In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of books being banned in the United States for having LGBT+ themes and characters. Yet books are also being banned for teaching Critical Race Theory, having black characters and a whole host of other reasons. In this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn why do book bans harm mental health, why book bans harm our children and what groups are most impacted by book bans. This includes straight white authors who are trying to make a living. By the end of this podcast episode, you’ll understand the issue of book bans in a lot more depth. If you enjoy learning about discrimination, mental health and social psychology then you’ll enjoy this episode for sure. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Working With Children and Young People: A Guide To 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. Why Do Book Bans Harm Mental Health? In 2023 alone, according to the American Library Association, there was a 65% increase in title challenges as compared to the previous year. As well as nearly half of all these challenges were made by patrons, parents or political or religious groups and at the time of writing in 2025, this number has only increased. These pressure groups focus on public and school libraries and they typically challenge dozens, if not hundreds of titles at a single time. And 47% of these books that they challenged were about the lived experiences and voices of black and LGBT+ people. This includes books about black history and black main characters and stories that spoke about teen pregnancy and puberty (Haupt, 2022). In addition, I saw a newspaper headline recently about the trend of book bans in the United States is spreading over to the UK and other Western countries. I was talking to a local librarian the other month who I talk to regularly during Student Ambassador work and she’s under a lot of pressure to ban certain books. For no other reason than they contain black and LGBT characters. The books are perfectly fine, enjoyable and children love them, but parents want them gone for no good reason. Yet when a certain big name author is accused of rape and sexual violence against women, the same parents don’t want his books removed. That’s odd in my opinion. Anyway, the reason why these book bans are harmful to society is because they don’t protect society, they don’t protect children and they don’t protect people’s mental health as shown in the following research. How Do Book Bans Harm The Mental Health of Children and Teenagers? Firstly, book bans harm the mental health of children and teenagers, the very people who these pressure groups claim to protect. Children as well as teenagers need diverse books during this developmental period of their identity formation because these diverse books help them to have the opportunity to have an open dialogue and use critical thinking in a safe and supportive environment (Pfiefer and Berkman, 2018). Also, book bans don’t solve this so-called problem because children and young people will still find out this information but they might find it from worse sources. A school and public library offer children and teenagers a safe and monitored place to find good sources of information for their identity and trusted adults can support this. Keeping these books in libraries keep children and teenagers safe, not book bans. Personally, even without talking about LGBT+ fiction, I flat out loved books and the library as a kid. It was a brilliant place to find fun books I could escape into for a few hours. I could solve an impossible mystery, I could travel to a magical place or I could travel the stars with amazing characters. Books are such a powerful and amazing thing for children and they really help shape me into the person I am today. So the very idea that we would rob our children of books is horrible. How Do Book Bans Harm The Mental Health of Authors? Secondly, book bans harm the mental health of authors because these brilliant people are just trying to make a living from selling books. Therefore, book bans harm the author’s income and might make them feel isolated and excluded. We know from research that social isolation and marginalisation harms mental health, so book bans do not protect authors. As well as book bans mean authors can’t get invited to school or library visits so readers and authors miss out on chances to understand each other’s perspectives and to connect. Social media is another critical aspect because book bans increase online hate towards authors and we know that cyberbullying is associated with an increase in anxiety and depression for the victim (Hu et al., 2021). It was only the other week that I was reading an Instagram post from an author saying how much stress and anxiety he got from school visits because he didn’t know how badly he was going to be attacked and hated on by students and teachers alike. Book bans only increase this awful behaviour. Personally, as an author myself, I flat out love connecting with readers and it really makes my day when a reader says they enjoyed my story, my characters and some aspect of my work. I love connecting with readers because I find it interesting to hear what they have to say and what they enjoyed most. Sometimes it isn’t what I enjoyed most and that’s the best bit about these interactions. Yet book bans would rob me of these wonderful interactions. And if I’m having a bad day then these interactions can make a world of difference. It is wrong to steal these interactions from authors. How Do Book Bans Harm The Mental Health of School Staff and Librarians? Book bans harm the mental health of librarians and school staff because it adds anxiety and stress to their already massive workload. It creates an atmosphere of censorship and this is one of the reasons behind the increase in mental health difficulties amongst teaching staff in recent years (Shahzad, 2024). As well as a lot of libraries are having to use their already strained budgets to hire people, like security and social workers, to respond to the rise of confrontational patrons who are becoming more and more aggressive towards librarians. All because they believe certain events and books should be banned, so they get aggressive about it. I know how stretched and underappreciated librarians already are without the added stress and anxiety of censorship being added to their workload. Librarians are some of the most amazing, kindest and most brilliant people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting so it makes me sad that they are being abused for doing nothing wrong. Book bans should never happen because they harm the mental health of these brilliant librarians and school staff. How Do Book Bans Harm The Mental Health of Marginalised Individuals? I left my main community until last because I wanted to show you first of all that book bans have further reaching implications beyond marginalised individuals. Therefore, it is books that are written by and include characters of marginalised individuals that are most often challenged in these book bans. And this is bad because LGBT+ individuals are nearly three times more likely than heterosexual people to develop a mental health condition, like depression, anxiety and some studies say that nearly 45% of LGBT+ youth seriously consider attempting suicide (The Trevor Project, 2022). Also, we know from research, like Williams (2018) that people of colour experience higher rates of mental health difficulties in addition to experiencing increased barriers to mental health treatment. Largely because of socioeconomic barriers, stigma and discrimination. Ultimately, if you ban books about the history and lived experiences of marginalised people then this only increases feelings of exclusion and invisibility and intensifies the risk of them developing mental health difficulties (Pickering, 2023). Book bans do not protect children, they do not protect mental health and book bans risk increasing the suicide rate of marginalised children. Personally, reading gay romance as a late teenager, certainly didn’t make me gay and it saved me, it helped me and it showed me that no matter how dark and horrific my life seemed there was hope. It might have only been a sliver of light and hope at the end of a very abusive, twisted and terrifying tunnel where I was in fear for my life every second of every day, but gay romance books gave me a moment of peace. And maybe those precious moments of peace were why I didn’t end up being just another gay suicide statistic. Books really can save lives. Clinical Psychology Conclusion At the end of this psychology podcast episode, we all need to know that when books are banned, nobody wins and everyone is harmed. Not only because of it decreases reading but because it turns out attention towards social media, television and doom scrolling on the internet. According to Firth et al. (2018) this negatively impacts the brain’s ability to sustain attention for longer periods of time, discourages analytic thinking and it reduces long-term memory formation. In addition, book bans and the associated censorship increases discrimination as readers get the message that certain topics and groups are “bad” so this closes off our minds towards reading, understanding and learning what these topics and groups are actually about (Vogels et al., 2021) and often why these topics and groups are amazing. A final negative impact of book bans is that it reduces the most important benefit of reading. It reduces our empathy. Research, like Kucirkova (2019), shows us that reading books with characters that aren’t like you is the best way to build empathy. Do we really want to live in a world with reduced empathy? I don’t, and chances are neither do you. Of course, I won’t deny that parents have the right to influence  (not dictate) what their child reads, but banning books is detrimental to their mental health. As a result, you could argue that maybe the best thing to do is to have open, honest conversations with our children and other people about the topic or characters that people want to ban instead of banning the books themselves. This way we can all learn from each other’s perspectives and this means we can show our children that we trust them to make choices guided by their values regardless of what’s written on a page. Making decisions based on your values is one of the most important gifts and skills you could teach children. And this way, if we don’t ban books then we help to protect the mental health of our school staff, librarians, marginalised people, children and teenagers and the authors themselves. When books are banned, no one wins. When books are kept, everyone wins.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Working With Children and Young People: A Guide To 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. Social Psychology References and Further Reading Bailey, J. L. (2024). To Read or Not to Read: How Book Censorship Affects Students and Undermines Different Worldviews. Book Ban Data | Banned Books. (n.d.). www.ala.org. https://www.ala.org/bbooks/book-ban-data CUPE Research. “TURNING THE PAGE: Library Workplace Violence and Harassment Survey Report.” March 2023. ‌ Firth J, Torous J, Stubbs B, Firth JA, Steiner GZ, Smith L, Alvarez-Jimenez M, Gleeson J, Vancampfort D, Armitage CJ, Sarris J. The "online brain": how the Internet may be changing our cognition. World Psychiatry. 2019 Jun;18(2):119-129. doi: 10.1002/wps.20617. PMID: 31059635; PMCID: PMC6502424. Hammer, K. A. (2024). Book Banning in the United States: A Call for Multigenerational Activism. In Queering Desire (pp. 112-125). Routledge. Haupt A. The rise in book bans, explained. Washington Post. June 9, 2022. Accessed June 2, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/09/rise-book-bans-explained/ https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/well-read/202405/why-book-bans-are-bad-for-mental-health Hu, Y., Bai, Y., Pan, Y., & Li, S. (2021). Cyberbullying Victimization and Depression among Adolescents: A Meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research, 305, 114198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2021.114198 Kucirkova N. (2019). How Could Children's Storybooks Promote Empathy? A Conceptual Framework Based on Developmental Psychology and Literary Theory. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 121. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00121 LGBTQ+. (n.d.). NAMI. https://www.nami.org/your-journey/identity-and-cultural-dimensions/lgbt… McCluskey, T. Rippling Effects of Censorship and Book Bans in Education. Gleanings: A Journal of First-Year Student Writing, 35. Pfeifer JH, Berkman ET. The Development of Self and Identity in Adolescence: Neural Evidence and Implications for a Value-Based Choice Perspective on Motivated Behavior. Child Dev Perspect. 2018 Sep;12(3):158-164. doi: 10.1111/cdep.12279. Epub 2018 Feb 8. PMID: 31363361; PMCID: PMC6667174. ‌ Pickering, G. (2023). “Harmful to Minors”: How Book Bans Hurt Adolescent Development. The Serials Librarian, 84(1–4), 32–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2023.2245843 Ross, C. J. (2024). Are" Book Bans" Unconstitutional? Reflections on Public School Libraries and the Limits of Law. Stan. L. Rev., 76, 1675. ‌ Schwering SC, Ghaffari-Nikou NM, Zhao F, Niedenthal PM, MacDonald MC. Exploring the Relationship Between Fiction Reading and Emotion Recognition. Affect Sci. 2021 Apr 20;2(2):178-186. doi: 10.1007/s42761-021-00034-0. PMID: 36043173; PMCID: PMC9382981. Shahzad, K., Khan, S.A. and Iqbal, A. (2024), "Mental health issues of university librarians: a systematic literature review", Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-07-2023-0261 The Trevor Project. (2022). 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health. The Trevor Project. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2022/ Vogels, E., Anderson, M., Porteus, M., Baronavski, C., Atske, S., Mcclain, C., Auxier, B., Perrin, A., & Ramshankar, M. (2021, May 19). Americans and “Cancel Culture”: Where Some See Calls for Accountability, Others See Censorship, Punishment. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/05/19/americans-and-cancel-cu… Williams DR. Stress and the Mental Health of Populations of Color: Advancing Our Understanding of Race-related Stressors. J Health Soc Behav. 2018 Dec;59(4):466-485. doi: 10.1177/0022146518814251. PMID: 30484715; PMCID: PMC6532404. ‌ Woodward Jr, M. A. (2024). Burnout, Banned Books, and Incivility: A Mixed Methods Study on South Florida Librarians (Doctoral dissertation, Barry University). 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.

