It's exam season, and I know that means exam stress for many of you. Exam stress is the feeling of anxiety or pressure that students experience before, during, or even after an exam. It happens when you're worried about doing well, feel unprepared, or fear failure. Let me help you work out what to do with the anxiety and stress you are feeling. It's all normal, but there are ways you can approach this time of your life with more confidence.

I will share techniques to help you manage and ways of keeping calm when the pressure is on to pass the exam.

You are capable and smart, let me remind you of that! Sit back, relax for about 15 minutes and together we can make you feel more comfortable and in control. Good luck! I know you will smash it!

Welcome to episode 10. It is great to have you back. Life is filled with uncertainty and worries about the future. While many things remain outside your control, your mindset is key to coping with difficult circumstances and confidently facing the unknown. There's no doubt that uncertainty can be uncomfortable. We're all human. And humans are wired to want to control their environments. That's just how the brain works. Whenever the brain detects something that is out of its reach, it panics and does whatever it can to avoid it.

In this episode, I will share how you can reduce uncertainty and worry, focus on what you can control, accept the unknown, and practice mindfulness to stay present. I will help you develop healthy coping mechanisms, challenge negative thoughts, and cultivate gratitude to shift your perspective about the uncertainty you are facing.

Trying to be in control of uncertainty is like trying to cup the ocean in your hands.

Let's learn to accept that life is uncertain and to tolerate the feelings of uncertainty instead.

Follow me on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for more supporting words of encouragement and tips to survive life and all it demands of us.

Or you can contact me directly via email at [email protected]

Join me today for our ninth episode, where I take you on a brief journey of attachment! This human connection comes from early childhood and develops as we do. Find out if you’ve got a secure or insecure attachment to those you form friendships and relationships with. I’ll tell you the personality traits you’ll have and why.

Attachments can be changed as we grow. That’s the good news! So please sit back, relax and let’s find out how you attach to others and why.

Over the past ten years, I've noticed a significant increase in people presenting with concerns about people-pleasing tendencies. The desire to be liked, to avoid rejection, and to feel a sense of belonging can lead to various challenging emotions. Yes, it comes from being kind, but let me explain the difference between the motivations behind your people-pleasing tendencies. We will look at why you behave this way and what you can do to become a more assertive, genuine version of yourself.

Once you start setting boundaries, saying no, and stop over-apologising you are setting yourself free from anxiety, low self-esteem and fear.

I AM HEIDI LESTER, A COUNSELLOR, PSYCHOTHERAPIST, with almost 25 years of experience working with young people - just like you. Join me on my podcast as I offer you words of support and encouragement to help you work your way through life's challenging demands.

One of the most common conversations I have in the therapy room is this - 'HOW DO I STOP WORRYING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S OPINIONS OF ME'.

You cannot control other people's opinions, but you absolutely CAN control how you let them in and what you do with them. Here are 7 tips and suggestions I use regularly to help my young clients distance themselves from the fear and anxiety that erupts inside of them when they start to focus and worry on what other people think of them.

Follow me on tik tok, Instagram, Facebook and please email me with any comments and questions you have I could answer on the podcast [email protected]

You are amazing, and I know that with my help, you can be the best version of yourself - for you.

Be yourself. You are no one else!

Low self-esteem is a negative perception of yourself that can affect your confidence, feelings of competence, and sense of self-worth. Individuals with low self-esteem may feel inadequate, unloved, or incapable.

Many people struggle with how they value and feel about themselves, which can hinder their emotional growth and impact their confidence and self-belief. This can lead to a poor self-identity and challenges with overall mental health.

I will explain the difference between self-esteem and self-worth, as well as how you might feel if either of these is low.

You need to have a lot more LUV in your life to start to work on raising your opinions of yourself.

L is for listen to what you are saying to yourself

U is for understanding why you are using such negative words

V is for value – you must value yourself and your abilities.

You are important, and you do not deserve to feel so awful about yourself. Let’s change that, thought by thought.

Trust has an impact on all social relationships. It helps establish a sense of safety, security and reliability. It allows us to feel safe when we are vulnerable. Many of us have had the trust broken in our important relationships. This leads us to feeling betrayed, anxious and scared, and mistrusting others. If this is something you are experiencing, let me share how you can start to trust yourself again, so you can feel confident trusting others. Trust can be rebuilt but it has to come from inside of you first. Trusting your own sense of self and judgements will increase your confidence. You will build resilience to a world that cannot always be in your control.

If you are finding yourself feeling empty and lost and functioning and not feeling, you could well be suffering from emotional numbness. If you have experienced any form of trauma, stress and prolonged challenging times, your brain cannot always keep up, so will put you in safe mode. This is to protect you from those harder emotions. If this happens to you, you will learn how to navigate your way into a place of feeling and functioning again. Join me as we explore this emotional response to life, and understand what is happening to you.

Please contact me via my email address [email protected] to share your experiences and feedback on the show. If you want to be part of a new segment of the podcast starting next week email me with any questions you have that as a counsellor I may be able to answer.

You are valued, heard and understood. Remember - be yourself. You are no one else.

Life and the people in it affect our mood and the way we feel about ourselves. Low mood will get us all. It comes from a number of places and can last hours, days, or more. Episode 3 will take you on a journey of awareness and understanding about what causes low mood in young people, how low mood feels like, the difference between low mood and depression, and how you can learn to manage your mood with some techniques and approaches that will help.

A qualified counsellor and psychotherapist, my decades of experience will help support and encourage you when the mood is clinging on and you feel hopeless and lost in it.

We are all F.I.N.E, but together we can make that work.

WE ARE ALL FINE – Flawed. Insecure. Nervous. Emotional .......my new podcast aims to let you all accept that rather than fight that.

If you are struggling with any type of anxious thoughts and feelings, episode 2 is going to give you the knowledge and skills you need to make a friend not an enemy of your anxiety.

Let me help you:

1. Understand what anxiety is and what it does to our bodies

2. Increase your awareness that anxiety is fear-based and it's your body's way of trying to keep you safe

3. Get some new ways of managing the anxious feelings with tips and techniques used in my counselling room

4. Give you back the control you will be missing to accept your responses to fear

You have let anxiety live rent-free in your head now for way too long - it is time to take back control once and for all. The next 20 minutes are going to give you the support you need to make the changes you want.

So, watch out anxiety....we know you are there and we know what you want - we are just not going to give in to you anymore.

You are all welcome so thank you for joining me.