health and actually recover from my trauma in the first place is because I was able to research, understand concepts and I was able to adapt my own life to improve it. I did it for my rape, my anorexia and my insecure attachment styles. Yet I have observed that a lot of people don’t know how to research, improve their life on their own and this can create difficulties for clients, especially after formal therapy ends. Therefore, I don’t know how this would work in a practical sense, but it might be an idea to explore with a client and walk through with them how they could research a problem for themselves that they might encounter in the future. This might be something that you do towards the end of therapy, because whilst you would have given the client a lot of techniques, tips and tricks to manage their mental health into the future. They might still be concerned about what if the techniques don’t work in a specific situation. This could be a good opportunity to increase their self-efficacy and explore how to research, find tips, resources and creators online to support them. It’s just a thought. Find Neurodivergent-Friendly Attractions and Travel Agencies A final set of tips and tricks that can make travel easier for neurodivergent people is to look out for neurodivergent-friendly attractions and travel agencies. Since different attractions might actively work to support neurodivergent people, so a museum might have sensory-friendly hours, there might be hotels with low-stimulation environments as well as there might be nature trails with quiet zones. These neurodivergent-friendly attractions are becoming more popular. On the other hand, there are travel agencies that specialise in travel for neurodivergent people by offering support staff, pre-trip consultations and tailored itineraries. These can all be immensely useful for neurodivergent people and families because it can help to alleviate any concerns, it can help provide that sense of structure and routine that neurodivergent people crave and it can get rid of a lot of the stress. In terms of aspiring and clinical psychologists, whilst this particular tip doesn’t apply to our clinical work. This is the sort of work that we could be actively promoting, encouraging and getting involved with. For instance, it isn’t rare for clinical psychologists to be getting involved in advocacy or consultation work, so a clinical psychologist gets to support a company or travel agency to create more neurodivergent-friendly products. As well as a clinical psychologist could consult on a business project to make a hotel or a new resort neurodivergent-friendly. This would actually be a lot of fun and it just goes to show you the power of psychology. Clinical Psychology Conclusion This psychology podcast episode firmly reminds me why I flat out love The Psychology World Podcast. I have been nervous, anxious and a little unsure of this week because I go on holiday for four days on Friday. I know I will enjoy it because I’ll be with my family, I get to experience new things and I get to explore and get new story ideas. Yet I am anxious about the disruptions to my routines, the questionable lack of stimulation in the evenings and so on. However, this podcast episode has given us a lot of different tips and ideas about how to make travel easier for neurodivergent individuals. For example, as I’m still in the UK and I have a lot of mobile data (because I never use it) I can do my nightly Duolingo, signing online petitions, reading, writing and using my dating apps to bring some of that routine and structure from home on holiday with me. Therefore, whether you’re a parent, a loved one, a clinical psychologist or a neurodivergent person yourself, I hope you’ve learnt just as much as I have. As a little reminder, here are some tips to help a neurodivergent person whilst traveling: · Advocate for your neurodivergent needs in the planning stage · Create a self-regulation toolkit that you can take on holiday · For people with ADHD, set alarms for transitions and schedule extra time for packing · Check out online creators sharing neurodivergent travel tips (check they know what they’re talking about though) · Find neurodivergent-friendly attractions and travel agencies I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Gamification of Autism: A Guide to Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Mental Health. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Barclay, D. M. (2022). Traveling different: Vacation strategies for parents of the anxious, the inflexible, and the neurodiverse. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. Castro, R. T. D., Batista, M. M., & Andrada, M. E. S. (2025). Airport accessibility for neurodivergent passengers: a global survey of initiatives and its implications. Revista Brasileira de Pesquisa em Turismo, 19, e-3077. Edwards, D., Csontos, J., Gillen, E., Wharf, T., Purcell, C., Ingram, B. J., ... & Lewis, R. (2026). The impact of changes in active travel infrastructure on disabled people: A rapid review. https://blog.oncallinternational.com/supporting-neurodivergent-travelers-challenges-strategies-and-support/ https://satgurutravel.com/neurodivergent-travel-guide/ https://www.motabilityfoundation.org.uk/media/t5yowvej/autistica-transport-report-2025-final.pdf https://www.travel-owl.com/post/neurodivergent-travel-planning https://www.walkwheelcycletrust.org.uk/our-blog/research/neurodivergence-and-active-travel-addressing-the-barriers/ Jepson, A., Stadler, R., & Garrod, B. (2024). Tourism and neurodiversity: A problematisation and research agenda. Current Issues in Tourism, 27(4), 546-566. Leger, S. (2025). Mindful Streets: Examining the politics and practices of everyday mobility negotiated by those who are neurodivergent and the potential for more inclusive (and just) street design for ‘all’. Sebastian, R., Kottekkadan, N. N., Thomas, T. K., & KK, M. N. (2026). Travelling for the ‘gifted’: neuro-inclusive family holidays. In Handbook on Children and Family Tourism (pp. 239-252). Edward Elgar Publishing. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.