The majority of listeners of The Psychology World Podcast are between 40 and 50 years old and from conversations I’ve had with listeners, a lot of them have children or younger family members. As a parent, they want to protect, love and make sure their child is okay and happy whatever their age. No one wants their adult child to be suffering in silence and feel like they have no place to go, but for a wide range of reasons, sometimes an adult child doesn’t want to open up despite their suffering. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn about the phrases adult children might use to subtly communicate or hint that there is something wrong and they’re hurting and suffering. These phrases offer us a chance to explore and help them open up so we can discover why our adult child is suffering and most importantly, how to help them. By the end of this psychology podcast episode, you’ll understand how to tell if your adult child is hurting by listening to them, how to help an adult child and more. If you enjoy learning about parenting, developmental psychology and mental health then this is a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Introduction To Psychotherapies: A Clinical Psychology Introduction To Types of Different Psychological Therapies.  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. How To Tell if Your Adult Child Is Hurting By Listening To Them? A lot of adult children will never come to their parents and simply say that they’re struggling. Partly, I think this is a cultural thing because in Western culture, we’re told that we need to be strong, independent and we need to be able to solve our own difficulties no matter what. Also, on a personal level, there might be some kind of fear of judgement and fear of failure. We don’t want to admit to our parents that we’re struggling because, what will they think of us? How will they react? And so on. Therefore, adult children are more likely to subtly drop clues about their struggles, whether they mean to or not. This is where the 7 phrases that we’re going to talk about in today’s podcast episode are critical. In addition, as aspiring or qualified psychologists, this is an important topic to talk about because at some point in our clinical psychology career, we will have to support and work with a parent. This adult might have adult children, the client might be worried about them and their adult children might be a large or small maintaining factor in their mental health difficulties. As a result, if you are aware of these phrases and the true meaning behind them then maybe we can use this knowledge to help our clients understand what’s happening in their own lives and how to rectify it if appropriate. Personally, I never wanted to open up to my parents because they were invalidating and they never really supported me in my mental health up until the past few years. I know a lot of parents aren’t like this but sometimes adult children don’t want to open up because they don’t want to be emotionally hurt by their parents’ reactions, responses or invalidation. What Are the 7 Phrases That Reveal Your Adult Child Is Hurting? Firstly, an adult child might simply say “I don’t want to talk about it” and I think we can all remember instances where we have heard this or we have said it to someone. it was only the other week where I said it to my friends and housemates, because I didn’t want them judging me for this particular thing that was normal to a lot of people, but they would have disapproved. As a result, when someone says “I don’t want to talk about it”, you could take this as a sign of rebellion or avoidance. In reality, this is actually a sign of fear of being misunderstood and/ or a protective shield against the vulnerability of opening up. I’ll explain more about what parents can do later in the episode but for me, I always find it easier to open up and overcome this “I don’t want to talk about it” after the person has shown me that they will respect, listen and even if they don’t agree with what happened, they won’t invalidate me. Secondly, an adult child might say “I’m just tired all the time,” and normally you might brush this off as them not sleeping very well. This might be a cause for concern all by itself because you might wonder why aren’t they sleeping, what’s on their mind and so on. Yet feeling tired could be more than a lack of physical rest and sleep, it could be chronic emotional fatigue and anxiety, depression, burnout as well as trauma can be the cause of this fatigue too. Personally, during the worst of my mental health caused by my rape trauma, I was constantly fatigued. Yes, it was partly because of the lack of sleep because I couldn’t sleep very well with the constant PTSD, flashbacks and nightmares. Another aspect of the constant emotional fatigue of having to relive the trauma over and over and the constant panic and anxiety attacks and so on. Thirdly, an adult child might say “you wouldn’t understand,”. For a parent or friend, this might be very hurtful to hear and whilst, I have never said this directly, I often think it. This is often why I refuse to open up about a lot of different things to friends and parents and other family members. When I say “you wouldn’t understand” this isn’t rejecting them. It is me focusing on my fear of judgement and me not wanting the past pain that this person has caused me to repeat. I really want to be understood but I have no idea whether I should even let you in or not. And actually, this is something I really struggled with when my partner broke up with me because they had a lot on their plate, their chronic health was getting worse and they didn’t have time to date me despite how really sweet and lovely I am (I know it sounds like an excuse from them but I know it wasn’t and this isn’t the point of this episode). Yet I was very reluctant to tell my friends and housemates when they asked me “how was your day” because I didn’t want them judging me or blaming me again. There’s a lot of past pain that they’ve caused me because they would blame me when my social relationships went wrong. Sometimes they were completely right and sometimes they were seriously wrong too and they caused me a lot of pain. I didn’t want that to happen again but I eventually told them briefly and it was okay. Then I told one of my good friends about it and they were lovely and sweet about it. Fourthly, an adult child might say “I feel like I’m falling behind,”. This might sound like a strange one at first because a parent might not understand why an adult child feels like they’re falling behind. Or if they’re a university student or adjusting to a new job then we might normalise this behaviour and dismiss it as a normal part of life. Although, in reality, this simple phrase might reveal a deeper sense of inner shame and a lot of young adults feel they’re failing because of unfair, invisible standards about their life milestones, relationships as well as careers. I remember my brother mentioning this in passing once and this is one of the reasons why he didn’t go on social media a few years ago. His mental health wasn’t great because on Facebook he saw how all his childhood friends were getting married, having kids, buying houses, etc. He wasn’t and he didn’t have any of that so he was struggling and really felt like he was falling behind. Thankfully, he’s doing a lot better now. A fifth phrase that an adult child might say is “I’m just trying to get through the day,”. This is a phrase that I used so much in 2024 when I was dealing with the fallout of my rape. Of course, a lot of people use this phrase without having to deal with trauma but this is survival mode in a sentence. This simple phrase means that someone is experiencing overwhelm, hopelessness and/ or anxiety and your child might feel like they’re drowning in silence. Personally, my entire 2024 and even some of my 2025 when I was dealing with my anorexia, I constantly felt like I was drowning, I was struggling and I was being forced to take it just one day at a time. Thinking about anything more was just too much and my physical and mental health would change too much day-to-day to possibly plan anything more than that. It was awful and I didn’t want to open up about it because I didn’t want my friends and my parents to know just how much I was struggling or how I was dealing with it. Also, I didn’t want their invalidation, I didn’t want them to say stupid things that wouldn’t support me and so on. Penultimately, an adult child might say “what’s even the point,”. This is something I have said or at least thought a lot over the past year. Especially, around the time I did my three suicide attempts, because “what’s even the point” is a major sign of hopelessness. This means that an adult child might be questioning their purpose or their will to even keep going and this phrase needs to be heard with deep care. I don’t mean you immediately need to be concerned about them being suicidal, but you need to listen to them without judgment and with compassion and empathy. Listen to why your adult child doesn’t see the point and just create a safe space for them to talk about what’s troubling them. It could make the world of difference, and this is something that I really appreciate about my family now. When my parents ask me how I am, there is a safe space where I can talk about the truth, what little things are annoying me and more. Sometimes it is nice just to have a space where I can talk about the small annoying things as well as all the great and wonderful things happening in my life. I think it’s better to let the small annoyances out and use them as bonding moments with family and friends before they morph into something larger that drains your mental health. Finally, an adult child might say “I’m fine,”. This is definitely something all of us have done a hundred times in our life. Most of the time, if we’re close with the person or we know them very well, we can tell when this is a lie. For example, when my housemates say “I’m fine,” most of the time I know they’re lying and they’re putting up this emotional armour to deflect my question. Sometimes when adult children say this, they are genuinely fine. Yet when it is overused or delivered too quickly or with a flat tone, it is often hiding the fact that the other person simply doesn’t feel safe enough to tell you the truth. What Can Parents Do to Help Adult Children? I think the most important thing when you hear your adult child use one of these phrases is to approach this with a sense of openness and curiosity. In other words, don’t take it personally because the emotional pain your adult child is already experiencing will make them withdraw because they are overwhelmed. Yet if you get annoyed, angry and if you push them to open up then they will only withdraw even more because they won’t see you as a safe space. As well as parents should listen to what’s beneath the surface because when adult children use these phrases, they are giving you clues to their real emotions and experiences so listen to their timing, repetition and tone. A personal example is that my family got really angry at me after I was raped because they were saying how they were going to drag me down to the police station and more. That was terrifying for me and that anger, that annoyance and that invalidation of me and my  emotions was the last thing I needed given how much I was struggling. In addition, it’s a good idea that parents model openness by sharing their feelings and doubts so you can invite more honesty from them. This is something I like to do and why I don’t think it’s bad to share small annoyances and small things you don’t like. This creates a space where you can be honest with each other about your lives and you can drop the pretence that you and your lives are perfect and fine. Also, it’s useful for parents to validate your adult child’s experiences because instead of automatically offering solutions, just try and validate them. For example, it can be really meaningful to hear something like “That sounds really hard. I’m here if you want to talk,” Finally, parents can offer their adult child steady support because changing relationships, getting through to a withdrawn adult child and creating a safe space will take time. It took me and my family months of work on both sides to have the great relationship that we have today. Yet a simple, repeated message like “I love you no matter what” can slowly help to break through the defensive walls your adult child has put in place. Clinical Psychology Conclusion Ultimately, at the end of this psychology podcast episode, it’s important to be aware that no adult child will ever say “help me” (and if they do that is amazing). I couldn’t think of saying anything worse. But if you truly listen to what your adult child is saying, how they are saying it and how often they say it, then parents really can become a safe haven for adult children no matter what they’re dealing with. And that is a lovely and powerful feeling for both a parent and an adult child to have.     I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Introduction To Psychotherapies: A Clinical Psychology Introduction To Types of Different Psychological Therapies.  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 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/liking-the-child-you-love/202505/7-phrases-that-quietly-reveal-your-adult-child-is-hurting Kamis, C. (2021). The long-term impact of parental mental health on children’s distress trajectories in adulthood. Society and mental health, 11(1), 54-68. Pan, Y., Chen, R., & Yang, D. (2022). The relationship between filial piety and caregiver burden among adult children: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Geriatric Nursing, 43, 113-123. Risi, A., Pickard, J. A., & Bird, A. L. (2021). The implications of parent mental health and wellbeing for parent-child attachment: A systematic review. Plos one, 16(12), e0260891. 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.

One of the biggest criticisms against transgender individuals that I hear is that “science” says there are only two genders and a lot of transphobic people rely on “science” to back up their transphobic views. However, the reality is that science clearly shows us that there are more than two genders and there are big differences between sex, gender and gender identity. These are important distinctions to make because as aspiring and qualified psychologists, we are scientists first and foremost. Therefore, the way that we operationalise these terms is important in our clinical work and research. As a result, in this social psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn how do scientists operationalise sex, gender and gender identity. You’ll learn what is sex, gender and gender identity and most importantly, why science says there are more than two genders. If you enjoy learning about gender, social psychology and clinical psychology 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 Do Scientists Say About Biological Sex? Firstly, in this podcast episode, I want to talk about what is biological sex as defined by psychologists. Since according to the American Psychological Association (2012), our sex is rooted in our biology and our sex is determined by observable biological criteria. Such as, our internal reproductive organs, our gonads, external genitals and our sex chromosomes. As well as most people are classified as either being biologically male or female at birth and I say “most people” because intersex people are real (APA, 2012). Intersex people are individuals who have an atypical combination of biological features. For example, intersex people might have a penis and a vigia. If we apply this to myself, I am a biological male because I have all the typical male reproductive organs and genetically I’m a male. Yet I just because my biological sex is male because I was assigned it at birth, doesn’t mean that I am a man or boy. How Do Scientists Say About Gender? Building upon this, our gender is related but it is very distinctly different from our biological sex. Instead of being rooted in our biology, our gender is rooted in our culture. Since the American Psychological Association (2012) defines gender as the behaviours, feelings and attitudes that a given culture associates with our biological sex. This leads us to gender conformity where people abide by their culturally derived gender roles. For example, it is a commonly held belief that women should be the caretakers of society, they should be at home, looking after the family, doing the cooking and making sure that the home is perfect. Then for men, it is a commonly held belief that men should be the breadwinners for the family, they should protect and provide for their woman and the rest of their family. Then gender non-conformity and resisting these gender roles can have significant social consequences. Some of these are good and some of these are bad for individuals depending on the circumstances that they live in. Again, looking at myself, as a non-binary person, I like a mixture of these gender roles and I certainly resist the gender roles assigned for men. I don’t see a problem with women going out and being the provider of the family and earning more money than men. I don’t have a problem with men being stay-at-home dads and looking after the home and family. I don’t fit into the gender roles designed exclusively for men or women. I’m a mixture of both and I like them. I like being me. What Do Scientists Say About Gender Identity? Whereas our gender identity is different to our gender and our biological sex, because our gender identity refers to how we understand and experience our own gender. According to the American Psychological Association (2012), gender identity involves our psychological sense of being male, female or neither and people who identify as transgender feel that their gender identity doesn’t match with the gender they were assigned at birth or their biological sex. As well as there are people do feel like they don’t fit into either male or female gender categories (Molerio and Pinto, 2015). Our gender expression is how we live out our gender identities in everyday life, in terms of how we behave, dress and express ourselves (APA, 2012; Drescher, 2014). Personally, even though, I don’t identify as a man and I reject the label quite firmly because I’m non-binary. My gender expression is still rather masculine besides me wearing a woman’s bracelet, watch and necklace. Because I like masculine clothing and whilst I am trying to grow out my hair so I have it long and more feminine. My father’s male genetics are a massive pain in this aspect of my social transition. Anyway, this goes to show that the way how I live out and express my gender identity is my own, it makes me happy and that’s all that matters at the end of the day. In addition, in western culture, the “male” and “female” gender identities are the most common and they form a dualistic or binary way of thinking about gender that typically informs the identity options that people feel are available to them (Prentice and Carranza, 2002). And of course, regardless of your biological sex, you can closely follow the gender roles assigned to men and women by talking, dressing and being interested in activities that are traditionally reserved for people with male or female gender identities. I know women who follow the gender roles of men and I know men who follow the gender roles traditionally given to women. It makes them happy, it works for them and their relationships and it doesn’t harm anyone. Nonetheless, there are people who think “outside the box” when it comes to gender and construct identities for themselves that go beyond the male-female binary and this works for them. It allows them to be free, happy and it protects their mental health. It doesn’t harm society, it doesn’t hurt the person or their relationships and it doesn’t hurt anyone. No one at all. Some examples of these non-binary gender identity not only include myself. But my partner is a beautiful combination of masculinity and femininity. They act femininely and they can look like a cisgender woman or man depending on the clothes they wear or how they want to present on a given day. Then my best friend wants to become more transfeminine and they want someone to not be able to tell what gender they are just by looking at them because this will stop the gender dysphoria and distress they experience. Whereas another one of my housemates is transmasculine, so they want to look more like a boy and that’s their gender expression. Yet their gender identity is fluid so some days they feel more masculine and other days they feel more feminine and that’s okay. It is all about whatever makes people feel comfortable, happy and relaxed. Social Psychology Conclusion At the end of the day and this psychology podcast episode, it doesn’t matter if society approves of these gender identities or not, the science is very clear that there are more than two genders. In fact, there are as many gender identities as there are people psychologically forming identities. There might be a longstanding tradition in Western culture proposing there are only two genders and Western culture might only recognise “male” and female” identities but this is not what the science says. We need to stop mixing up gender identity and biological sex because our sex might be limited by our biology but our gender identity. Now, dear listener or reader, that truly is only limited by your imagination. And there is a real beauty, a real interest and something really wonderful about that. A chance where great, amazing people can just be themselves, be free and be happy. Don’t we all deserve that? I think so, do you?                                                                                                   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 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. Social Psychology References and Further Reading American Psychological Association. (2012). Guidelines for psychological practice with lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients. American Psychologist, 67(1), 10-42. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024659 Diamond, M. (2002). Sex and gender are different: Sexual identity and gender identity are different. Clinical child psychology and psychiatry, 7(3), 320-334. Drescher, J. (2014). Treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender patients. In R. E. Hales, S. C. Yudofsky, & L. W. Roberts (Eds.), The American Psychiatric Publishing textbook of psychiatry (6th ed., pp. 1293-1318). American Psychiatric Publishing. DuBois, L. Z., & Shattuck‐Heidorn, H. (2021). Challenging the binary: Gender/sex and the bio‐logics of normalcy. American Journal of Human Biology, 33(5), e23623. Moleiro, C., & Pinto, N. (2015). Sexual orientation and gender identity: Review of concepts, controversies and their relation to psychopathology classification systems. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. Prentice, D. A., & Carranza, E. (2002). What women should be, shouldn't be, are allowed to be, and don't have to be: The contents of prescriptive gender stereotypes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26(4), 269-281. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-6402.t01-1-00066 Tasker, F., & Wren, B. (2002). Sexual identity and gender identity: understanding difference. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 7(3), 315-319. 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.

