MENTAL HEALTH + EMPLOYMENT

Our Co-Founder and Director Louize Carroll is a writer for the Business Post #designforlife column and regularly advises readers on a range of mental health dilemmas. One week she discusses whether or not someone should tell their employer about their mental health diagnosis. Dear Louize I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in early adulthood. Fast […]

TRAUMA + PEOPLE-PLEASING

TRAUMA + PEOPLE-PLEASING Trauma can look different in different people at different times for different reasons.  Depending on what we?re exposed to, and what our own specific brand of relational pain is, we learn ways of coping. These methods are adaptive as kids. They were smart. They helped us to survive, to cope with adversity.  […]

RELATIONSHIP PATTERNS

RELATIONSHIP PATTERNS And we are so convinced that we are in the right, because it feels like it comes from the gut. But very often, it instead represents a coping method that has been created because of a trauma bond.  Trauma is not always large and obvious. ‘Little T’ trauma can be subtle and can […]

Love

LOVE What we believe qualifies as a valid expression of love, is largely determined by our earliest experiences of that expression, or indeed the lack of it. The way in which our parents showed us they cared, either through words or their actions, influences how we communicate to another how we care about them. If […]

RADICAL PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY

RADICAL PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY This can be a triggering topic and there is much room for misinterpretation. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it – quite the contrary, it becomes more important than ever.  In a society where individual or group errors and failings become more publicised and accessible, making people more vulnerable to the […]

Feelings

Increasingly in our culture and society we have begun to prioritise the ‘feeling’ of something as being the determinant or the ultimate in truth. As a result we become unquestioning slaves to our activated nervous systems, our egos and our belief systems, and avoid all the things that make us ‘feel’ uncomfortable. Of course, this […]

Values

In order to know if you’re living in line with what’s important to you, you have to first check if you have fully identified what you stand for, what your values are, what you care about.  It’s important to know what you are willing to put yourself on the line for.  What will you give […]

Grief

FROM THE SUNDAY BUSINESS POST – DESIGN FOR LIFE. A LETTER ANSWERED BY OUR CO-FOUNDER LOUIZE CARROLL I don’t even know why I’m sending you this email, but here goes. My little cousin passed away nearly four years ago — he was just seven. My sister passed away 12 years ago, and she was just 34. […]