Today, Wendy is joined by Dr Sonia Ahmed a counselling psychologist and EMDR therapist who specialises in trauma and South Asian mental health needs. Currently, her focus is on domestic abuse and honour-based abuse such as forced marriages. She also provides online South Asian mental health training for other mental health professionals.

Sonia explains how being sandwiched between two cultures creates personal dilemmas. As does running the risk of shaming your family and/or being ostracised if you do not live in a certain way e.g. agree to an arranged marriage or continue to live with an abusive spouse.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Many South Asians struggle to get the balance right between doing what is right for them and the need to do what´s right for their family.
• Not shaming your family or community is important in South Asian cultures which can leave some people reluctantly continuing with or entering into a bad marriage.
• Sometimes doing what is right for them means being ostracised from their family and community. Which also strains that person´s mental health.
• Men also get forced into marriages.
• Domestic abuse is a universal issue.
• If you are experiencing domestic abuse you can seek counselling even if you are not planning to leave.

BEST MOMENTS

“Ultimately, if you decide to go on your own, there´s a big risk of being isolated from your family.”

“Just because the family is not with them doesn't mean there isn't other support out there.”

“If you are in a forced marriage, I´m here to support you through that.”

GUEST RESOURCES

info@serepsychology.com and info@southasiantrauma.com

https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.soniaahmed

https://serenepsychology.com

VALUABLE RESOURCES

www.wendycastelino.com

https://www.instagram.com/wendycastelino/

https://www.youtube.com/@wendycastelino798

https://twitter.com/WendyCastelino

ABOUT THE HOST

Wendy Castelino has been working as a psychotherapist for over thirty-five years. As an accredited CBT and EMDR practitioner, she is committed to upholding the rigorous standards required for these accreditations and helping thousands of people reach their full potential.

Wendy currently runs a private practice where her focus is on CBT. Therapy is constantly evolving into developing new techniques, so she studies hard to integrate them into her therapy, to provide a rich and effective experience.

Wendy is aware that working in one-to-one therapy limits the number of people she can see. She has, therefore, created a range of online resources. These resources are designed to be easy to follow and provide clear, step-by-step instructions. This can help the individual to master skills and gain confidence, therefore optimising the therapy sessions. They are also suitable to be used on their own.

Further details are available at: WendyCastelino.com

Podcast Description

Welcome to "Don't Get a Therapist - Yet!" Wendy Castelino, a psychotherapist with over 35 years of experience, aims to support individuals with mental health challenges to achieve their full potential. Although Wendy is passionate about providing individual therapy, there are limitations with this approach. This platform, therefore, is dedicated to offering self-help strategies which are designed to enhance personal well-being. The objective is not to discourage people from accessing therapy but to motivate a broader audience to explore therapeutic resources that are simple and effective to use.

In this episode, Wendy is joined by Christine Dunkley who is a consultant trainer of DBT, international author and emotional regulation specialist. She explains how DBT enables you to regulate your emotions. So, you can decrease or increase them when you need to. It is not about ignoring that emotion and its message, its about keeping your reaction in line with the seriousness of the situation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• DBT is a talking therapy that is related to CBT, which is available on the NHS.
• The woman who created DBT had herself recovered from serious mental health issues.
• We need to provide people with the right response at the right moment.
• DBT gives you the tools to regulate your emotions, without switching them off or ignoring the message it is sending you.
• Each emotion produces signature features in the body e.g. tension which you can influence and use to turn the emotion down.
• DBT is delivered by a team of therapists.
• DBT is great for distress tolerance.
• No matter how badly you are suffering, there is always a way out - a path back to true joy.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Regulation is matching the amount of emotion you´ve got to the situation you´re in.’

‘We almost never decrease the emotion to zero because your emotions are so important.’

“You have to change your physiology to actually work on your emotions.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Regulating-Emotion-DBT-Way-Therapists-ebook/dp/B08F6B9JD6

https://www.dbt-training.co.uk

VALUABLE RESOURCES

www.wendycastelino.com

https://www.instagram.com/wendycastelino/

https://www.youtube.com/@wendycastelino798

https://twitter.com/WendyCastelino

ABOUT THE HOST

Wendy Castelino has been working as a psychotherapist for over thirty-five years. As an accredited CBT and EMDR practitioner, she is committed to upholding the rigorous standards required for these accreditations and helping thousands of people reach their full potential.

Wendy currently runs a private practice where her focus is on CBT. Therapy is constantly evolving into developing new techniques, so she studies hard to integrate them into her therapy, to provide a rich and effective experience.

Wendy is aware that working in one-to-one therapy limits the number of people she can see. She has, therefore, created a range of online resources. These resources are designed to be easy to follow and provide clear, step-by-step instructions. This can help the individual to master skills and gain confidence, therefore optimising the therapy sessions. They are also suitable to be used on their own.

Further details are available at: WendyCastelino.com.

In this episode, Wendy is joined by Karen Patterson a very experienced trainer and expert in mental health services. She has trained hundreds of people from a wide range of health settings.

Wendy and Karen discuss how connecting, being active, taking notice, learning, and giving protects your mental health and helps those who already have issues to fully recovery.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Many people who have mental health difficulties do not know that a full recovery is possible.
• People now live with more stress. Some cope OK, others are more vulnerable and become ill.
• Connect and communicate. Find people you trust.
• Peer support works. Patients who speak to someone who has recovered become more open to the help they are offered.
• Learning, exercise and being creative all help.
• Something as simple as colouring in makes you present and gives your mind a break.
• Giving is powerful, even something like putting an elderly neighbour’s bins out.
• Before people can fully recover, they need to feel secure, to have their basic needs met.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The recovery model is about a journey, there will be setbacks, but there is a journey, and we can get there. ´

‘Learning helps with everything…. it opens your mind.’

‘Anything that gets us doing is good for us.’

“You've got to move people to independence, but with support.”

GUEST RESOURCES

Karen has over 35 years of experience and has worked in a variety of settings within the health and social care sector. Karen has worked in various mental health settings, with people with learning disabilities and autism and those living with dementia. Karen is passionate about individuals getting excellent service and feels that interactive training that relates to the workplace plays a vital role in this.

Karen set up KP Social Care Training in 2009 to provide training services across the health and social care sector and has built up a good reputation for providing excellent training in various topics including safeguarding, mental health, mental capacity, learning disabilities and autism as well as other topics that relate to care such as risk assessing, support planning, professional boundaries, please ask for our full list of training topics.

Please contact us at kptraining23@yahoo.co.uk

Or call me directly on 07903 935969

www.kptraining.info

VALUABLE RESOURCES

www.wendycastelino.com

https://www.instagram.com/wendycastelino/

https://www.youtube.com/@wendycastelino798

https://twitter.com/WendyCastelino

ABOUT THE HOST

Wendy Castelino has been working as a psychotherapist for over thirty-five years. As an accredited CBT and EMDR practitioner, she is committed to upholding the rigorous standards required for these accreditations and helping thousands of people reach their full potential.

Wendy currently runs a private practice where her focus is on CBT. Therapy is constantly evolving into developing new techniques, so she studies hard to integrate them into her therapy, to provide a rich and effective experience.

Wendy is aware that working in one-to-one therapy limits the number of people she can see. She has, therefore, created a range of online resources. These resources are designed to be easy to follow and provide clear, step-by-step instructions. This can help the individual to master skills and gain confidence, therefore optimising the therapy sessions. They are also suitable to be used on their own.

Further details are available at: WendyCastelino.com.