The majority of people think that if they’re exhausted then the best way to fix their exhaustion is to get physical rest through sleep. Whilst this is important, it is not the only type of rest a person needs to combat fatigue and exhaustion. In fact, a lot of therapists and professionals, like Saundra Dalton-Smith, explain that rest is the most underused safe and effective alternative therapy that we have available to us. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’re going to learn about the seven types of rest that our body as well as mind need so we can combat exhaustion and fatigue. By the end of this episode, you’ll understand why physical, mental and creative rest are important for our mental health amongst four others. If you enjoy learning about mental health, self-care and rest then this will be a brilliant episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Introduction To Psychotherapies: A Clinical Psychology Introduction To Types of Different Psychological Therapies.  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 Sleep Is Not Enough Rest to Fix Exhaustion? Whilst there will be times that clients simply need to improve their sleep to be able to improve their mental health and feel less exhausted. It’s important to know and acknowledge that there will be a lot of times when only focusing on sleep might increase our burnout because we are ignoring the other areas of our life that we need to manage. For example, the other week when I was burnt out, I wasn’t so much physically exhausted but I was mentally and socially exhausted too. This is why it’s important to learn about the seven types of rest. As aspiring and qualified psychologists, we need to be aware of the seven types so we can practise self-care. Whether it is a lot of coursework, a lot of exam stress or a hectic workload in the mental health service that we work in, there will be times when we are burnt out. Yet being aware of these seven types of rest allows us to be mindful and practise self-care so we can better manage our energy levels and prevent burnout. Equally, it’s important for us to be aware of the seven types so we can help our clients, share this knowledge with them and understand why they still feel exhausted even if we’ve worked with them to improve their sleep hygiene. What Is Mental Rest? Personally, needing mental rest is a big one for me because I do so much work, so much writing and other business-related things in addition to my university work. When I am burnt out, I often find it is because I am mentally exhausted, not physically. Even though for me, the effects often feel the same. As a result, when it comes to mental rest, this highlights that we all know that sleep is restorative but it can never feel like enough. As well as relying on coffee to get you through the day isn’t healthy and in the long term, it can increase and maintain your racing thoughts, mental processes and worries. This only increases your mental exhaustion too. To combat mental exhaustion, author and MD Dalton-Smith recommends that people take short breaks throughout the workday or they should journal before bedtime. This helps clients to quieten down their “mental chatter” and they can practise “thought diffusion” as well. This is where clients simply let their thoughts flow in and out of their minds and allow the thoughts to pass without placing any pressure on the thoughts to go faster or slower. Personally, I am getting better over time at embracing mental rest because I cannot keep doing hundreds of things a week consistently because that only leads to burnout. To combat this, I make sure that I take breaks throughout the day, I keep my work varied so I can still be interested and excited about it and always around 6 til 8 in the evening I have an extended break where I have dinner. And I allow myself to watch mindless TV, like the Big Bang Theory because I don’t need to focus on it and my mind can just relax. Also, if I am starting to feel overwhelmed and like I am approaching mental exhaustion, I readdress and redo my To Do List to strip it back and to help it stop draining my mental energy. What is Social Rest? I know the idea of social rest is common in society but often, I feel like we overlook our personal needs when it comes to social rest. There is such a focus in our social worlds to always be going out with our friends, our work peers and never saying no to these social activities. Sometimes this is out of a fear of missing out, other times this is because we don’t want our friends or the people from work thinking that we’re anti-social or we don’t like them. And we all know that we can only say no so many times before our friends and other people stop asking us. However, if you constantly go out with your friends, family members and the people from work then you will get burnt out and feel socially exhausted. This is why it’s important to understand whether you get your energy from other people (an extrovert) or whether you get your social energy from being alone (introvert). Understanding these two basic concepts helps you to understand your own unique social battery and how you need to recharge it. This is an important conversation to have with your partner, friends and other loved ones because people have different thresholds of sociability. One person in your relationship might love partying for three hours and that’s a firm limit, but you, you might only be getting started after three hours. Personally, whilst I am an introvert and I find hours upon hours of social activities and interacting with other people day after day to be exhausting. My social battery isn’t that limited because I can easily manage hours of talking and interacting with people. Yet at the last Open Day at my university I had had to be social for 6 hours straight but I had already been doing long days of interacting with other people and giving talks to students. I got home that afternoon and I was so exhausted that I couldn’t move for hours. Whereas my housemate has literally just returned from manning a stall at Canterbury Pride and they were saying that after manning the stall for three hours they are completely socially exhausted. Different people have different social batteries and that’s okay. Think about your own social battery and make sure you incorporate social rest into your life. What Is Emotional Rest? None of us can suppress our emotions forever and I always strongly recommend that you don’t hide your emotions, and always allow yourself to process them without judgment. I know from personal experience that you should always process your emotions because if you don’t deal with your emotions then they will continue to eat away at you and make you feel worse in the long run. A common example of this is when we’re upset and someone asks us How are you and we simply say we’re “fine”. That is a total lie and it doesn’t help us because it is a suppression of our emotions and this adds internal pressure to us. Therefore, emotional rest allows us to live authentically and when we express our emotions, like our hesitations, concerns and we stop pretending to be fine when we aren’t. This allows our emotional system to feel more relaxed and rested, as well as emotional rest means we need to surround ourselves with other people who help provide emotional peace. I know whenever I hold back emotions and annoyances, like when friends or housemates have annoyed me or they’re showing toxic behaviours. I always feel better after standing up for myself and releasing my thoughts, feelings and emotions. It means things get dealt with and I immediately feel lighter. And this means I don’t feel exhausted and my mental health doesn’t suffer. What Is Sensory Rest? Even if you’re not autistic like I am, sensory rest is a very important concept to be aware of. We are constantly stimulated because of our screens, lights, pets, children, friends, social media, To Do lists and conversations. There is always more we could do, more things we could be exposed to and it feels impossible to get away from the constant sensory experiences and stimulation. This can make us feel exhausted after a while because we are always being stimulated and our brain is always registering new inputs, new experiences and new information. It can simply get too much at times. Therefore, when it comes to sensory rest, it’s important to take part in intentional moments of sensory deprivation to help us recharge from being overstimulated. This is another reason why mindfulness and grounding techniques are so effective at improving our mental health because they force us to be in the present moment and focus on particular things so we aren’t overstimulated. In my experience, after living in on-campus accommodation back in 2019 where there was always noise, people running up and down the corridor and some of my flatmates wouldn’t come home until 2 am in the morning. I do actively have “quiet appreciation time” where I just enjoy and focus on the quiet. I was without quiet for over 6 months. I am so going to enjoy it now. As well as there are times when I practise mindfulness and focus on my surroundings and this is even more true in nature because I want to slow down for a moment and appreciate the understimulating world around me. What Is Spiritual Rest? Because I’m not religious or a spiritual person, I wasn’t sure this type of rest could be useful to me but our bodies and minds want spiritual rest and this relates to connecting with something on a deeper level that is greater than ourselves. For some people, this might mean God or whatever you believe in, but for other people like me, this means connecting to your local community and finding a sense of purpose that way. For me, this might mean volunteering and working for organisations and groups that offer you a sense of community through intention and acceptance. This is one of the reasons why I flat out love my Outreach work through my university. I get to meet, interact and support amazing students whilst doing a wide range of different activities. I get to work with children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to show them that no matter where they come from and their past history, university is an option for them if they want it. It was only two days ago that a kid who I’ve worked with for months almost cried as he said goodbye to me because I’ve had such a massive impact on his life. That makes me feel great, connected and like I am making a meaningful impact in the world. What is Creative Rest? If you work in a creative field like me, then creative rest is really important. Since a lot of creatives often struggle with “writer’s block”, creative fatigue or they just get burned out from problem-solving and brainstorming new ideas. This is why creative rest is important and you can do this by surrounding yourself with inspiration and take the pressure off yourself that you “have to do” something with the inspiration. Just enjoy it. Whenever I read a book, I just focus on the story and enjoying the ride. I enjoy learning about the characters, plot and the world. I don’t know if a particular technique, scene or phrasing will pop up in my own fiction and that’s okay. I fill my creative well by reading and experiencing the world with no judgment and determination that I “have” to use it. Another way to get creative rest is to simply step away from a project or problem for some time and allow your brain to recharge without pressure. This I have done a good few times because sometimes creative projects are massive and overwhelming. I always feel better after taking a break. What Is Physical Rest? I left “physical rest” until last because it is the most well-known and I wanted to focus on the other types first of all. Therefore, physical rest is a break from physical activities that exhaust us so we can use sleep, napping and relaxation to rest physically. As well as there is something called “active” physical rest and this refers to light, restorative activities. For instance, this is why people say they find yoga, massages and stretching relaxing. Personally, this is one of the reasons why I attempt to maintain a good sleep schedule because this is important for combating physical exhaustion. This helps me to maintain a good sleeping pattern so I get enough sleep. Of course, this does not mean I am always good at it and there are nights when I am extremely bad at going to sleep at consistent times. As well as I make sure there are times in the day when I am not doing anything physically demanding. If you want to learn more about improving your sleep then please check out a backlist podcast episode called. “ How Does A Consistent Sleep Schedule Improve Mental Health ?”. Clinical Psychology Conclusion In this psychology podcast episode, we’ve learnt a lot of different ways how you can combat exhaustion and I know that the idea of incorporating seven types of rest into your life seems impossible. Yet I would suggest you simply take a step or two at a time. Try incorporating a very small version of each type of rest into your day one week at a time. You could start by fixing your sleep schedule for physical rest, you could try taking your full lunch break for mental rest and so on. It is all about taking small steps today so you can benefit tomorrow. And over time, all these small steps add up into something amazing and easy to achieve. Since I learnt and became more aware of the different types of rest, I’ve been better able to manage my time and my energy levels. I don’t always get it right but I am so much better than I used to be so it’s rare for me to feel exhausted. You can get there too. Here are some questions to get you thinking at the end of this psychology podcast episode: ·       How could you incorporate physical rest into your life? ·       What about mental rest? ·       Creative rest? ·       Sensory rest? ·       Social rest? ·       Spiritual rest? ·       How could you incorporate emotional rest into your life?   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Introduction To Psychotherapies: A Clinical Psychology Introduction To Types of Different Psychological Therapies.  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 Alonzo, R., Hussain, J., Stranges, S., & Anderson, K. K. (2021). Interplay between social media use, sleep quality, and mental health in youth: A systematic review. Sleep medicine reviews, 56, 101414. Caviedes, G. (2021). The importance of psychological rest: Relationships between demands, mental rest, depressive symptoms, and well-being in collegiate student-athletes. The Florida State University. Dalton-Smith, S. (2017). Sacred Rest: Recover your life, renew your energy, restore your sanity. FaithWords. Helvig, A., Wade, S., & Hunter‐Eades, L. (2016). Rest and the associated benefits in restorative sleep: a concept analysis. Journal of advanced nursing, 72(1), 62-72. Michishita, R., Jiang, Y., Ariyoshi, D., Yoshida, M., Moriyama, H., & Yamato, H. (2017). The practice of active rest by workplace units improves personal relationships, mental health, and physical activity among workers. Journal of occupational health, 59(2), 122-130. Wickramaratne, P. J., Yangchen, T., Lepow, L., Patra, B. G., Glicksburg, B., Talati, A., ... & Weissman, M. M. (2022). Social connectedness as a determinant of mental health: A scoping review. PloS one, 17(10), e0275004. 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 Pride Season 2025 on The Psychology World Podcast, I wanted to look at why we celebrate Pride Month. Since thankfully in June a lot of cities, communities and companies come together to celebrate Pride Month. They put up flags and companies change their logos to represent all the different genders, sexualities and the diversity of the human experience. Also, the LGBT+ community and their allies come together to party, celebrate and have a good time. Yet some people might argue that this is all pointless because they might believe that the LGBT+ community has equal rights, they don’t need a month to celebrate it and it doesn’t need to be shoved down their throats. However, the reality is that there are still a lot of rights, even within liberal countries that LGBT+ individuals do not have access to and the discrimination, hate crimes and intolerance that LGBT+ people face every day still exist. Therefore, in this social psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn why do we celebrate Pride Month, why Pride Month isn’t about pointless parties and why Pride Month is about protesting for equal rights. If you enjoy learning about LGBT+ psychology, the psychology of discrimination and social activism then this will be a perfect 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 Do We Celebrate Pride Month? Thankfully, there are a lot of countries in the world where LGBT+ people have equal legal rights so they are protected by law against discrimination and hate crimes. As well as there are some wonderful countries that allow LGBT+ couples to get married, have children and adopt children just like their heterosexual peers. Yet just because we have these legal rights, it doesn’t mean that the homophobia, transphobia and biphobia has disappeared. This is even more important when we think about the anti-LGBT+ laws that are being filed and are passing in legislatures around the world. In particular, Hungary and the United States. Even within the United Kingdom where it seems on the surface to be a perfectly safe country to be LGBT+, the reality is very different. And this is before I think about my own child abuse and the intense homophobia that I experienced and made me in fear for my life every day of my adolescence. Since a report by Galop found that 64% of LGBT+ people experience anti-LGBT+ violence and abuse. As well as 90% of the respondents to the survey said that they were negatively impacted by anti-LGBT+ abuse. Personally, I completely understand this because whenever I experience anti-LGBT+ abuse, it makes me feel like rubbish, like I’m less than human and it only negatively impacts my mental health. It can increase my anxiety and depressive symptoms because there are times when I’m unsure of whether I am safe or if I’ll be abused or hated on if I even look or act slightly gay. If the United Kingdom really was a safe country for LGBT+ people then this would not happen. The findings of this report are even worse when we look at the finding that 45% of respondents said that they required emotional support. There will be those in society that argue this just shows the LGBT+ community are a bunch of snowflakes but they are not. This finding just goes to show that the discrimination, the homophobia and the hate that we experience just because of who we are causes us significant levels of distress and mental health difficulties that we require support. And as I always say, regardless of who you are, it shows more bravery and courage than you will ever know to admit that you need professional support and you seek it out. Speaking of professional support, a report from Stonewall found that 13% of LGBT+ people experience healthcare inequalities because of their sexual orientation. In my own research on transgender mental health, this is a common theme I see in the narratives of my own participants. And Stonewall also found that 70% of transgender participants worry about healthcare discrimination when accessing general health services. This is wrong on so many levels. It is disgusting and outrageous that there is a minority of healthcare professionals that discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation. This shouldn’t happen and it just goes to show that even in countries with equal rights for LGBT+ people, there is still a long way to go until we reach true equality. In addition, this is a mental health crisis that is only getting worse because a report from the charity Just Like Us found that 68% of LGBT+ young people said that their mental health has decreased since the COVID-19 pandemic compared to only half of non-LGBT+ people. This again shows how the mental health of LGBT+ youth needs to be protected and focused on because unless governments and mental health services address the underlying reasons for these mental health disparities things will only continue to get worse for the community. Moreover, this lack of true equal rights doesn’t just extend to general society and our healthcare settings, it applies to our schools as well. Since in our schools 42% of LGBT+ students have been bullied and you might argue that bullying is just a part of the school experience and LGBT+ students are different so of course they are going to be bullied. This is flat out wrong because no one should ever be bullied because of who they are, who they love and especially because the number of LGBT+ students bullied compared to non-LGBT+  students is doubled. This is discrimination, not because bullying is part of the school experience. Which it never should be in the first place. Another facet of this argument about the importance of Pride Month is because this is not just a problem for the United Kingdom. Other liberal countries like Australia, France and Germany all have similar figures. As well as there are other liberal countries that are trying to become less liberal, like the United States with their en-mass anti-trans and anti-LGBT+ laws that are sweeping the Federal and State Governments. As well as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill is the most famous example. Unfortunately, this is just history repeating itself because the UK used to have the disgusting Section 28 under Thatcher’s government. Section 28 made it illegal just like the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill by greatly restricting the ability for schools to teach students about gender issues and sexual orientation. What we know in the United Kingdom is that Section 28 caused a lot of harm to the LGBT+ community and it still impacts innocent lives today because a lot of LGBT+ people still have the unfortunate and heartbreaking core belief that they are not good enough and they are worthless. This is why these laws, like Section 28, are wrong and they do not do what they are designed to do. These laws never should have existed in the first place. The conservatives that suggest these laws argue that anti-LGBT+ laws protect children and protect society. Yet they do not because they harm children, the LGBT+ community and society as a whole. These laws are designed to induce shame and have an immensely negative impact on people’s mental health and quality of life. How does this protect anyone? Ultimately, whether you want to admit it or not, being LGBT+ in this modern world is not easy and unfortunately, an everyday part of the life of an LGBT+ person is being constantly vigilant in this inhospitable world because of our expectations to be discriminated against and have to deal with the negative consequences. For example, heterosexual couples don’t have to think about whether it is safe to simply hold your partner’s hand in public and heterosexual couples don’t have to think about whether holding hands will get them abused, get them hated on or get them beaten up. LGBT+ couples have to think about this constantly. The Importance of Pride Events Because of Chosen Family It doesn’t matter if you live in a liberal country or not, there are always stories of innocent and amazing LGBT+ people being disowned by their loved ones and being thrown out of their homes. This happens even in the United Kingdom and this was one of my biggest fears growing up and it really impacted by mental health negatively. As a result, Pride Events allow LGBT+ people who have been rejected by their families to find their tribe or chosen family. This might sound really easy but it is not and it can even be a challenge for LGBT+ people to allow ourselves to be loved by a family of choice because sadly they might not believe that they are worthy of receiving love. Thankfully, it is possible to learn to love ourselves even if it is an on-going process. Personally, I never ever believed that I was likeable or even lovable because of the intensely homophobic abuse and messages that I had internalised over the years. My entire life I had been taught and told that I was wrong, I was disgusting and I was an abomination for being gay so I never learnt that I was lovable. Honestly, it took me getting raped and having to heal and recover from sexual violence to understand that I’m loveable and I’m amazing. How sad is that? It took me getting raped to undo all the intensely homophobic messages that I had been taught my entire life. Pride Events Remind Us To Love Ourselves Another reason why Pride Events are important is because they are a protest and a reminder that being LGBT+ means we are entitled to love ourselves, just like everyone else. A lot of therapists who work with LGBT+ clients have to teach their clients how to love themselves because they are constantly experiencing negative self-talk and thoughts saying that they aren’t good enough, no one cares about them and that they will never find anyone who loves them. This is why it’s important in therapy to encourage LGBT+ clients to argue against their bully because no one, regardless of their sexual orientation, is worthless, unlovable and they are just as good as anyone else. In addition, loving yourself gives you another valuable opportunity. It is the opportunity to rest, soothe and just slow down. Instead of constantly scanning your environment for threats, dangers and any signs that you’re about to be hated on and abused. You can simply slow down with a nice cup of tea, coffee and a good biscuit and just relax and self-soothe for a while. It’s why I love reading and writing with a massive mug of coffee with honey next to me. I get to enjoy myself for a moment and just know that I am safe, loved and I am worthy of everything before I venture back out into the world where there are dangers and threats. Personally, whilst it took me getting raped to really understand how much love I deserve and how much of a brilliant person I am. I remember the decades of hating myself, wanting to punish and self-harm because the homophobia made me believe that I was fundamentally wrong. I never should have gone through that. This is why I practise self-care and I make sure I enjoy the simple pleasures and I focus on myself. Making sure that I am okay, I am loved and I am happy. I deserve it and so do you. Finally, for this section, it’s important to remember that LGBT+ people are not burdens to good friends and it is so important to have good, high-quality connections with our chosen family and tribe. Our LGBT+ community is critical to our mental health and wellbeing. The Importance of Pride Events Because of Global Discrimination Heterosexual people can go anywhere in the world and they don’t have to worry about being arrested, beaten, whipped or abused. LGBT+ people have to constantly worry and plan where they go based on level of risk. At the moment according to the Human Dignity Trust, there are 71 countries that have criminalised same-sex relationships and 11 of these countries punish homosexuality by death. This is even worse when we consider that 25% of the world’s population thinks that homosexuality should be a crime. Therefore, heterosexual couples can go to sunny beaches and destinations and enjoy everything that culture has to offer without thinking about the deadly dangers that that country poses to LGBT+ people. Personally, I would flat out love to go to countries, like China, Egypt and countries in the Middle East. These countries have such rich cultures and fascinating histories that I would love to learn more about. Yet at the moment, if I go to these countries then there is a massive risk that I would be arrested, beaten, whipped or killed. I don’t want to go to prison just because of who I love. Straight people never have to worry about this so that’s why Pride events are needed, so we can protest this awful, discriminatory treatment. Social Psychology Conclusion This is why Pride Month is so important and it is still needed after all these years. Pride events might look like parties but they aren’t. In fact, Pride events are a protest, an act of defiance because it shows the world that LGBT+ people are alive, visible and they should be fully accepted in society without fear of being discriminated against in the workplace, schools, shops, healthcare and universities and so many other places. And these days Pride events are needed more than ever as there are those in power and governments and wider society that seek to erase us from everyday life. But we will always be around. LGBT+ people have been here since ancient times and we always will be here. You can never erase us and that is why Pride Month should be celebrated.     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. Social Psychology References and Further Reading Egbert, R., & DePalo, G. M. (2020). Finding safety, building community, and providing hope: The creation of pride healing center. In Violence Against LGBTQ+ Persons: Research, Practice, and Advocacy (pp. 241-264). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Haslem, H. (2024). Promoting Health Equity: Addressing Substance Use and Mental Health Challenges in LGBTQIA+ Communities This Pride Month. Health. https://justlikeus.org/ https://www.galop.org.uk/resource/hate-crime-report-2021 https://www.humandignitytrust.org/ https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/talking-sex-and-relationships/202206/why-do- we-celebrate-pride-month https://www.stonewall.org.uk/cy/node/24594 Mbele, Z. (2022). Pride Month and Mental Health. Mental Health Matters, 9(3), 1-3. McCarthy, D. (2020). Why there is still a need for Pride celebrations in Ireland?. Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, 20(4), 11-14. Tinlin-Dixon, R., Bechlem, B., Stevenson-Young, L., Hunter, R., & Falcon-Legaz, P. (2025). Community, belonging and acceptance; is this the antidote to shame and societal discrimination? An exploration of LGBTQ+ individuals’ attendance at pride and their mental health. Psychology & Sexuality, 16(1), 206-219. 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.