As I spoke about in a previous podcast episode, the United Kingdom has a massivequalification problem when it comes to psychology degrees. Therefore, on the 23rd April 2026, the UK Government’s Petitions Committee approved my petition for publication on their website. My petition calls on the UK Government to review how psychology students can gain the practical experience and clinical skills needed to become qualified mental health practitioners as part of an undergraduate degree. This could help to solve the mental health, NHS recruitment and graduate employment crisis. In this clinical psychology podcast episode, I’ll take you through my policy, the benefits and the challenges and solutions to make this policy work in the real-world. If you’re a UK resident then please sign this petition. If you aren’t a UK resident, then please share the petition online. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Your Unshakable Self: A Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and Mental Health Guide to Sense of Self. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Policy Briefing Create Psychology Licensing Degrees. UK residents- sign the petition now! Non-UK residents, please share the petition online. Summary · Psychology students want to improve lives, decrease psychological distress and make the world a better place. · The Mental Health Foundation and London School of Economics and Political Science found mental health conditions cost the UK Economy at least £118 billion per year. This is because of lost productivity from people with mental health conditions and unpaid informal carers having to withdraw from employment to look after these individuals. This represents approximately 5% of UK’s Gross Domestic Product. · To fix the mental health crisis, the UK Government argued the NHS need to recruit an extra 8,500 mental health practitioners. Yet no one knows where to recruit these practitioners from. · Licensing degrees are commonplace throughout the United Kingdom. A 3-year social work undergraduate degree allows graduates to become qualified social workers. A 3-year nursing undergraduate degree allows graduates to become a registered nurse, including a mental health nurse. · In 2023, 42,770 psychology students graduated across the United Kingdom. These students are specialists in understanding human behaviour, mental health conditions and applying psychology in the real world. Under current UK legislation, psychology degrees do not allow psychology graduates to become qualified professionals. · Current UK legislation is preventing the Government from solving the mental health crisis by inhibiting the creation of psychology licensing degrees. These would allow psychology students to become qualified mental health professionals upon graduation. Recommendations for Policy Create Licensing Degrees. The Government should work with the British Psychological Society, Health and Care Professions Council and Universities to create licensing psychology degrees as soon as possible. This will allow psychology students to learn the clinical skills and gain the practical experience needed to become qualified mental health professionals upon graduation. A delay on psychology licensing degrees will be incredibly damaging to the NHS, the psychology job market and individuals with mental health difficulties. Create Jobs. The Government will create jobs by creating psychology licensing degrees. They will allow psychology graduates to become mental health practitioners. This will allow graduates to earn higher income, pay more tax and grow the UK’s tax revenue. This can be reinvested in public services. This benefits the Labour Party by demonstrating the Government is serious about creating highly skilled jobs that will improve our nation. Create Economic Growth. The mental health practitioners created by psychology licensing degrees will allow individuals with mental health conditions to get back into work, boost economic productivity and it will allow unpaid informal carers to get back into the workforce. This means these individuals will work more, pay more tax and boost the UK’s economy. Potentially by as much as £118 billion per year. Policy Challenges and Solutions Psychology Trainees Could Harm Individuals with Mental Health Difficulties. Critics might argue psychology trainees might harm clients with mental health conditions whilst on trainee placement. However, psychology licensing degrees should operate like any other licensing degree. Psychology trainees would receive high quality teaching and supervision, similar to nursing, podiatry and other roles. Trainee nurses are just as likely to harm a patient as a psychology trainee, but trainee nurses do not