Making Sense Of...

Grief and loss was the first topic we covered when we started our podcast, just as we had all gone into a national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten months on, the subject of grief and loss feels sadly more relevant than before.

With the nation still in lockdown and each of us having to change and adapt to new routines, trying to visualise a ‘new normal’ still feels unclear and a long way off. In this episode, the team look back and reflect both collectively and individually on how their feelings of experiencing grief and loss have evolved over time.

In this episode, we continue our exploration of systemic thinking. Following on from the last couple of episodes - the introduction to it, then looking at how we often don’t think about or question the systems we live in - we now look to deepen our understanding of this way of thinking by looking at social inequality through this systemic lens.

Our latest episode is the second in the series of podcasts that explore the topic of systems. In the first episode of this series we talked about how useful it was to think systemically. How thinking systemically helps frame your life in ways that can bring real insight and understanding to your personal experiences.

In this episode we look more closely at the kinds of systems that we live in and are part of throughout our lives. We also discuss how we might not be too aware of these systems, or pay them much attention because, well they seem to be ‘normal’ or  ‘just how things are’...

In our last episode of 2020, we wanted to step back and reflect on the year, particularly on the reasons that led up to us creating the Making Sense Of… podcast. We cast our memories back to March 2020 and to us realising how what we do - in terms of providing information and theories to help people make sense of their lives – took on a relevance we’d never felt before. The question was: how do we get that out when we’re not running physical groups…? The answer was... a podcast! 

Our latest podcast is part of a series of several podcasts exploring the topic of systemic thinking – a system of thinking to help think about and understand systems. In this introductory episode, we explore what systemic thinking is (a term many people have heard of but don’t quite fully understand), look at what the benefits to thinking systemically are, and try our best to explain this way of thinking without using the word systems… too much!

Sometimes it can feel difficult to find the positives at a time where the world has changed in ways we could never have imagined. Sometimes you need a framework to lean on, something to help find a way of identifying what you’re grateful for or finding what has been going well even in the most difficult of circumstances. In this episode we tap into the Solution Focused Brief Therapy framework to help us do just that.

In this episode we discuss that most difficult and painful of feelings, shame. Shame is so difficult to express and talk about because, by its very nature, it is a set of feelings that must be hidden at all cost.

Shame can have a devastating impact on our lives. We might use drugs and alcohol or sex to try and run away or avoid the feeling of self-hatred...only to feel worse about ourselves afterwards. We might struggle to let others be close to us because we fear they would be repulsed if they really knew us....

Shame is such a unique and tricky feeling because there is actually shame about feeling shame.

In this, the second part of our podcast on Core Beliefs, we expand upon the concept to consider  Core Beliefs from a wider social context . We ask how experiences of social inequality can impact the individual’s beliefs about themselves and the world they live in.

It can sometimes feel like we are our own worst enemies... Often when we‘re trying to make changes or take more positive steps in our lives, we’re met by a chorus of negative, critical inner voices that tell us we’re ‘bound to fail’, or people will laugh at us for trying something we can’t possibly achieve.

In this episode we discuss the kinds of negative core beliefs we hold about ourselves, other people in our lives and the world we live in. Where do these beliefs come from? Why do they seem so plausibly true? And how can they hold us back from doing the things we want to do?

Anxiety means something different to each of us individually. We are generally told to believe it’s a bad thing – how often have we questioned what purpose this inbuilt caution antenna might have? In this episode we discuss that and explore how to build a more healthy relationship to our own anxiety. Is it really something to be so scared of? What are the things we do to escape the feeling of anxiety that usually leave the root cause unaddressed? Becoming aware of the answers to these questions is the first step in building that more positive relationship with our own anxiety.