Discovering your partner cheated on you, betrayed your trust and shattered your relationship is an awful feeling that no one should ever have to go through. It can lead the other partner feeling unsure who to trust, weakened and it can make them question everything they knew about the relationship beforehand. Yet it is possible to overcome infidelity and rebuild trust in the relationship so it can survive. Therefore, in this social psychology podcast episode, we’re going to look at how to overcome infidelity and rebuild trust so the relationship can survive and thrive. If you enjoy learning about relationships, social psychology and infidelity then this is a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode is sponsored by Psychology of Relationships: The Social Psychology of Romantic Relationships, Friendships and More.  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. Note: like all podcast episodes, nothing on the podcast is ever any sort of official relationship, medical or any other form of advice. Why Am I Talking About Infidelity On A Psychology Podcast? I’m talking about this on The Psychology World Podcast, a podcast mainly dedicated to aspiring and qualified psychologists for three main reasons. Firstly, infidelity is a behaviour and psychology covers all of human behaviour so it makes sense for us to look at it. Secondly, infidelity can happen to anyone even psychology students and professionals. That’s why we need to look at it in case any of you listeners or readers need this information in the future. As this podcast episode could help you heal, thrive and rebuild trust quicker compared to if you didn’t have this information. Finally, if you’re an aspiring or qualified clinical psychologist or another mental health professional, then there is a chance you will come across infidelity in your clinical work. Therefore, this podcast episode might be a useful resource for you to think about in a therapy session so you can help your clients better. Especially if you haven’t encountered infidelity before. How To Overcome Infidelity? No one should ever deny that the healing process after infidelity is challenging, but the pain can be overcome and trust can be rebuilt using some knowledge. You Need To Validate And Acknowledge Your Feelings After Infidelity Firstly, when it comes to infidelity you need to validate and acknowledge your feelings, because you need to accept them and it is okay to feel what you’re feeling. You should always try to allow yourself to feel the full range of emotions that you’re experiencing like betrayal, sadness, anger, confusion amongst others. Due to it is normal to have these sort of reactions to infidelity because it is a confusing time and infidelity should never happen. This is why it might be an idea to get support from a trusted friend or family member who can provide a safe space for you to express your emotions without judgment. This is something I’ve learnt a lot about recently since it’s been 8 weeks since my sexual assault, and I tried for so, so long not to allow myself to feel certain ways. I tried to force away the confusion, the anger, the hate and the more assault-related emotions that infidelity doesn’t bring up. Yet it did no good for me, it affected my mental health badly, it didn’t help me heal and it only prolonged my struggles. My point is you need to allow yourself to feel your emotions otherwise you will do real damage to yourself and your mental health in the long term. You cannot pretend everything is fine after infidelity. You Need To Allow Yourself To Grieve I know we’re only on the second point but I’m realising that there is a lot of overlap between overcoming infidelity and a lot of other mental health difficulties and negative experiences. So this is something we should all be trying to focus on and learn from, especially as infidelity can happen to anyone. As a result, infidelity is a loss and you need to allow yourself to grieve the loss of trust, the lost future and effectively the shattered dreams that you and your partner had together. Also, you need to allow yourself to grieve for the relationship itself because even if you work things out, it has still changed and you will need to heal and go through the ups and downs too. Overall, you need to give yourself time to heal at your own pace without suppressing your emotions nor trying to rush this stuff. Personally, it is that rushing of healing that in my experience is the most damaging and it causes a lot more distress. I have tried to rush my healing from the trauma of my assault, I have tried to be okay and perfect and like nothing has happened so I can live a perfectly normal life again. Yet that simply isn’t possible and that’s okay, because I need to heal at my own pace. After infidelity You Should Self-Reflect Considering that infidelity is all about loss, it might be a good idea to engage in some kind of self-reflection so you can reflect on the relationship itself and any factors that contributed to the infidelity. This is and will be about blaming yourself or your partner for what happened but self-reflection can be helpful for identifying any vulnerabilities or personal patterns that might have existed within the relationship. Overall, if you’re able to recognise these patterns and continue self-reflection then this can be useful for personal growth and developing healthier relationships in the future. You Need To Take Time For Self-Care I am rubbish at self-care and doing all the different things that you’re meant to do as part of that. However, you need to engage in self-care and look after yourself because you’re likely to be going through a hurricane of different emotions so you need to look after yourself too. You could focus on activities like exercise, hobbies, spending time in nature or anything else that you enjoy.  In addition, you should make sure your body is nourished with healthy food and have a good sleep pattern as well as consider seeking professional help to help you work through your emotions. Personally, as part of Self-care, I’m making sure that I’m being kind to myself when things pop up, I’m seeing friends a lot and I’m doing things that make me happy. Like writing, podcasting and other psychology-related topics. You Need To Establish Boundaries When it comes to trying to rebuild trust, a key part of this is setting clear boundaries for your relationship and yourself. You could set boundaries in terms of guidelines on communication, you could talk about the need for you both to go to couples therapy or have boundaries about the amount of transparency needed going forward. Boundaries are critical to overcoming infidelity in because they help you create a sense of safety as well as security for yourself as you go through the healing process. Whilst I can’t add too much to this section because I’ve never been in a relationship, let alone experienced infidelity, but I know I glad to have a lot of boundaries in the future with any boyfriends or partners. I will have to have boundaries no matter what and my boyfriend will have to understand that we cannot do certain things until I’m ready because of my assault. If they can’t respect that then I’m going to have to kick them to the curb. At the end of the day, boundaries are about respect and if your partner cannot respect you especially after they’ve committed infidelity then they don’t deserve you. I think it’s as simple as that. Have Support and Communicate With Trusted Others I would never ever want you to go through infidelity alone because this will make your mental health suffer, it will cause you a lot of distress and you cannot keep something as horrible as infidelity locked away inside you. Therefore, you need to have and reach out to your social support network of your family and friends, or a mental health professional if you need it. If you share your emotions, your thoughts and your pain with someone you trust then this can help you to lessen the burden of infidelity. This is even more important if you and your partner decide to stay together, because you’re going to have to have good, effective and open communication. You’re going to need to talk about how they hurt you, your boundaries and your expectations of them going forward. The healing process can be seriously helped by developing clear and respectful communication so you can both understand each other. Whilst we can understand that effective communication is important for life in general, I want to stress here that respectful communication is critical in all relationships. For example after what happened to me happened, I had two very clear experiences of communication. I tried to communicate what happened to my social environment (a polite way of saying it without naming names) and I was shut down, I wasn’t listened to and I did not feel supported whatsoever. This only negatively impacted my mental health, I hated it and my distress was increased dramatically because of it. Whereas when I spoke to my friends including my best friend, they listened to me, supported me and made me feel valued. That was critical at the time and it’s even more important now moving forward in the healing process. Give Yourself Time To Rebuild Trust Regardless of what you’ve been through, you need to give yourself time to heal and rebuild trust in people. It’s taken me way too long to understand that and I partly wish I had understood how long things take sooner, because I probably would have been further along in my healing if I had expected this time factor sooner. When it comes to infidelity, you need to realise that rebuilding trust is a slow process that takes patience, time and consistency. You are not going to forgive your partner overnight because that isn’t how forgiveness works in this case, so you need to give yourself the time and space to heal and rebuild trust at your own pace. Moreover, if you’re still with your partner then watch their partners over time and look for consistent efforts to rebuild your trust. For trust to be rebuilt, you both need to be committed to communicating openly, addressing any underlying issues in the relationship and being transparent with each other. That is the only way your relationship can improve. Social Psychology Conclusion If you’re someone who’s experienced this, when it comes to overcoming infidelity, the healing process will be challenging because of the emotions, your confusion and the lack of trust you feel. Yet if you have patience, open communication and do self-care then it is very possible that you can overcome this infidelity and you can rebuild your trust for future relationships. Also, your healing journey will be unique and there isn’t a time limit, so please, just go at your own pace as annoying as that might be. You need to heal at your own pace, and overcome the hardship of infidelity. If you’re a listener or reader who hasn’t experienced infidelity then I hope that doesn’t change and I hope I never experience infidelity in the future. Yet this is still useful to know about in case this does happen to us, our friends or our family. If this does happen then I hope this podcast episode might be a useful resource for all of you, and if you encounter infidelity in your clinical work then I hope you now know that your client can rebuild their life, their trust and they can go on to have great relationships in the future. Something that probably seems flat out impossible in the moment and aftermath of the infidelity, but it is so possible. It really is. So never ever give up on relationships because they really can be amazing especially after experiencing something as awful as infidelity.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Psychology of Relationships: The Social Psychology of Romantic Relationships, Friendships and More.  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. Social Psychology References and Further Reading Altınok, A., & Kılıç, N. (2020). Exploring the associations between narcissism, intentions towards infidelity, and relationship satisfaction: Attachment styles as a moderator. Plos one, 15(11), e0242277. Anwar, S., Riaz, M. N., & Ahmed, F. (2022). Relationship between Attitude towards Infidelity, Difficulty in Emotion Regulation and Mental Health Issues among Married Individuals. Pakistan Languages and Humanities Review, 6(2), 536-548. Blow, A. J., & Hartnett, K. (2005). Infidelity in committed relationships I: A methodological review. Journal of marital and family therapy, 31(2), 183-216. Fincham, F. D., & May, R. W. (2017). Infidelity in romantic relationships. Current opinion in psychology, 13, 70-74. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-angry-therapist/202306/healing-wounds-how-to-overcome-infidelity-and-rebuild-trust Nemeth, J. M., Bonomi, A. E., Lee, M. A., & Ludwin, J. M. (2012). Sexual infidelity as trigger for intimate partner violence. Journal of Women's Health, 21(9), 942-949. Raftar Aliabadi, M. R., & Shareh, H. (2022). Mindfulness-based schema therapy and forgiveness therapy among women affected by infidelity: A randomized clinical trial. Psychotherapy Research, 32(1), 91-103. Roos, L. G., O'Connor, V., Canevello, A., & Bennett, J. M. (2019). Post‐traumatic stress and psychological health following infidelity in unmarried young adults. Stress and health, 35(4), 468-479. Shrout, M. R., & Weigel, D. J. (2018). Infidelity’s aftermath: Appraisals, mental health, and health-compromising behaviors following a partner’s infidelity. Journal of social and personal relationships, 35(8), 1067-1091. Shrout, M. R., & Weigel, D. J. (2020). Coping with infidelity: The moderating role of self-esteem. Personality and individual differences, 154, 109631. Warach, B., & Josephs, L. (2021). The aftershocks of infidelity: a review of infidelity-based attachment trauma. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 36(1), 68-90. Weigel, D. J., & Shrout, M. R. (2021). Suspicious minds: The psychological, physical and behavioral consequences of suspecting a partner’s infidelity. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 38(3), 865-887. 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 aspiring and qualified psychologists, our work mainly focuses on helping people with mental health difficulties. For example, how their depression, social anxiety or trauma responses negatively impact their lives and cause them significant levels of psychological distress. Then we use our psychological knowledge to create interventions to help them. However, less often, we’re taught to think about how physical health and chronic illness can impact our clients in their daily functioning, their quality of life and their mental health. That’s right. Your physical health and chronic illness can directly impact your mental health. Therefore, in this clinical psychology mixed with health psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn more about chronic illness. By the end, you’ll understand what is chronic illness, how chronic illness impacts people and how does chronic illness impact mental health. If you enjoy learning about health psychology, life as a clinical psychologist and more then this is a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Working With Children and Young People: A Guide To 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. Note: I do apologise in advance if anything in this podcast episode is worded clumsy. I am privileged that I do not have a chronic illness so I do not have lived experience of these conditions. Everything in this episode is based on what I have read and witnessed and heard from friends and my partner. What Is Chronic Illness? Chronic illness is when a person has a condition that lasts for at least a year and it requires ongoing medical care or the condition consistently limits what a person can do on a daily basis. For example, chronic illnesses can include asthma, lung disease, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, chronic fatigue syndrome amongst others. I’ve known friends with chronic fatigue to be so exhausted and tired that all they can do is lie in bed all day, so this is an example of how a chronic condition can limit your daily activities. In addition, tens of millions of adults in the United States live with a chronic illness and a lot of them actually have at least two chronic illnesses. And having a chronic illness typically requires you to undergo a lot of lifestyle changes that can be challenging and stressful. For example, with a chronic illness, you have to manage new diets, new exercise regimens, a demanding checkup schedule, medication and limits on your social life, your work and your travel. All of these challenges and stressors can lead to anxiety, anger and sometimes depression. And that’s why I wanted to talk about chronic illness this week. From time to time in my clinical psychology lectures, I’ve heard about clinical psychologists working in medical settings to help people with chronic conditions, like chronic pain. I’ve always thought that this was fascinating and interesting but because I’m really busy, I’ve never thought about it that much. Mainly, this is due to my privilege that I do not have a chronic health condition so I don’t need to look into this area of psychology. Until last week. Last week, I was hanging out with my partner at the Dungeons and Dragons game that our friend runs and there are normally a lot of us there. Afterwards, a few of us go out for dinner, me and my partner spend the entire time talking and we basically blank everyone else and then we hang out afterwards. Normally, by talking outside their accommodation for 30-minutes at least. Yet last week, dinner had finished early and we didn’t play board games like we normally do with our friendship group, so me and my partner were going to hang out at mine. Until my partner’s chronic pain and other chronic health conditions kicked in and they expereinced loss of interest and pleasure and their mental health just dropped. We still spoke for 30-minutes outside their accommodation until their joint pain made it unbearable. Just seeing and hearing about how their chronic illness impacted their mental health made me sad, it affected me and it made me really curious about this area of psychology. Therefore, before I can ever hope to understand how clinical psychology can be used to help those with chronic conditions, I actually need to understand what chronic illness is first of all. That’s what the rest of this episode focuses on. Clinical Psychologists Help People Cope with Chronic Illness Whilst there are a lot of different ways how clinical psychologists work with those with chronic illness, one way is coping with their new