Please click the link here to access a peer-reviewed article by me on the medicalisation of emotional distress, first published in the journal of the Irish Association of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy, autumn 2023 edition https://drive.google.com/file/d/11XnL9O_PiR_eX1fbYWX91vyMvPhIikia/view?usp=sharing

Trauma-informed parenting We’re wary of blaming parents for any difficulties that arise with their children; but that means we’re blaming the children instead and escalating the scandal that is the medicating of young people, says psychotherapist Gayle Williamson “I’d just gone in to wake him up ..but again he refused to get out of bed. […]

Internal Family Systems Therapy is a rapidly growing approach that offers real hope over the mental health fallout from Covid, writes psychotherapist Gayle Williamson IMAGINE you are one of the many thousands around the world who have suddenly found themselves in a Covid ward, fighting for their lives. Imagine you’ve been placed face down in […]

(first published in the Sunday Independent, August 16, 2020) It’s a tragedy for mental health that more practitioners are not offering a transformational therapy that can actually heal, rather than just manage, trauma, writes psychotherapist Gayle Williamson Byron (not her real name) is a high-functioning academic in her late 40s. She’s very capable, intelligent and […]

(First published in the Sunday Independent, January 13,2019) The most important relationship you will ever have is the internal one with the various parts of yourself, writes psychotherapist Gayle Williamson   “He has his back to me. It looks like he’s sulking… he definitely doesn’t want to talk. It’s so strange, but I get the […]

(First published in the Sunday Independent, October 22, 2017) When you last saw your therapist, did he or she demand you hand over your phone, show obvious irritation with you and then aggressively push her own personal biases? Yes? Then you need to find another therapist. Hopefully that’s what Fair City’s Decco and wife Kerri-Ann […]

New developments in neuropsychology can help males open up and express their emotions, writes Gayle Williamson (First published in the Sunday Independent, September 3, 2017) There are few things more poignant in therapy than seeing a man – indoctrinated since childhood to be strong – break down in tears. In my experience, it happens very […]

First published January 1, 2017 in the Sunday Independent The key challenge for those who have suffered relational trauma is to reclaim their bodies, writes psychotherapist Gayle Williamson The first time I met Stevie (not her real name), she ran out of my consulting room after only 20 minutes. When she later rang to apologise, she […]

First published in the Sunday Independent (April 17, 2016) Good parenting is about equipping children with the confidence to eventually leave you; but some mothers just won’t let this happen, writes psychotherapist Gayle Williamson “My boyfriend and I have been fighting a lot – we’ve never been away and he wants us to take a […]

It’s a truism that the more you try to control something, the less in control you are – particularly perhaps in the case of managing anxiety. Chronic anxiety usually feels so awful you’ll do anything to get rid of it – positive thinking, hypnosis, mantras, special diets, avoiding stressful situations.. all of which only set […]