cause harm. Trainees are allowed to gain practical experience in hospitals with real patients. Psychology trainees should be given the same opportunity. Universities Need Partnerships with Mental Health Services. Some critics would argue it costs money, time and resources for universities to develop the partnerships needed with mental health services to give psychology trainees the practical experience required of a licensing degree. This is already commonplace in psychology postgraduate courses. Universities providing the Doctorate of Clinical or Educational Psychology have partnerships with NHS services and local authorities. This demonstrates universities already have the skills, connections and relationships to show the effectiveness of trainees in mental health. In a licensing degree, these partnerships would have to be expanded, but with government support and intervention, this is doable. Especially, with the potential Return on Investment being £118 billion a year to the UK Economy. Not All Psychology Students Want to Be Practitioners. It is true not all psychology students would want to become mental health practitioners, but if only 20% of psychology graduates from 2023 became practitioners, then this would solve the NHS’s mental health recruitment crisis. Psychology students should be given the option to take a non-licensing or licensing psychology degree. This will allow universities, students and Government the flexibility it needs to address the mental health crisis in the UK. Call to Action It is critical that psychology students sign the petition to encourage the Government to take this important action so psychology graduates can become mental health practitioners. This will help graduates become more employable, solve the mental health crisis and improve lives. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/764524 I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Your Unshakable Self: A Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and Mental Health Guide to Sense of Self. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.

To kick off this mini-series on attachment styles in developmental psychology, you’re going to learn about what is secure attachment today. Since we constantly hear about the insecure attachment styles, like avoidant, anxious and disorganised attachment and for good reason. Insecure attachments can have damaging impacts on a person’s relationships, mental health and emotional regulation. However, I don’t think there is enough focus on secure attachment because not a lot of people know what secure attachment is and what it looks like. Therefore, in this developmental psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what secure attachment is, what the signs of secure attachment are in adults and children and so much more. If you enjoy learning about social psychology, attachment theory and child psychology then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Your Unshakable Self: A Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and Mental Health Guide to Sense of Self. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What Is Secure Attachment? Secure attachment is the bond where a person feels supported, safe as well as connected so they can express emotions freely, confidently explore their environment and seek comfort from their partner knowing that they have a reliable base to return to. In attachment theory, this is known as having a secure base and children use this to explore the environment knowing that their attachment figure is close by and will protect and comfort them if anything bad happens. In addition, having a secure attachment style means they can communicate effectively with others, they can regulate their feelings and emotions, the person is comfortable with intimacy as well as they have good problem-solving and coping skills. Moreover, people with a secure attachment style are comfortable being alone and being close to other people. As well as they are empathetic, compassionate and trusting. I know some readers or listeners might be confused as to why this is a special form of attachment because this might be so normal for you that you believe this is the only way to be. In an ideal world, I completely agree that it would be lovely if everyone was securely attached. It certainly would have made my life so much easier, but unfortunately because of abuse, childhood neglect and other environmental factors some children develop insecure attachment styles. Mainly because their caregiver was either a source of fear, they were inconsistent with their love and affection or they punished or shamed the child for showing emotions. All of these go against secure attachment because if a parent shamed you for showing emotions then you are not going to feel safe communicating your feelings and you aren’t going to be comfortable with intimacy because you don’t want to be punished or shamed again for showing your feelings. What Are The Benefits of Secure Attachment In Children? The benefits of children having secure attachment include the child having high self-esteem. Since secure attachment helps a child to develop a positive self-image and a healthier sense of identity. Leading to greater feelings of confidence in their abilities as well as decision-making skills so this helps to improve their overall psychological wellbeing. Another benefit is secure attachment helps to