diagnosis. Since once people receive a diagnosis of their chronic illness, they often experience a lot of grief. They grieve for a life lost and a future that will never go as they had planned. For example, if you’re diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome then your dreams of being a runner, a sports player or if your dream career involved something with a lot of physical activity like being a firefighter. That all seems impossible now, and maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Whatever the case, a diagnosis of chronic illness involves a lot of grieving. In addition, people with chronic illness have to go through a lot of mood changes, even in the day to day, because there will be times when they’re fine and happy. Then their chronic illness might impact them, might stop them doing something and this might make them anxious, angry or depressed. This is because our mood can be very dependent on our options and your physical health. One of the reasons why my partner’s mood fluctuates slightly at the moment is because they don’t have any treatment options, they don’t know exactly what they have and their physical health is still really bad. This lack of physical health and treatment option has a negative impact on their mood. Clinical psychologists are useful here because research shows that when clients directly tackle their diagnosis instead of avoiding it, and they seek help instead of retreating from the diagnosis. They experience better life satisfaction and undergo a healthier adjustment. This is why it’s important to encourage clients with chronic illness to become more empowered by asking their doctors questions about their diagnosis, treatment and what this means for them. Psychologists can help clients by supporting them whilst they process their grief and undergo this adjustment period. Similar to what psychologists do in mental health interventions, they can help clients with chronic illness by reminding them to focus on what brings them joy and other aspects of behavioural activation. This can be as simple as committing to one small act of joy each day. Since clients can reduce their outside commitments and obligations to focus on things that are more important to them personally, like spending time with their children or partner. This can help protect them against the stress of their diagnosis. Ultimately, when it comes to coping with chronic illness (and this is definitely where clinical psychologists can be extremely useful) it’s critical that clients remain positive despite their chronic illness. Since research shows people with a cancer diagnosis who remained resilient and positive where able to use professional counselling and social support to manage their chronic illness for years and decades. This meant the clients were able to avoid rumination, accept their mortality and take an active role in their physical health and treatment. All despite their cancer diagnosis. This positivity is the key to everything when dealing with a chronic illness, and some clients believe that their diagnosis changed them for the better. At the time of writing, I’m currently reading I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You By Miranda Hart and it’s a book about her diagnosis and healing from Lyme disease. It’s a chronic health condition so she hasn’t been cured but her outlook, her behavioural patterns and her cognitive processes are at the core of the book. She writes about how her stress-pot, her constant people-pleasing and wanting to be extremely productive because that’s she got her self-worth all contributed to her physical health getting worse to the point where it almost killed her. She learnt so much about herself all because of her Lyme disease. I highly recommend that you read the book if you want to have a deeper understanding of how mental health and what we think and feel and how we behave impacts our physical health. Another aspect of this is people with chronic illness need to try and commit to staying positive even if they find their mood decreasing because of their chronic illness. Since someone can become sick of being sick. This is where psychologists can be useful because psychologists could help support a client whilst they support the client in acknowledging how they feel and allow themselves to be upset, reach out to supportive others and challenge themselves to find positive aspects of their lives to help them regain a sense of control. Even though, I don’t have a chronic illness, this is why I found my rape and anorexia counselling so valuable. They both helped me to understand to process my feelings, know that they were valid and find the positive aspects in my life so I could feel in control again. A final aspect of coping with chronic illness that I want to mention is how people with chronic illness manage fatigue. Since fatigue is a symptom of many chronic conditions and this represents a massive challenge for people who face it. When this happens, a person with chronic illness (and perhaps a psychologist could support them realising this) should try to move on from their ideals of an ideal day towards a more realistic one. They can listen to their body’s cues, as well as become more flexible in their relationship with their body so they don’t beat themselves up over their fatigue and how it impacts their daily life. Then when they don’t have fatigue or when their fatigue impacts their life slightly less, then they can be able to embrace the moments that they can. For example, if you wanted to get a ton of work done today and you wanted to go out in the evening to see your friends before hanging out with your partner at night. Yet your fatigue makes that ideal day impossible. It would be about focusing on what you can do, being kind and self-compassionate and managing your health one day at a time, so when you feel better and less fatigued, you can embrace the joyful moments that you want to. How Does Chronic Illness Impact Mental Health? I wanted there to be a section in this psychology podcast episode that explicitly explained how chronic illness impacts mental health. Therefore, chronic illness has a profound emotional and psychological impact on people because they can lead to a range of intense emotions, like grief, sadness, anxiety and frustration. Mainly, this comes from the life-alternating nature of a diagnosis and the diagnosis can make people feel hopeless about their lives as they no longer have a sense of control. Another side effect is that these feelings of hopelessness can exacerbate feelings of depression within people with chronic illness. Psychologists can help because they can support clients through the grieving process and help them readjust to their new diagnosis. Another way how chronic illness impacts mental health is through an increased risk of depression. Since research shows people with chronic illness are at a higher risk of developing depression with people with diabetes being 2 to 3 times more likely to experience depression compared to people without diabetes. As you can imagine psychologists can help clients deal with their feelings of depression. This is even more important when we learn that depression can complicate the management of chronic illnesses and typically leads to worse health outcomes and even an increased mortality rate. The references for all these facts are available at the bottom of the blog post. A final way how chronic illness can impact mental health is through coping strategies and treatment which touches on a lot of the points I mentioned in the section above. This is why psychologists are needed so they can ensure a holistic treatment plan is developed and stuck to that addresses the client’s physical and psychological needs. Psychologists Can Help People Facing a Future of Illness Unless you’ve ever met or you have a chronic illness, like me, then you might never have thought about what the diagnosis of a chronic illness can mean to someone. Of course, there are benefits like it means they can hopefully get access to treatment options that will help them with their symptoms. However, a diagnosis also means a confirmation of everything they’ve feared. It means they actually have a chronic illness that is with them for the rest of their lives so they’re going to face an uncertain future where their illness is always with them. And they need to learn how to live and deal with that. As a result, finding support is critical after a diagnosis of chronic illness and thankfully, there are support for groups for many health conditions across the country or there are online support groups too. Yet whilst these support groups are critical because you get to meet and talk with other people with the same condition as you, it is support from friends and family members that will be important to help the person cope with their chronic illness. Sharing News Of A Chronic Illness Diagnosis One difficulty with a new chronic illness diagnosis is that it can be very scary to share the news with friends and family members. This is a deeply personal piece of information to share and they’re likely to be nervous, anxious and concerned about how other people will react because it will fundamentally change how others see them. For example, whilst I don’t have a chronic illness, there are some parrels with telling others that you’re a rape survivor. To put this in the dating context, I wasn’t sleeping, I felt sick and I was scared that my partner was going to leave me if I told them that I was raped. Thankfully, they didn’t but it was a massive stressor that I didn’t need on top of everything else in my life at the time. Equally, people with chronic illness don’t want their friends and family members to judge them for their chronic illness. Personally, whilst I know being raped and having chronic illness is not the same thing, but there will be times when your health means you cannot do things, you cannot go outside and you have to cancel plans with friends. It is even more hurtful when your friends and family members (thankfully this is only the minority) do judge you and make comments. I think this is similar to people with invisible chronic conditions because there will always be some silly people who do believe “you look fine, so you must be fine”. Do not listen to those people. In reality, what I have found and what a lot of people with chronic illness have found too is that your friends and family members will be a lot more supportive than you ever thought possible. They will be able and willing to offer you help, but it’s important that you establish clear boundaries with them too so your friends and family members know what aspects of your chronic illness you are not comfortable talking about. In addition, some people with chronic health conditions might feel fine most of the time but then they might have episodes of illness or fatigue. This means they might need to put breaks on plans or cancel things because they need to look after themselves. This is why it’s important to be open and honest with friends and loved ones according to experts. It’s better to be open about your needs for hands-on and emotional support so you know you don’t need to deal with your illness alone. It’s okay to ask for help with shopping, cooking, rides to appointments, childcare and so. Psychologists are very useful at this point in the chronic illness process. Clinical psychologists can work with carers, clients and their partners to come to terms with the chronic illness diagnosis. Psychologists can help the client come to terms with the diagnosis, come up with a plan about how to tell others and how to manage their life alongside their illness. What’s The Main Challenge of Living With A Chronic Illness For Decades? This is even more important when we learn that the primary challenge of living with a chronic illness for decades to come is the uncertainty that it causes. The person with the chronic illness might never know when their symptoms will flare up, what treatments will work and what job or career they are actually going to be able to do. This all takes an emotional toll on the person and leads to “illness uncertainty”. Illness Uncertainty is the inability for a person to determine the meaning of illness-related events and this makes a person experience unpredictability, ambiguity, deficient information and complexity. From what I have seen from one of my friend’s partners, she can be enjoying herself, talking and have a perfectly normal day then her chronic health flares up and she cannot function, she has to lay down for hours and rest. Sometimes she can work out what caused it but there are times when she can’t. It is very life-limiting when this happens and she sometimes made comments where she would avoid going out because she couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t have a flare up. How Chronic Illness Can Lead To Changes In Friendships? Another challenge of chronic illness is they can often find that their relationships with their close others change, and sometimes their friends “go missing” so their friends effectively ditch them. And it’s common for people with chronic illnesses to get angry, feeling let down by someone and they blame themselves for friendships ending or changing because of their chronic illness. Yet when this happens, experts suggest it’s more adaptive and healthier to recognise that relationships always change and this rarely has anything to do with health. Changes in relationships are just a normal part of life. And this is why it’s important to engage in self-compassion when relationships change so clients aren’t generating stories about why a friend has stopped contacting or talking to them that might not reflect the reality of what happened. Psychologists can be very useful here in helping the client to navigate these social changes and learn how to express self-compassion. How Does Chronic Illness Impact Young People? Penultimately, chronic illnesses can pose massive challenges to young people, like my partner and my best friend. Lots of people might believe that because a young person acts and looks “normal” (whatever that means) that it is impossible for them to have a chronic illness. Yet the young people with the chronic illness is likely to fixate and stress about their education (and this is one of the reasons why my best friend has struggled with university for years), how they’re going to find a romantic partner and how they’re going to live a life where they have to watch everyone else do fun, cool things but because of their chronic illness they cannot take part. This is an aspect I remember very well from last August at the time of writing. Everyone else was out, going on holidays and doing cool things with partners and loved ones. My best friend was up in the Midlands with their family, my parents were doing knife-making and so on. Meanwhile, I was stuck at home alone, experiencing trauma reactions, unable to move and I was experiencing a lot of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms. It felt me feel even worse that I was trapped at home because of my health and everyone else was living an amazing life in my eyes. People with chronic illness experience similar feelings. This is where psychologists can be helpful because they can support a person with chronic illness Can People with Chronic Illness Achieve Post-Traumatic Growth? Finally, post-traumatic growth is one of my favourite psychological concepts because I experienced a lot of this after my rape. Yet people with chronic illness might experience growth in five key areas proposed by Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun. These key areas are seeing new possibilities, relating to others, finding personal strength, achieving appreciation of life and experiencing spiritual change. Whilst experiencing growth in these areas are not universal, especially when comes to chronic illness, sometimes these growth areas can be developed through therapy. Clinical Psychology Conclusion After seeing how my partner’s chronic illness impacted their mental health last week, I really wanted to learn more about chronic illness. I know I have long, long way to go before I have ever claim to remotely understand what it is like to have a chronic illness, let alone how it impacts their mental health. I am really glad that I’ve done this episode because we’re all learnt what chronic illness is, what some of the challenges are of living with chronic illness and how psychologists can help those with chronic illness. I truly believe that psychology has a valuable place within physical health because your physical body and health might generate the symptoms. But it is your psychological processes and your perception of your physical health that will impact your mental health and the psychological side of inflammation and psychological experiences of illness. Psychology really is more powerful and helpful than any of us could ever know.     I really hope you enjoyed today’s psychology student life psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Working With Children and Young People: A Guide To 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 and Health Psychology References and Further Reading Beckmann, J., Huber, M., & Andonian-Dierks, C. S. (2024). Chronic illness and well-being: Promoting quality of life with a broadened concept of recovery. In Fostering Recovery and Well-being in a Healthy Lifestyle (pp. 3-23). Routledge. Hanvey, I., Malovic, A., & Ntontis, E. (2022). Glass children: The lived experiences of siblings of people with a disability or chronic illness. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 32(5), 936-948. https://patient.info/news-and-features/how-a-chronic-illness-affects-your-mental-health https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/the-intersection-of-mental-health-and-chronic-disease https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/chronic-illness-mental-health https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/chronic-illness Koenig, H. G. (2023). Suicidal behaviors in diabetics, mental health of cancer patients following curative treatment, substance use disorder in hospitalized psychiatric patients in Botswana, nutritional factors as predictors and mediators of mental health problems in chronic illness, and more. The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine ,  58 (4), 299-301. Skojec, T. A., Davidson, T. M., & Kelechi, T. J. (2025). The relationship between uncertainty in illness and psychological adjustment to chronic illness.  Journal of Health Psychology ,  30 (4), 622-637. 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.

For the past six years that I’ve been running this podcast, I’ve had to sit university psychology exams. Every year, I hear from other students that they are stressed out, concerned and they are nervous about their revision, their exams and the results day itself. Recently, I gave a series of talks at a local college in Canterbury to help 17 and 18 year olds how to cope with exam stress, so I want to share this knowledge with you. By the end of this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll understand what is exam stress, how to identify exam stress and how to cope with exam stress during revision, your exam and results day. As well as you’ll learn what to do if your mind goes blank during an exam. If you’re a psychology student worried about exams, then this is a perfect episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Third Year Survival Guide: A Psychology Student’s Guide To The Final Year of Their Undergraduate Degree.  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 Exam Stress for Psychology Students? The other week I was talking with a 2nd year psychology student friend of mine and he was talking about the child development exam that no one was looking forward to. He was struggling to learn all the different theories of language development, let alone all the other theories and studies that he needed to learn for this exam. To say that he was stressed was an understatement. It turned out that he wasn’t alone because another 2nd year friend of mine posted on Instagram that it seemed easier to pass away than pass his exams. A bit of morbid exam humour for you. My point is that it is very normal for psychology students to feel stressed during exam time. I know I was extremely stressed during the final year of my undergraduate because I really, really wanted to get a 2:1, but I didn’t know if my academic writing was up to scratch. Thankfully, it was, but it wasn’t a fun time for me. As a result, exam stress is exactly what it says on the tin. It is the psychological distress and feelings of overwhelm that you get from exams. Exam stress can be caused by thinking about the exam itself, the revision and a whole bunch of other factors related to the exam. What Are Signs of Exam Stress and How Stress Might Make You Feel? In addition, when you’re feeling exam stress, you might become more susceptible to illness (like headaches and stomach aches), you might experience mood swings and become more stressed out so you’re irritable and snappy. During my series of talks, I explained how during my GCSEs (the secondary school exams we sit when you’re 16 years old in the UK) I was very snappy with my parents, because I was stressed about my exams. Another sign or symptom of stress is you might engage in nervous habits, like biting your fingernails, and there might be changes in your eating (because stress can suppress your appetite) or sleeping habits. Some of the other ambassadors who were supporting my talk mentioned how their chocolate consumption skyrocketed during exam season because it helped them to relax. A personal story I shared during my talks was that I was put in for the Higher Paper during my French GCSE mocks and I was so stressed about it the night before, I remembered being wrapped up in the exam paper. Then whenever I tried to look at what the questions would be everything went blurry. I didn’t sleep well that night, and I failed the Higher Paper anyway. I actually failed my French GCSE overall, and nowadays I’m doing very well at French on Duolingo. I could easily pass my GCSE now. Another way how stress might make you feel is like you have low energy and you can’t be productive, or you don’t look after yourself and you have little interest in anything. As psychology students, you might recognise that these signs have some things in common with depression and you can feel a little depressed because of exam stress. Here, we aren’t talking about major depression but you might be depressed during exam season. This is why it’s important to practice self-care, do fun things and don’t make your entire life about revision. How To Avoid Exam Stress? The next part of the talk involved me discussing ways to avoid exam stress with the students. Therefore, it’s important to note that exam stress can come from poor exam prep, so it’s important to do a little bit every day and make a revision plan. For my Neuropsychology of Ageing exam, it helped me to make a plan about what topics I was going to revise each day. My plan made me feel more in control and it made the revision feel a lot less overwhelming. Another source of exam stress is a fear of the unknown. This is why it’s important to understand what your exam will be on and when and where it is exactly. I didn’t really experience this with my Neuropsychology of Ageing exam because I knew everything in the lectures were topics we might be tested on, but none of the student presentations or optional readings would be on the exam. However, the day of my exam, I had a lot of exam stress because I couldn’t find where I was meant to sit in the exam hall, and I hadn’t sat an in-person exam in 6 years. I was concerned and stressed about how it all worked, what I was and was not allowed to bring into the exam hall and so on. Make sure you find all this out beforehand. Two final ways to avoid exam stress are try and make sure your diet is stable. This is very important because you don’t want a sugar crash or hunger impacting your exam or revision. As well as make sure to take time out so you can relax, be active and do what you enjoy. If you make your entire life all about revision, the quality of your revision will decrease and you’ll be burnt out by the time you reach your exam. Personally, during the talk itself, me and the other ambassadors talked about this next tip in the revision skills section, but I want to explain it to you. One way to reduce exam stress and increase your sense of control is to revise your way. You might be a visual learner, your best friend might be an audio learner and your other friend might revise best using active recall. Okay, active recall is always best, but revise the way that works best for you. It doesn’t matter how your friends revise. You need to do what works best for you if you want to succeed in your exams. A common tip that I really liked asking my ambassadors was about the music they listen to during revision. Some students need complete and utter silence to revise effectively, other students need background music to be able to focus. One ambassador who I really like prefers to listen to classical music during revision because she fines it relaxing. Whereas another ambassador likes listening to lofi. For me, I tend to listen to “coffee jazz” or some Demonslayer lofi during revision, or if it is a really boring topic that I hate then I put on some more epic and dramatic Demonslayer music because it helps me to focus. Do whatever works best for you. There is no right way. Only the way that works for you. How To Avoid Exam Stress On Exam Day? When it comes to the exam itself, to avoid exam stress, it is best if you avoid large amounts of caffeine and sugar on the day of the exam itself. This will help you to avoid any crashes before or during your exam. Also, make sure you eat a balanced breakfast and lunch so you aren’t hungry during your exam. Some other tips include: ·       Arrive at the exam hall in plenty of time so you can take a breath, find out where you’re sitting and relax before the exam starts. ·       Check you’re in the right place and sitting in the right place. ·       Get comfortable, relax and breathe. ·       Don’t rush- think and plan before you start answering the questions. ·       Read the information carefully and follow all exam instructions ·       Work out a time plan and stick to it ·       Decide on an exam strategy (will you answer easy or high-mark questions first?) In the talk, I explained how focusing on these strategies helped me not to get stressed during my exams. In my Neuropsychology exam, I focused on answering the 20 Multiple Choice questions first of all to get them out the way then I planned to spend twenty minutes on the remaining five short-answer questions where I needed to write in-depth answers to each one. This helped me not get stressed because I had a plan and I was able to stick with it. Other Ways to Avoid Exam Stress During an Exam We’ve all been there in an exam where you’re writing along and then suddenly, your mind goes blank. It is one of the most annoying situations and it can really stress you out because time is still ticking away, thoughts start popping into your head about what if this is what makes you fail and so on. If your mind goes blank during an exam, put your pen down, read what you’ve done so far and then plan your next steps. As well as note down everything that you know about the topic and/ or leave a gap and move onto the next question so you can come back to it later. I’ve found in the past that sometimes coming back to exam questions is very helpful because your answers to other questions remind you about related topics, so you can answer the questions you were stuck on earlier. Another issue you might encounter during an exam is you find yourself running out of time. If you find yourself running out of time then get the main points down and any evidence even if it is just in bullets because you can still get marks for putting something down, and you can always return later if you have time to flesh these points out more. As well as divide the remaining time between the number of answers because it is better to put down the key information for each answer rather than just leaving it blank if you can help it. Finally, for this section, you might be writing along in your exam and find that you’re getting confused. I’ve had a few times in my exam and thankfully, it normally happens before  I start writing a massive tangent that shows great knowledge, it just doesn’t help me answer the question I am being asked. If you find yourself getting confused then stop writing and re-read the question and re-look at your plan, Have you gone off track somewhere? Two Tips For Avoiding Exam Stress on Results Day Results day can be just as stressful as the exam day itself, but it is often overlooked. Psychology students are always nervous, anxious and concerned because this is the day that they’ve been waiting for and it determines a lot about their next year and even next few weeks. If they’ve done well then it means that they can progress to the next academic year with the confidence that they can take it a bit easier in their final year or whatever the next year is for them. If they haven’t done as well as they hoped then they either need to really focus in the next academic year, or in the next few weeks, they need to submit mitigation or prepare for resits. There are two big tips I will give you about results day. Firstly, open your results in a way that is comfortable to you. If you live at home, your parents or whoever you live with might be really excited and they might be putting pressure on you to open your results in front of them, or your friends might want to do it all together. Whereas you might actually want to open your results alone in your bed. Just do whatever you  want and open your results in a way that is most comfortable to you. These are your exam results. They do not belong to your parents or supporters or friends. Only you can decide how and when you open them. A minor tip that an ambassador mentioned during my talks was if you didn’t do as well as you hoped, allow yourself to feel that negative emotion. Take a few hours or a day to feel bad about your results because suppressing your emotions isn’t healthy. Then move on, plan your next academic year and do not let that bad result hold you back. The second and final tip for results day is take some time to celebrate and reflect on the past academic year. Think about what worked for you this academic year, what could have been better and use that knowledge to be more successful next year. And just celebrate and do something nice for yourself. Hang out with your friends, play video games, go out for a nice meal, just do whatever will help you celebrate. The hard work is over for another academic year and now you have a few months of freedom before the next year begins. Enjoy it. Psychology Student Life Conclusion I am rather surprised that in the past six years of The Psychology World Podcast, I have never done an episode on exam stress or revision. This is something I want to change and I am really grateful that there were schools that wanted these talks delivered and that Outreach picked me to deliver the talks. It was great interacting with the students and I really hope that you found this podcast episode as useful as the students did. I know that exams and results day can be stressful, concerning and you can really get yourself into a panic about them. Yet at the end of this psychology podcast episode, you now have a wide range of tips and tricks to hopefully help you avoid exam stress this season. Here are some questions to get you thinking at the end of this podcast episode: ·       Do you get stressed about exams, revision or results day? ·       How could you relax and practice self-care during the exam season? ·       How do you prepare for exams and could you improve your practices? ·       How do you cope with results day? And could improve your experience? ·       What could you do to celebrate your results after all the brilliant hard work that you’ve done this year?     I really hope you enjoyed today’s psychology student life psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Third Year Survival Guide: A Psychology Student’s Guide To The Final Year of Their Undergraduate Degree.  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. Psychology Student Life References and Further Reading Hitches, E., Woodcock, S., & Ehrich, J. (2022). Building self-efficacy without letting stress knock it down: Stress and academic self-efficacy of university students. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 3, 100124. Kumari, A., & Jain, J. (2014). Examination stress and anxiety: A study of college students. Global Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 4(1), 31-40. Marsidi, S. R. (2021). Identification of stress, anxiety, and depression levels of students in preparation for the exit exam competency test. Journal of Vocational Health Studies, 5(2), 87-93. Păduraru, M. E. (2018). Coping strategies for exam stress. Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal, 1(1), 64-66. Rajendran, V. G., Jayalalitha, S., & Adalarasu, K. (2022). EEG based evaluation of examination stress and test anxiety among college students. Ir bm ,  43 (5), 349-361. 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.

At the time of writing, exam season for psychology students is just getting underway. I had my only exam three days ago and I know the second-year psychology students had their developmental psychology exam at the same time. Exam season involves a lot of revision, a little stress and students trying everything under the sun to improve their concentration and revision. Binaural beats are one such technique because they are meant to improve our concentration, be good for studying amongst other things. Yet what are binaural beats, how do binaural beats work, how effective are they and more. By the end of this cognitive psychology podcast episode, you’ll know the answers to all those questions and more about binaural beats. If you enjoy learning about biological psychology, cognitive psychology and how to improve your concentration 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 Are Binaural Beats? Binaural beats are an auditory illusion because if you play two tones of slightly different frequencies in separate ears at the same time, the human brain perceives the creation of a third tone that is the difference in frequency between the two tones being played. For example, if you hear a tone of 405 Hertz in one ear then a tone of 415 hertz in the other ear then you would hear a binaural beat of 10 Hertz. In addition, binaural beats are believed to have a wide range of different benefits. Such as, binaural beats can help to lower stress, help with sleep and relaxation, boost our mood, foster creativity and increase focus as well as help with pain management. Nonetheless, some of these claims are just that, claims without any empirical support. Personally, the entire reason why I’m doing this psychology podcast episode is because last August my best friend was resitting one of their exams and they were telling me about their use of binaural beats. They wanted to know the literature behind it, because of course, every single psychology student just knows everything about every single aspect of human behaviour. I hate it when people think that. Therefore, I told my friend what I knew and now I want to understand binaural beats at a deeper level. How Do Binaural Beats Work? If you’ve done biological psychology before then you might be aware our brain waves operate at different frequencies and different brain waves are associated with different states. As a result, when making a binaural beat, both frequencies have to have a frequency below 1,500 hertz and the difference between them cannot be greater than 40 Hertz. Then the effect of the binaural beat depends on its frequency and the corresponding brain wave. For example, if the binaural beat has the same frequency as a beta wave (between 13 and 16 hertz) then this will help with awareness and alertness. If the beat has a frequency between 8 and 12 hertz like alpha waves then this helps with relaxation and meditation. If the beat has a frequency between 4 and 7 hertz like theta waves, then these brain waves are common in the lighter stages of sleep or the transition from waking to sleeping. It is binaural beats in this range that are more likely to promote sleep and relaxation. As well as delta waves (a frequency between 0.5 and 4 hertz) signify a deep sleep. What Is Entrainment? Interestingly, there is some evidence to suggest that the binaural beats can alter our brain waves because of the process of entrainment. This is where the brain waves align themselves to an outside beat or frequency, and because different brain waves are associated with different states of mind. This is why binaural beats are theorised to impact our focus, sleep and mood. This is why the concept of entrainment has gained popularity in recent years as a possible therapy for anxiety, concentration difficulties, insomnia amongst others. Personally, I think this is where my personal rule comes in because in my experience, if something “psychological” enters the mainstream and lots of laypeople are excited about it. Then it probably means that there is little research support for it, and when it comes to entrainment that seems to be the case. I would rather wait for more research to be done before declaring entrainment anything more than a theory in relation to binaural beats. Can Binaural Beats Get You High? Speaking of pop psychology rubbish, within popular culture, there is the idea that digital drugs can use sounds and music to induce a euphoric state similar to the happy states you get from LSD, cocaine and ecstasy. As digital drugs use recordings and these are based on binaural beats, some people argue that binaural beats can provide a natural sense of body relaxing whilst the mind expands. Yet honestly, the research into their effectiveness is very limited and very disputed. What Are The Potential Benefits of Binaural Beats? Binaural beats are meant to encourage the brain to transition from a more alert, higher-frequency state into a slower, more relaxed state at least according to the theory. There are some small studies that show this to be the case but other studies have found evidence that the changes in brainwave patterns might trigger hormonal changes. This leads to increases in melatonin and DHEA and decreased cortisol levels. Therefore, people who use binaural beats might report feeling more relaxed, experience increased focus, lower anxiety and better sleep and see improvements in their motivation as well as mood. When it comes to sleep, this is a very common use of binaural beats because during sleep the brain generates different types of brain waves depending on the stage of sleep and the current level of mental arousal. Theta and delta waves are associated with relaxation and deep sleep so binaural beats can be useful to help you sleep better because they shift the brain towards theta and delta-type brain waves. Depression is another use of binaural beats because if people with depression listen to binaural beats in the alpha, theta or delta range then this can provide some relief. The binaural beats might reduce depression in some people but most people with depression will get much better results if they try binaural beats alongside psychological therapy. Then if the client sees any negative side effects then it is best to stop immediately and consult a medical doctor or therapist. A final potential of binaural beats is treating anxiety. Several studies have shown that regularly listening to binaural beats in the delta and theta range can be relaxing and this might help reduce anxiety symptoms. Again though, research is still limited. Also, some researchers are investigating the use of binaural beats in a hospice setting to see whether they can help people who are dealing with end-of-life issues. How Effective Are Binaural Beats? The issue with research on binaural beats is that they are often small, preliminary studies with mixed results. Most experts agree that the risk of side effects from binaural beats is low and many podcasts, apps and other online services provide free access to binaural beats to boost relaxation or focus. In reality, we just don’t know if binaural beats are actually effective because the research is just not good enough at the moment. In my opinion, I would really like the research to improve on binaural beats by the studies being larger, more detailed and the studies to move away from being preliminary. I live with someone with ADHD, my partner has ADHD and even for myself, the ability to improve focus would be amazing at times. At the moment, I’m listening to a Demonslayer character theme mashup as I write this post, so I know that if binaural beats can actually improve focus and help improve lives that way. Then it could have great clinical implications too because if binaural beats could help people with ADHD whilst they’re on the waiting list for an assessment and ratlkin then it would be brilliant but until the research improves we simply will not know for sure. Cognitive Psychology Conclusion Yesterday, I told my best friend that I was doing a podcast episode on binaural beats this week and we had a conversation concluding in the statement the results would probably be inconclusive. I smile as I wrote this podcast episode because that is largely true, because binaural beats might have a lot of great potential but right now, it is just that. Potential. Until there is more research, more real experiments and larger studies done on binaural beats, we will never know with empirical certainty and rigour how effective binaural beats actually are in the real world. However, I don’t say this to be disheartening or cynical. I actually mention this fact because I really want there to be more research into binaural beats. As an aspiring clinical psychologist, I am always looking and interested in different easy interventions, techniques or tricks that are evidence-based that I could give my future clients or friends. It would be so useful to be able to recommend binaural beats to people with depression, ADHD or anxiety because whilst they’re on the waiting list for therapy, it would be invaluable to give them some kind of support in the meantime. Binaural beats could be that small support if only the research was better. Clinical psychology is about improving lives, decreasing psychological distress and giving clients more adaptive coping mechanisms to deal with stressful life events. The majority of this work, we can only ever do in therapy, but any support is better than nothing and if binaural beats is a recommendation we can give in the future whilst our clients wait for therapy. Then it is something we have to research, investigate and make a final conclusion on. Our clients’ happiness and ability to function might depend on it. Here are some questions to get you thinking at the end of this psychology podcast episode: ·       Have you ever used binaural beats and did you find them useful? ·       Would you recommend binaural beats to your friends? ·       Where do you think binaural beats might fit into psychological interventions in the future?   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 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. Cognitive Psychology and Biological Psychology References and Further Reading Baseanu, I. C. C., Roman, N. A., Minzatanu, D., Manaila, A., Tuchel, V. I., Basalic, E. B., & Miclaus, R. S. (2024). The Efficiency of Binaural Beats on Anxiety and Depression—A Systematic Review. Applied Sciences, 14(13), 5675. Gupta, A., Ramdinmawii, E., & Mittal, V. K. (2016, December). Significance of alpha brainwaves in meditation examined from the study of binaural beats. In 2016 International Conference on Signal Processing and Communication (ICSC) (pp. 484-489). IEEE. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/binaural-beats Ingendoh, R. M., Posny, E. S., & Heine, A. (2023). Binaural beats to entrain the brain? A systematic review of the effects of binaural beat stimulation on brain oscillatory activity, and the implications for psychological research and intervention. Plos one, 18(5), e0286023. Kraus, J., & Porubanová, M. (2015). The effect of binaural beats on working memory capacity. Studia psychologica, 57(2), 135. Lin, P. H., Fu, S. H., Lee, Y. C., Yang, S. Y., & Li, Y. L. (2024). Examining the effects of binaural beat music on sleep quality, heart rate variability, and depression in older people with poor sleep quality in a long‐term care institution: A randomized controlled trial. Geriatrics & gerontology international, 24(3), 297-304. Reedijk, S. A., Bolders, A., & Hommel, B. (2013). The impact of binaural beats on creativity. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 7, 786. Yusim, A., & Grigaitis, J. (2020). Efficacy of binaural beat meditation technology for treating anxiety symptoms: a pilot study.  The Journal of nervous and mental disease ,  208 (2), 155-160. 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.