improve a child’s ability to form and maintain relationships with others, so they show higher levels of social competence and empathy compared to others. A smaller benefit of social skills is that secure attachment means children are better at conflict resolution so they have more positive interactions with adults and peers. Thirdly, children with secure attachment have a better ability to express and manage their emotions, so they tend to have more stable mood patterns and healthier responses to stress. Lastly for this section, secure attachment allows a child to get a healthy balance between showing self-reliance and seeking support. This means the child shows greater confidence in exploring new situations and improved problem-solving skills when facing challenges without others. This point about independence is something I often struggle with because my anxious part of my disorganised attachment means I like seeking comfort some of the time. Yet the avoidant part of my attachment means I am extremely self-reliant and I hate depending on other people at times, so I will avoid expressing my own needs and seeking comfort at all costs. What Are The Signs of Secure Attachment In Children? Now that we know the benefits of secure attachment in children, let’s see what are the signs. Personally, I’ll hopefully always remember this really sweet moment when my brother, his girlfriend and her son were round my parents’ once. I think the child was about two years old and he was exploring my parents’ house because it was a new environment and he always loved it round ours. And he would crawl away, look back to see if his mum and my brother were still there and he would crawl forward some more and check again. It was so cute and lovely to see how a child reacts to having a secure base. Of course, I was the only one who understood this was because of his secure attachment but everyone found it sweet. Anyway, for a child to develop a secure attachment style, they need to grow up in an environment where they feel seen and protected by their caregivers. Since if a caregiver doesn’t respond to a child’s needs then the child might not develop a secure attachment style because there is a lack of a secure and stable bond. Additionally, children with a secure attachment have a worldview of the world being friendly and reliable. In other words, they learn to trust that the people around them are dependable and kind. As well as these securely attached children use their caregivers as a secure base to explore the social world and they see their caregivers as a safe haven to return to for comfort whenever they’re distressed. In turn, the caregiver helps the securely attached child to develop self-regulation skills so the child knows how to regulate their emotional, cognitive and social behaviours. These skills are taught to the child whenever the caregiver comforts them when they’re distressed. In my opinion, I do tend to find there are always moments when I research certain topics in psychology, like attachment, when I’m like “no, that isn’t how the world works,”. When I wrote about people with a secure attachment style seeing the world as a reliable and friendly place, I really couldn’t understand how someone could see the world like that. And it just reminds me that I need to catch myself with my own biased cognitive processes because generally the world is a great and friendly place. I just need to keep reminding myself that yes, I have a disorganised attachment style, but I need to keep reminding myself that not everyone is unreliable and unkind. Anyway, some other signs of secure attachment in children can include a child wanting to seek comfort from their caregivers, preferring their caregiver over strangers, comfortable interactions with others, a child comfortably exploring new areas and a positive response to the return of their parents. This reminds me of a conversation I was having recently with a mature student studying social work during one of the reading support sessions I run as a student ambassador. She was telling me how she couldn’t imagine not responding to her child’s needs even though she admitted she might be overresponding and giving them too much attention at times. And it made me smile because I know this ambassador very well and of course, you are not going to tell a work friend the bad parts of your parenting or your life because everyone has them. We are simply human after all. Yet I know this woman is very authentic, she loves her kids and she would never imagine not responding to their needs. It was a weird feeling for me to see that, but I guess that’s why I’m working on my attachment style. I don’t want these perfectly normal things to be weird for me anymore. On the whole, securely attached children show balanced behavioural strategies where they’re able to express their need for autonomy and intimacy. With autonomy being important because it facilitates a person’s interaction with the environment. This is even more important when we remember that the attachment style we develop in early childhood, whilst it can thankfully be changed, it does have a lifelong influence on our ability to communicate our needs and emotions, how we form expectations about our relationships and how we respond to conflict. What Are The Benefits of Secure Attachment In Adults? Shifting away from children for the majority of this remaining episode, secure attachment doesn’t only matter in children. Adults need to have secure attachment too because it helps them with their parenting skills because they are more likely to create secure attachments with their own children so they can continue this positive relationship pattern across the generations. As well as adults having secure attachment means they can have healthy relationships because they find it easier to trust others and maintain healthy boundaries in relationships. Therefore, like children, they show higher levels of social competence and empathy as well as they can develop better conflict resolution skills. This all helps adults have more stable and satisfying professional and personal relationships. Finally for this section, secure attachment helps adults to have improved emotional well-being. Due to secure attachment increases a person’s stress management skills and emotional resilience because they are better able to handle life’s challenges and they can bounce back from setbacks more easily. As well as they have improved emotion regulation skills so adults with secure attachment have healthier responses to stress and more stable moods. What Are Some Signs of Secure Attachment In Adults? As I briefly mentioned earlier, the attachment style we develop in early childhood is critical to the attachment style we have as adults. This continues to impact our relationship expectations, our worldview and how we interact with others as adults. Therefore, there are five main signs of an adult having secure attachment and you’ll learn about these signs now. Firstly, adults with secure attachment are able to open up about their emotions and how they feel, so they don’t hide their emotions or bottle things up. As well as they are comfortable asking for help when they need it, and opening up about their feelings so they don’t worry about being rejected or being let down. Another sign is that adults with secure attachment are resilient so whilst they might experience negative attachment-related events, they can still objectively assess events and people and assign a positive value to the relationship in general. In other words, a person, like a caregiver, can still let them down and not respond to their needs as an adult but the adult is still able to see that this isn’t a pattern and they don’t need to develop the anxious or avoidant behavioural patterns. Penultimately, secure attachments mean adults are comfortable with intimacy and closeness with others. Therefore, adults are okay with being close to other people and letting others be close to them so they feel good about themselves and they trust others. Also, people with secure attachment are comfortable sharing intimate moments with others and having their own space. I’ll have to admit that what is interesting about learning more about secure attachment is that I can really see and understand how disorganised my attachment style is. For example, I love sharing intimate moments with other people but equally, I seriously love having my own space away from other people, so it’s interesting seeing how I have two extreme behavioural strategies activated a good chunk of the time. Finally, secure attachment allows adults to show healthy interdependence, now this is a fascinating topic for me personally because I understand it from a psychology viewpoint. I do not understand it as a human being. As a result, healthy interdependence involves securely attached people being able to maintain a healthy balance of relying on their partner and meeting their own needs. This balance helps them to create deeper intimacy through being vulnerable whilst maintaining their own individuality. Developmental Psychology Conclusion I’ve really enjoyed learning about secure attachment because in clinical psychology and in psychology lectures, we spend a lot of time looking at insecure attachment styles. This is a good thing most of the time because it means we can understand what causes children and adults to have difficulties with social relationships and this has a massive impact on their mental health in turn. Yet if we don’t understand what secure attachment is then, how are we meant to know what attachment and relationship point of view, we’re helping them towards? I’m sure that question mainly comes from my own abuse, trauma and disorganised attachment background, but it has been a lot of fun focusing on secure attachment today. In future podcast episodes, you’ll learn about anxious, avoidant and disorganised attachment styles and they are even more fun. Here are some questions to get you thinking at the end of this developmental psychology podcast episode: · What moments from your life do you remember seeing signs of secure attachment? It can be from seeing other children or yourself. · Are you securely attached? · Think about your friends and yourself as adults, what signs of secure attachment can you recognise in them? · If you don’t fit into the secure attachment style, what signs don’t you have? · Why do you think attachment is important to learn about? I hope you enjoyed today’s developmental psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Your Unshakable Self: A Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and Mental Health Guide to Sense of Self. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Child Psychology References and Further Reading Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Lawrence Erlbaum. Baldwin, M.W., & Fehr, B. (1995). On the instability of attachment style ratings. Personal Relationships, 2, 247-261. Bartholomew, K., & Horowitz, L.M. (1991). Attachment Styles Among Young Adults: A Test of a Four-Category Model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61 (2), 226–244. Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and Loss: Volume I. Attachment . London: Hogarth Press. Brazelton, T. B., Tronick, E., Adamson, L., Als, H., & Wise, S. (1975). Early mother-infant reciprocity. Parent-infant interaction, 33(137-154), 122. Brennan, K. A., & Shaver, P. R. (1995). Dimensions of adult attachment, affect regulation, and romantic relationship functioning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21 (3), 267–283. Brennan, K. A., Clark, C. L., & Shaver, P. R. (1998). Self-report measurement of adult attachment: An integrative overview. In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (p. 46–76). The Guilford Press. Budniok, S., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M., & Bosmans, G. (2024). The moderating role of oxytocin in the association between parental support and change in secure attachment development. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 02724316241296180. Bylsma, W. H., Cozzarelli, C., & Sumer, N. (1997). Relation between adult attachment styles and global self-esteem. Basic and applied social psychology, 19 (1), 1-16. Caron, A., Lafontaine, M., Bureau, J., Levesque, C., and Johnson, S.M. (2012). Comparisons of Close Relationships: An Evaluation of Relationship Quality and Patterns of Attachment to Parents, Friends, and Romantic Partners in Young Adults. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 44 (4), 245-256. Cassidy, J., & Berlin, L. J. (1994). The insecure/ambivalent pattern of attachment: Theory and research. Child development, 65 (4), 971-991. Collins, N. L., & Read, S. J. (1994). Cognitive representations of adult attachment: The structure and function of working models. In K. Bartholomew & D. Perlman (Eds.) Advances in personal relationships, Vol. 5: Attachment processes in adulthood(pp. 53-90). London: Jessica Kingsley. Comte, A., Szymanska, M., Monnin, J., Moulin, T., Nezelof, S., Magnin, E., ... & Vulliez- Coady, L. (2024). Neural correlates of distress and comfort in individuals with avoidant, anxious and secure attachment style: an fMRI study. Attachment & Human Development, 26(5), 423-445. Conrad, R., Forstner, A. J., Chung, M. L., Mücke, M., Geiser, F., Schumacher, J., & Carnehl, F. (2021). Significance of anger suppression and preoccupied attachment in social anxiety disorder: a cross-sectional study. BMC psychiatry, 21 (1), 1-9. Ensink, K., Fonagy, P., Normandin, L., Rozenberg, A., Marquez, C., Godbout, N., & Borelli, J. L. (2021). Post-traumatic stress disorder in sexually abused children: secure attachment as a protective factor. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 646680. Favez, N., & Tissot, H. (2019). Fearful-avoidant attachment: a specific impact on sexuality?. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 45(6), 510-523. Field, T. (1985). Attachment as psychobiological attunement: Being on the same wavelength. The psychobiology of attachment and separation, 4152, 454. Finzi, R., Cohen, O., Sapir, Y., & Weizman, A. (2000). Attachment styles in maltreated children: A comparative study. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 31 (2), 113-128. Fraley, R. C., & Roisman, G. I. (2019). 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Clinical psychology & psychotherapy, 29(6), 1812-1842. Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1986). Discovery of an insecure-disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern. In T. B. Brazelton & M. W. Yogman (Eds.), Affective development in infancy . Ablex Publishing. Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50 (1-2), 66-104. Meins, E. (2013). Sensitive attunement to infants’ internal states: Operationalizing the construct of mind-mindedness. Attachment & Human Development, 15(5-6), 524-544. Moghadam, M., Rezaei, F., Ghaderi, E., & Rostamian, N. (2016). Relationship between attachment styles and happiness in medical students. Journal of family medicine and primary care, 5 (3), 593–599. Murray, L. (1985). 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J., Tarquinio, C., & Lucarelli, L. (2020). Adult attachment styles, self-esteem, and quality of life in women with fibromyalgia. Health Psychology Open, 7 (2), 2055102920947921. Simpson, J. A. (1990). Influence of attachment styles on romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social psychology, 59 (5), 971. Stern, D. N. (2018). The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental Psychology. Routledge. Tabachnick, A. R., He, Y., Zajac, L., Carlson, E. A., & Dozier, M. (2022). Secure attachment in infancy predicts context-dependent emotion expression in middle childhood. Emotion, 22(2), 258. Waters, E., Merrick, S., Treboux, D., Crowell, J., & Albersheim, L. (2000). Attachment security in infancy and early adulthood: A twenty-year longitudinal study. Child Development, 71 (3), 684-689. Weinberg, M. K., Beeghly, M., Olson, K. L., & Tronick, E. (2008). A still-face paradigm for young children: 2½ year-olds’ reactions to maternal unavailability during the still-face. The journal of developmental processes, 3(1), 4. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.