Whenever a client comes into our therapy room or whenever you meet a psychologist, they have certain privileges and disadvantages that you don't have. Also, you’ll both have different life experiences, perspectives and focuses that you will share and you will differ in. This is because every one of us is wonderfully unique with our own thoughts, feelings and lived experiences. Yet as aspiring and qualified psychologists, we need to acknowledge that we have certain social graces or privileges that our clients don't have and vice versa. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you'll going to learn what are social graces, what are some types of social graces and how social graces can impact the therapy process. If you enjoy learning about psychotherapy, clinical psychology and privilege then this will be a great episode for you.  Today's psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Moral Psychology: Introduction to the Social Psychology, Biological Psychology and Applied Psychology of Morality.  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 Social Graces in Clinical Psychology? Social graces is an acronym that helps us to understand the visible and invisible aspects of our identity, so this allows mental health professionals to examine the elements of our identity that impact our behaviour and lives. This is what each letter of the Graces in social graces mean: ·       G- Gender, Generation, Geography, Gender Identity and Geography ·       R- race and religion ·       A- age, appearance and ability ·       C- culture, caste and class ·       E- education, economics and ethnicity ·       S- sexuality, sexual orientation and spirituality In addition, social graces is a framework designed by Burnham (1993) and updated in 2012 that asks mental health practitioners to be aware of how their identity influences their thinking and approach to work. Since social graces focus on how different aspects of our identity impact our practice. Some academic definitions of social graces include: ·       “A mnemonic that separates out different aspects of identity into separate categories.” (Butler, 2017, p. 17) ·       “Mnemonic for aspects of difference” (Jones & Reeve, 2014, p. 2) ·       “A suitable framework […] through which therapists can reflect on their own beliefs and prejudices in order to understand how they might bring these into the therapy” (Totsuka, 2014, p. 106) Therefore, some quick examples of how thinking about social graces can impact clinical practice is, if you’re a young and beautiful young woman (age, appearance and gender) how might these social factors impact your clinical practice compared to a middle-aged woman with an average appearance? The middle-aged woman would likely have more clinical experience than the young woman, yet the young woman would probably be treated better and have advantages because of her youth and attractive appearance. Yet both women because of their gender would be unlikely to face one or two gender stereotypes compared to male therapists. Due to the myth in society that women are more sensitive, caring and better therapists than men. On the other hand, men would have a lot of benefits compared to women because of the patriarchal society we live in. Personally, if I look at myself briefly, I am a young 24-year-old white non-binary person who was assigned male at birth and I look male in appearance. I am from a middle-class background, I’m gay and in terms of sexuality, I am not very active and I have only ever had one relationship. All these different social factors would impact my clinical practice in different ways. For example, whilst I’m aware of a lot of social issues, especially those faced by people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, I will never be able to fully understand the impact because I have not experienced them myself because of my class. Also, when I work with heterosexual clients, again I have a great awareness of heterosexual relationships but because I’m gay and I’ve only ever had one relationship, my understanding will be limited. However, because of biological sex and appearance, I get a lot of male privilege that other clients and practitioners don’t get and I’ll be able to help and support autistic, LGBT+ and trauma survivors a lot in my clinical practice because I’ve lived those experiences too. What Is The Purpose of Social Graces? The social graces framework is useful because it allows psychologists, counsellors, educators and therapists to talk about aspects of our identity and how they might impact how we relate to other people. Therefore, it’s designed to make identity factors a part of our clinical discussions about our personal privileges and disadvantages that we face in society. This includes our own implicit biases because once our biases are identified, we can help neutralise them so we can become more thoughtful, fair and effective practitioners. Nolte (2017) page 4 mentioned: “provides a helpful way for us to become intentional in our developing awareness of, reflexivity about and skillfulness in responding to sameness and difference.” Because I want to lead by example here, I know I can sometimes be biased against different classes, which is weird because I come from a very, very deprived area. Therefore, because I make myself aware of my classist attitudes, I’m able to catch myself and stop the thought and biased attitude in its tracks. Moreover, Partridge and McCarry (2017) argued that the framework can help psychologists to use our reflections to inform our future actions so it gets us to think about how we can ensure that we are fairer in the future. Social graces can help us to reflect on our actions in the first place so we can think about how our identity influenced a situation, and social graces allow us to subvert the dominant discourse. This involves psychologists considering how to rethink ongoing behaviours that give privilege to dominant social identities, like white, male, middle-class, able individuals. Lastly, social graces allow us to consider new alternatives for future actions so we can come up with new ways to behave that are fairer. Going back to my classism example, when I find that I’ve been classist against someone or a group of people then this is me reflecting on my action and realising is my own class that is making me behave this way. Therefore, in future, I need to make sure I am fairer and I need to subvert the dominant course. This is one of the many reasons why I love my Outreach work because every week I get to work with students and young people from deprived areas and help them realise that university is a great and achievable option for them if they want to go. This helps rebalance the social scales so university isn’t reserved for dominant social identities, and anyone can go and apply regardless of their age, race, gender, socioeconomic status and more. What Are The Key Features of Social Graces? Firstly, all aspects of identity are equally important to the social graces framework. Burnham (2003) proposed that all the aspects of our identity should be considered equally important because whilst Gender, Geography and Generation come before Race and Religion in the framework, this does not mean they are more important. Each of the Graces are meant to be examined individually without being drowned out by any of the others. Secondly, the social graces framework is always evolving because people will naturally add and subtract from it. Since psychologists can use the framework practically by starting a therapy session by asking people what other aspects of identity they could add to the framework. For instance, if you’re working with a refugee then they might add their refugee experience and status to the framework, and if you’re working with an indigenous person then they will add their indigenous experience to the framework because they are core, fundamental parts of their identity. These new aspects are still just as important as any if the pre-existing aspects in the framework. Finally, the social graces framework makes the aspects of our identity explicit and visible. As a result of our identity and the different aspects of it isn’t often spoken about or given room to be discussed inside or outside the therapy room. This means the framework gives us a chance to discuss our thoughts on the unsaid aspects of our identity in addition to the aspects that we wear on our sleeves. For example, some unsaid aspects of my identity generally my thoughts on religion, my sexuality, my sexual orientation, my gender identity amongst others. Whereas I happily wear the age, generation, biological sex, education amongst others on my sleeve. On the whole, when in therapy sessions, social graces can be discussed with clients to get both the client and therapist thinking about how each aspect of identity impacts their thoughts and behaviour. For example, when clients and therapists talk about education, they can talk about how their education background influences their views, and when people talk about generation, they could talk about their lives growing up and how the attitudes and behaviours of different generations impact their views nowadays. Such as, if my Grandad who was born in the Silent Generation was to discuss his generation then he would talk about how you didn’t show emotion, you didn’t show that you were upset and you certainly did not talk about your feelings or complain as part of that generation. Then a therapist would explore how those attitudes impact his daily life and behaviour now, and whether these are still adaptive or maladaptive attitudes to have these days. What are The Advantages of the Social Graces Framework? Firstly, a great benefit of the social graces framework is that it helps us to see our own implicit biases because when we examine the aspects of our identities, this allows us to think about how they shape our actions and views about our self, others and the world. Then by talking about these aspects we can eliminate or, at least, minimise implicit biases in our clinical practice. Secondly, the framework is great because it helps people to understand identity. I would add that this is very useful as a potential psychoeducation tool for our clients because identity is a very abstract concept, so by providing a framework to our clients that helps to facilitate a discussion. This is a really useful way to make an abstract concept slightly more tangible for our clients. As well as the framework is a useful way to examine with our clients how aspects of our identity impact our beliefs and perspectives. Lastly, another advantage of the social graces framework is it makes us talk about the invisible and unsaid aspects of our identity. I mean without this framework, we wouldn’t talk about a lot of aspects of identity, because most aspects are often overlooked or ignored because they’re invisible. It’s really common to talk about gender, sexual orientation, race, age and education because we largely see these social factors. Yet it is rare to talk about generation, sexuality amongst others. This means it’s useful that clients and psychologists can talk through each aspect one by one to make sure nothing is overlooked. What Are The Disadvantages of The Social Graces Framework? The first major disadvantage of this framework is the very fact that it is a framework and not theory. This means that whilst it is a useful tool for thinking about identity, this isn’t a theory that offers us an explanation of how the world works. In other words, social graces should not be considered the same as Critical Whiteness Theory, Critical Race Theory of Intersectional Theory because each of these valuable and insightful theories offers us an explanation for how the world works. Instead the social graces framework only offers us a chance for important discussions to be had about social identity biases, so some people argue the lack of explanation about the world is a disadvantage. In addition, a final disadvantage of the framework is that it completely fails to understand just how complex our identities are. At some point in the next year, I have a book coming out called Your Unshakable Self  and I’m really looking forward to that book being released because it explores a lot about our sense of Self, our identity and all the different ways how it impacts our behaviour. This social graces framework shouldn’t cover the majority of what I talk about in this book, and another sub-issue of the framework is that it is the complete opposite of Intersectional Theory according to Bulter (2017). Intersectional Theory sees the intersectional identities as unique, impossible to talk about separately and you cannot neatly separable out our identities. I completely agree with Butler (2017) because if we talk some aspects of my identity. You cannot talk about the sexuality part of my identity without talking about my sexual orientation, my gender identity, my biological sex, race and my class. Since the very fact that I am a gay non-binary person assigned male at birth who’s white and middle-aged who has very little romantic or sexual experience. Fundamentally means all these factors insect and interact to inform my views and perspectives about myself, others and the world. Equally, you cannot talk about me being a clinical psychology Masters student (education) without considering how I’m white, from the south of England and from a nationally deprived area. All those social identities impact on my educational journey and impact my views. Those are only some examples about how you can’t treat aspects of identity separately. On the whole, Butler (2017) argued that breaking down our identity into separate categories fails to understand just how complex our identities are. As well as the framework seeks to look at identity as a “sum of its parts” instead of an indivisible and holistic concept. Clinical Psychology and Social Psychology Conclusion After struggling for a few months to understand social graces and what they actually were because in my lectures, the social graces framework was always just skipped over. I am really happy that I took the time to think about social graces because they are flat out critical to understand, we should be having these conversations and we should be reflecting and always wanting to be fair. And having social graces doesn’t make us a problem in society, people will always have social graces that others do not have and vice versa, but if we do not reflect on our biases and think about how our social identities impact our and if we are not proactive in becoming fairer. Then this is where our social graces become a problem because we should always be striving to make society better, fairer and more equal for everyone regardless of their social graces. Ultimately, Burnham et al. gave us a very useful way of looking at how our social identities impact our implicit biases. As well as this is a valuable discussion tool to help mental health professionals think about how best we can counter our own biases so we can better achieve social justice. Everyone deserves to be treated fairer, compassionately and equally in society, let alone our therapy rooms. So if having discussions about social graces is the way to achieve these outcomes then it is something we absolutely have to do. And you’ll likely learn a lot of fun, interesting and surprising things along the way.   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 Moral Psychology: Introduction to the Social Psychology, Biological Psychology and Applied Psychology of Morality.  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 Birdsey, N., & Kustner, C. (2021). Reviewing the social GRACES: what do they add and limit in systemic thinking and practice?. T he American journal of family therapy ,  49 (5), 429-442. Burnham, J. & Roper-Hall, A. (2017) Commentaries on this issue.  Context , 151, 47-50. Burnham, J. (1992) Approach-method-technique: Making distinctions and creating connections.  Human Systems ,  3 (1), 3-26. Burnham, J. (1993) Systemic supervision: The evolution of refl exivity in the context of the supervisory relationship.  Human Systems ,  4 , 349- 381. Burnham, J. (2005) Relational reflexivity: A tool for socially constructing therapeutic relationships. In: C. Flaskas, B. Mason & A. Perlesz (eds.),  The space between: Experience, context and process in the therapeutic relationship . London: Karnac. Burnham, J. (2012) Developments in social GRRRAAACCEEESSS: Visible-invisible and voicedunvoiced. In I-B. Krause (Ed.)  Culture and Reflexivity in Systemic Psychotherapy . Mutual Perspectives. London: Karnac. Burnham, J. (2018). Developments in Social GRRRAAACCEEESSS: visible–invisible and voiced–unvoiced 1. In Culture and reflexivity in systemic psychotherapy (pp. 139-160). Routledge. Butler, C. (2017). Intersectionality and systemic therapy, Context, 151, pp. 16-18. Cockell, S. (2017) Exploration of attire as an unvoiced ‘GRACE’. Context, 151, 19-22. Jones, V. & Reeve, D. (2014). DISsing the Social GGGRRAAACCEEESSS. Paper presented at the AFT Conference. University of South Wales. Jones, V. (2019). Diversity IS GRACE–Using the'Social Graces' to Promote Reflection on Diversity.  Working with People with Learning Disabilities: Systemic Approaches , 243. Nolte, L. (2017). (Dis)gracefully engaging with diversity learning – reflections on the SGs as a training tool.  Context , 151. pp. 4-6. ISSN 09691936 Partridge, K. & McCarry, N. (2017). Graces that bite: Unleashing the GRR in the graces.  Context , 151. pp. 7-10. ISSN 09691936 Totsuka, Y. (2014). ‘Which aspects of social GGRRAAACCEEESSS grab you most?’ The social GGRRAAACCEEESSS exercise for a supervision group to promote therapists’ self‐reflexivity.  Journal of family Therapy, 36, 86-106. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6427.12026 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 don’t think anyone can go through their psychology journey without encountering any myths about psychology. A few years ago at a gender reveal party, I was talking to my brother’s dad (we have different ones) and he explained how he needed to see a psychologist because of an injury before he could go to work. Yet when he was younger and even now, he wouldn’t do it because everyone back then knew psychologists only saw “crazy” people. After I explained the types of people who psychologists actually helped, he was more relaxed about going. This is just one out of the millions of myths that psychology and psychologists face every day. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn about the “crazy people” myth about psychology, who psychologists help and more about clinical psychology in the real world. If you enjoy learning about psychology myths, careers in psychology and mental health then this is a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Myths About Clinical Psychology: A Psychology Student's and Professional's Guide To Myths About Clinical 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 PSYCHOLOGISTS DO NOT ONLY DEAL WITH CRAZY PEOPLE? (Extract from Myths About Clinical Psychology by Connor Whiteley  COPYRIGHT 2025) If there is any psychology myth that is going to get me on my soapbox then it is definitely going to be this myth because there was so much to unpack and I'm actually really excited about this chapter. Therefore, in this myth chapter we're going to be focusing on the stupid idea that psychologists only deal with so-called crazy people. This is going to be a lot of fun. Little Recap So the main reason why this myth is automatically wrong is because it builds on the idea that only mental health professionals and clinical psychologists are psychologists. Also, this myth completely forgets there are other types of psychologists. For example, business psychologists, social psychologists, experimental psychologists, academic psychologists, and on and on and on. Therefore, even if this myth was true and psychologists only saw crazy people (I absolutely hate saying that) then it would just be impractical for psychology to only see crazy people. For example, you might be able to argue that a social psychologist and an academic psychologist might meet with a crazy person for academic research. But I would have no idea and no explanation as to why the hell a business psychologist would want to work with a crazy person because business psychologists only really working HR departments. Therefore, this myth is just unpractical from a practicality standpoint and how the psychology job market actually works. What Even Are Crazy People? Now then if we jump on my soapbox for a moment what the hell are crazy people. I have no idea what crazy people actually are because it just comes back to this myth in general society that only crazy people like Psychopaths, murderers, evil abuses and paedophiles have mental health difficulties. It is one of the most disgusting myths ever that if you have a mental health difficulty then you're a crazy person, you're dangerous, you’re insecure, you are unstable, you're going to hurt someone or kill someone. Like forgive my language but is absolute bullshit. I absolutely fucking hate this myth because it is so dangerous, disgusting and these people just need to learn what psychology actually involves. And even if someone was apparently crazy in terms of being psychotic for example. It doesn't mean that they are a bad person, it doesn't mean they don't deserve support, it doesn't mean they deserve to be helped any less than anyone else. Because people with psychosis can live good lives, they can receive mental health support and they can do really good things about their lives if given the right mental health support and treatment. The very idea that just because someone's crazy according to this horrible societal myth or idea about what a bad person looks like. It's just horrific because even a psychotic person still deserves good treatment, good support and to live a good life. I just absolutely hate this myth that says certain people just because they have sudden conditions are lesser or dangerous or they’re evil. Of course, I am not saying that psychopaths, sociopaths and some people with psychotic disorders are perfect or nice and they don't commit crimes. Yet the idea that you would want to tarnish an entire clinical population with the same brush and say all of them are bad people that are going to commit crimes and hurt people is disgusting. Anyway, that is my rant over and that is me jumping off my soapbox because I hate this idea that there are crazy people in the world and it is absolute fucking bullshit. What’s the Truth? Let's now look into what clinical psychologists actually deal with and the amazing people that they help. So in reality clinical psychologists help and they deal with anyone has a mental health difficulty or mental health condition. Some examples of these mental health conditions or difficulties can include suicidal idealization, depression, anxiety, self-harm, eating disorders, or disordered eating to be honest. Trauma survivors with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is another possible group too. As we can already see clinical psychologists deal with a lot of different conditions and people and some of them are really normal. For example, neurodivergence, like ADHD and autism, and clinical psychologists can also deal with learning disabilities. And it is this really wide range of people that you get to deal with and you get to help that makes me love psychology and really makes me love clinical psychology even more because you can do so much with it. Since at the time of writing in February 2024 so far, I've done two major bits of psychology work experience and I've done tons of different bits and pieces on the side. I've worked with people with learning disabilities and this was quite wide-ranging and if you go check out the backlist of The Psychology World Podcast, you can actually find the episode that I wrote about my experience. And then I've also worked with transgender individuals at a Gender Identity Clinic, which I really loved. So as you can see just from those two really simple examples I worked with such different people with different needs, different mental health difficulties and they were in very different situations. And then a final example before I start making my point about the truth behind this myth is that I've also spoken about this on the podcast before and I do have A Memoir and it might be out by the time this book's released, but I've also been through some trauma and abuse and I went for mental health support I went for person-centred counselling. And the very idea that I'm crazy, I’m messed up and I have a problem just because I needed some counselling, I think it's very disgusting to be honest. Not so much hurtful because I've heard it all before but I think the fact that people want to judge me for what I went through and how I dealt with it is beyond disgusting and I just don't understand it. Like the very idea that someone says I'm a bad person for what other people did to me and how other people traumatised me and how others abused me, I think is laughable. Due to you can tell that these people who are saying these things just don't understand what it's like to go through certain stuff. And if you've read any of my books, if you listen to my podcast and I hope that you've understood this through my tone and how passionate I am in these chapters, I hope you know that I'm a lovely person, I love helping people and all I want to do is support our amazing clients in the future when I do become a clinical psychologist. Overall, this serves as a great segway into my point about what the truth behind this myth is, in reality, clinical psychologists deal with normal people with normal mental health difficulties in normal situations, and sometimes extremely abnormal situations, like abuse and trauma. Clinical psychologists deal with people that laugh, that love their families, have children, are sons, mothers, daughters, and children, and maybe trans. They are just normal people. These clients that clinical psychologists have to deal with like going out with their friends at the weekend and they might drink. They like having fun with their friends, they like watching TV, they might like reading, they might like watching movies just like you. All these people that clinical psychologists have to deal with that makes them different from other people is just that they’re brave enough, they're courageous enough and they are amazing enough to admit they need mental health support to improve their lives, decrease their psychological distress, and give themselves power. To me that makes them flat out amazing and I will not have anyone saying they're crazy or bad or evil people just because of some stupid myth. And if my passion in this chapter has offended some belief of yours. Then I'm not sorry because this is such a dangerous annoying myth that I do want to stamp out because it's not fair on our client so it isn't fair on people like me who've had mental health experiences and it's just a disgusting myth that Society does need to remove.   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 Myths About Clinical Psychology: A Psychology Student's and Professional's Guide To Myths About Clinical 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 Reference and Further Reading Whiteley, C. (2025) Myths About Clinical Psychology: A Psychology Student's and Professional's Guide To Myths About Clinical Psychology. 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’re a UK listener living in Kent then you might have heard on the radio recently an advert by Kent County Council about the awful and damaging impact consistent arguing and parental conflict can have on child development. After hearing this advert a few times, I wanted to learn more and it’s really interesting how parental conflict negatively impacts a child’s development at no fault of their own. Therefore, in this social psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn how parental conflict damages a child’s development, how to reduce conflict between parents and more. If you’re interested in child psychology, conflict reduction and social psychology 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. Why Do We Need To Talk About Conflict Between Parents? I’ll explain in the next section the damaging impact that parental conflict has on a child, but I want to start off this psychology podcast episode by mentioning that it is normal to argue and for there to be conflict in a relationship. There will be things in your life that just annoy you. Be it work, home life or just being a parent, these things can cause you to become stressed and agitated. It’s okay, and this can cause a lot of friction in a household so arguing and shouting happens. Unfortunately, there are times when this happens in front of children. I want to stress that some conflict is normal because it truly is and not all conflict is damaging to children. If parents didn’t argue at all then I would be more suspicious of that because I don’t know a single couple, a single group of parents and a single friendship that has not argued at least once. However, there will be times when this parental conflict can increase to unhealthy levels. This could be screaming at each other and shouting without a resolution, communicating to each other in disrespectful ways or periods of silence. This is not healthy communication at all and this is persistent and/ or extreme source of conflict that damages child development. Not only in terms of their mental health, but it can damage the relationship between the child and parent too. No parent wants interparental conflict to harm their relationship with their own child so that’s why we need to learn about how to reduce it. How Does Constant Parental Conflict Harm Child Development? There are a lot of significant ways how constant or consistent parental conflict can harm child development. For example, it can harm a child’s emotional and psychological well-being since persistent exposure to parental conflict can lead to a child becoming emotionally insecure. This can manifest as depression, anxiety or behavioural difficulties (Cummings & Schatz, 2012; Hess, 2021; Sarrazin & Cyr, 2007). These harmful effects can become worse because typically children feel caught in the middle of their parents’ conflict so this increases feelings of stress and helplessness. In addition, the sheer levels of stress and other difficult emotions caused by persistent parental conflict can harm academic performance in children. The associated stress can impair a child’s cognitive functioning and concentration so they can’t focus on lessons so this academic performance worsens. Another negative outcome of persistent parental conflict is it harms a child’s social development. Since research shows increased parental conflict correlates with reduced prosocial behaviour and an increase in problems with same-age peers in children (Sarrazin & Cyr, 2007). As well as these social difficulties can become worse because of parental behaviour. For instance, if a parent doesn’t show a child emotional warmth or positive communication then the child won’t know how to show emotional warmth and positive communication either. This continues to only harm their relationships with other children and people. Finally, for this section, it’s important that we realise these harmful effects of parental conflict aren’t short-term that only lasts a few years. These damaging, awful effects can last well into adulthood and it can and will continue to harm a child’s self-esteem, social relationships and their overall mental health (Hess, 2021). Personally, I know at the end of the day all of us are only human, we all make mistakes and there are times when we just want the other person to listen to us just for once in their life. We want them to pay attention and hear our side of the story. Sometimes, it feels like shouting, screaming and having a real argument is the only way to possibly get through to them. And sometimes when the other parent is talking to us about silly things after a hard day’s work, we snap. We are only human. However, I have just listed four ways how persistent parental conflict impacts our child’s development. I am not a parent and I can only imagine how hard it is to raise a child, but we need to try to reduce parental conflict as much as possible. There are other ways to sort out conflicts because conflicts will always happen in relationships, but there are healthy ways to sort out conflicts that do not end up damaging your child’s development. How To Reduce Parental Conflict? Now we know the damaging impact parental conflict can have on children, let’s look at some ways we can reduce parental conflict. Although, it’s important to remember that whenever it comes to conflict within relationships, you need to keep yourself safe. This means if you ever feel threatened or unsafe by your partner, then this is not okay. No one should ever feel unsafe or threatened by their partner and if your relationship has become abusive, then please seek support for domestic abuse. You deserve and need to feel safe in your own home. One way to reduce interparental conflict is to avoid using the “you” word. As I’ve been researching and learning a lot more about attachment and how to deal with conflict in relationships, this is a consistent piece of advice that I’ve seen repeatedly. The issue of using “you” statements in arguments is that these statements make the other person feel targeted and like you’re accusing them of something. This leads the other person to become more defensive, so try to use “I” statements instead. For instance, let’s say your co-parent is meant to pick up the kids every Tuesday and Friday because those are the days you have to work longer for your job. Yet every Tuesday and Friday your co-parent never picks up the kids like they’re meant to so you need to rely on a friend at the same school to take your kids to your co-parents. Instead of saying “you never pick up the kids when you’re meant to and you annoy me,” try saying something along the lines of “I feel annoyed when you don’t pick up the kids on Tuesdays and Fridays like we agreed.” You see how that’s less accusatory than the “you” statement version. Thirdly, in relationships, it’s important to recognise how you argue. At first this idea might make no sense because surely everyone just argues and there are no different types. In reality, all couples and parents need to understand how they communicate to each other and how you communicate arguments and disagreements to each other is an important part of this process. Especially, if you and your partner both approach arguments with very different styles. For instance, you might be a very calm, collected person who deals with conflict and arguments in a calm, logical manner where you focus on solutions instead of negative emotions. If your partner is the exact opposite and they prefer to shout and scream and they get even more angry when you don’t show negative emotions as well. Then this can only make the arguments worse so it’s important to recognise how you both argue and how best to deal with your different approaches. Two final aspects of this recognition part of parental conflict is to make sure you think about what triggers you and your partner. It will definitely take some time to think about and identify some of the issues that might trigger a strong reaction in you or your partner. Most people just go through their entire lives without giving this much thought and this leads to a lot of negative relationship patterns because the couple aren’t able to identify triggers and adapt their behaviour to deal with these triggering topics in a healthier way. Finally, my main audience on The Psychology World Podcast are aspiring or qualified psychologists or people interested in psychology. Active listening skills are a massive part of our profession and whilst I strongly discourage you from bringing your therapy skills into the home because no partner wants to feel like a client. Yet listening to your partner or co-parent without interruption is flat out critical for reducing parental conflict because everyone wants to feel heard. Therefore, even if you have an important point to make or counter what they’ve said, just allow your partner to finish what they’re saying and try to see the conflict from their point of view before responding. How To Reduce Parental Conflict By Taking A Break, Being Open To Compromise and Choosing the Right Time? Three more ways to reduce parental conflict includes if you can’t stay calm during an argument or conflict, then please take a break. I don’t think it’s possible to avoid conflict with heated emotions forever. Even for myself who never really tends to get angry or show heated emotions, there are times when I do get angry and I can show a lot of heated emotions. When these situations arise, it is normally a good idea to take a break so both people in the conflict can take some time to cool down so when you next come back to the conversation it will hopefully go better. Penultimately, in any sort of conflict, it’s important to choose the right time to address issues and this is something I’ve learnt over the past few weeks. It turns out that a major difference between people with anxious attachment and avoidant attachment is that a person with anxious attachment tends to want to resolve conflict immediately even if this is a bad time when the other person doesn’t want to engage in conflict. Whereas an avoidant person will avoid discussing and resolving conflict at all. I mention these attachment facts because I recently learnt with some conflict in my house that I wanted to resolve conflict immediately but the moment I picked was not a good time for the other person and this made the conflict even worse. Therefore, if you want to talk to your partner or co-parent about an important issue then it’s best if you make sure you give yourselves enough time to talk about the issue. Ideally, this discussion will happen somewhere where you won’t be interrupted or overheard, so it’s a good idea to set aside some time to have a proper conversation when it suits you both. Finally, you can reduce parental conflict by being open to compromise. I know from experience that when we’re in an argument with heated emotions, we can just focus on “winning” an argument and making sure that we are the ones who walk away with the best result. The problem with this approach to arguments is that it means we don’t tend to teach a solution with our partner, so this isn’t a helpful way of resolving issues. Therefore, it’s more helpful to be clear with your co-parent about what you’re willing to compromise on and what you won’t. Boundaries are critical in all relationships and this is another boundary exercise, what are you flexible on and what aren’t you. Interestingly, once you start thinking about compromise you’ll probably realise some of these areas that you could never originally compromise on are actually less important than you thought. Social Psychology Conclusion Life is stressful and I cannot imagine how hard it is raising a child with the stressors of work, home life, friendships, relationships and so many other factors on top of that. Parenting and life as an adult is not easy. Therefore, it is normal for parents to argue because sometimes we all just need a release when our stressors get to unbearable levels. That isn’t the problem. The problem is when parental conflict and arguments become often and extreme. This only damages your child’s development by harming their physical, emotional and social development. As well as it harms their academic performance and parental conflict has long-term effects that can ensure the harmful damage effects conflict inflicts on children lasts long into adulthood. This is why it’s critical that parents learn how to reduce conflict by focusing on keeping themselves safe, understand how both parents argument, avoid using “you” statements and use “I” statements instead, if parents cannot stay calm then take a break, and choose the right time to address issues and listen without interrupting your partner. As well as it’s helpful to know what triggers you and your partner and most importantly, be open to compromise in conflict. Parental conflict doesn’t have to escalate to damaging levels, it is avoidable if parents take a step back, learn how to deal with their emotions and conflict better and focus on doing this for the betterment of their child. Reducing conflict does take work and a lot of effort but if it means ensuring your child has the best and healthiest start in life, doesn’t that make it all worth it? Here are some questions to get you thinking at the end of this social psychology podcast episode: ·       How often did your parents argue when you were a kid? ·       How do you argue now? ·       What triggers you and your partner in a relationship? ·       What unhealthy ways of communicating might you and your partner have? ·       How could you and your partner reduce conflict in your relationship?     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 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. Social Psychology References and Further Reading Amjad, M. J., Nawaz, A. H., & Zubair, M. (2024). Parental Conflicts and Child Socialization: An Impact Analysis of Parent Stress in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Review of Law and Social Sciences, 2(4), 09-19. Bate, J., Pham, P. T., & Borelli, J. L. (2021). Be my safe haven: Parent–child relationships and emotional health during COVID-19. Journal of pediatric psychology, 46(6), 624-634. Cummings, E. M., & Schatz, J. N. (2012). Family conflict, emotional security, and child development: translating research findings into a prevention program for community families. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 15, 14-27. He, D., Niu, G., Hu, Y., Song, K., Zhou, Z., & Fan, C. (2024). The relationship between parental conflict and adolescent cyberbullying: the roles of parent-child attachment and core self-evaluation. Current Psychology, 43(9), 8230-8240. Hess, S. (2022). Effects of inter-parental conflict on children’s social well-being and the mediation role of parenting behavior. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 17(4), 2059-2085. https://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/kent-family-hub/mental-health-and-family-relationships/reducing-arguments-and-conflict-between-parents Jones, J. H., Call, T. A., Wolford, S. N., & McWey, L. M. (2021). Parental stress and child outcomes: The mediating role of family conflict. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 30, 746-756. Özaslan, A., Yıldırım, M., Güney, E., Güzel, H. Ş., & İşeri, E. (2022). Association between problematic internet use, quality of parent-adolescents relationship, conflicts, and mental health problems. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 20(4), 2503-2519. Sarrazin, J., & Cyr, F. (2007). Parental Conflicts and Their Damaging Effects on Children. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 47(1-2), 77–93. https://doi.org/10.1300/J087v47n01_05 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.