How We Care

Elizabeth and Paul reflect on their current projects - writing a book and navigating semi-retirement - asking each other about their meaning, origins and challenges. As usual, there are strong parallel themes for our hosts - in this episode the importance of acceptance and how everything has lead us to this point!   Elizabeth's book 'Resources for chronically ill professionals in private practice'...

Elizabeth and special guest person-centred counsellor Natalie Rodil discuss their experiences in the counselling profession while living with chronic illness. They describe their journeys to getting support, learning self-management and the ongong challenges of both organisational and private practice work. Their experiences as mid-career and early career therapist respectively highlight some usef...

Elizabeth reads her recent article on what the Salt Path book scandal tells us about how society views chronic illness and disability. Aiming to raise awareness and understanding of living with chronic illness in her writing, this episode is for those of you living with a chronic condition and those who care about or are supporting people who are disabled by illness. Better understanding myths abo...

Paul and Elizabeth discuss how badly behaved, even abusive, collegues can impact our careers, mental health and motivation. They consider how workplace culture and the wider world can support these harms and what you can do to deal with it. Dr Katherine Hubbard's blog post, as quoted in this episode, is here  https://katharinehubbard.blog/2026/01/20/toxic-people-failing-upwards-universities-must-d...

Elizabeth Turp and Paul Gaunt take on the vast subject of the challenges of midlife: loss, grief, illness, frustration, stress, caring responsibilities, retirement, etc and consider how this time of life often brings reflection on how we want the rest of our lives to be. At two different stages of midlife, your hosts discuss what they have dealt with, how they have managed work during challening t...

Show notes: Living and working in the place that Carl Jung called ‘the ‘pool of life’, their chosen rather than birth city, Elizabeth and Paul are fascinated by the importance of place both to their own lives and to their clients wellbeing, lives & choices. We consider how identity and memory relate to space and place both in the world and the therapy room. Paul talks about his research on this to...

Episode 30: Is helping a creative act? Elizabeth & Paul talk about creativity in therapy, counselling, teaching and social work. They look at how confidence, experience, authenticity, adaptability and individualisation lead to successful and creative collaborative work with clients. The following previous episodes are mentioned in the discussion. Ep  The Courage of the Person-Centred Approach http...

Elizabeth and Paul discuss  the Stoics' idea of not needing or seeking 'the third thing', with the first thing being giving someone beneficial help, the second thing being the benefits they gain from it, and the third thing being getting praise and recognition for it. The stoic belief is that the first two things should be enough. n.b. this is not an argument for us not giving praise and recogniti...

Episode 28: When to Stop Saying Yes   Elizabeth and Paul discuss how beliefs, social pressure, people pleasing and self image can affect our ability to make choices about the demands made of us at work and in relationship. They reflect on the changes they have experienced at different life stages and health challenges. They consider strategies you can try to shift from taking on too much to puttin...

Elizabeth and Paul take a lucky dip approach to the card resource '50 Acts of Professional Self-Care' developed by Siobhan McLean of Kirwin Mc Lean Associates and Self-Care Psychology and pull out some cards at random to prompt discussion. More information on this resource is available via Twitter @SelfCarePsy, via facebook @selfcarepsychology or at selfcarepsychology.com Two exercises mentioned a...

The opening passage read by Paul is from a LinkedIn post written by Colin Newlyn (Decrapify Work) posted 17/10/24. Colins insights into workplace culture and employee well-being are well worth checking out. You can find more here https://decrapifywork.substack.com/ Later on Paul quotes from a linked in post by Chance Marshall from 18/10/24 regarding the new UK Labour governments plans to 'encourag...

Elizabeth and Paul discuss coping with the recent extreme events in the UK and worldwide as a helper and how love, connection, community and openness to understanding can help us take care of ourselves and our clients during challenging times. Read more about Imam Adam Kelwick and Nan's Against Nazis here:     https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/08/ice-cream-nans-against-nazis-upl...

In episode 25 of How We Care Elizabeth & Paul talk about how client's beliefs about themselves, practitioners beliefs about their work and their own personal beliefs can impact progress and effectiveness and how to address this. Drawing on evolutionary theory and the neuroscience of fear, considering why helping is a political act and social context matters, this conversation goes far and wide int...

In this episode we consider the ways in which good listening underpins effective helping and our wider interactions in everyday life. We discuss the behaviours that signify good listening, and identify some of the factors that can interfere with deep listening, such as fatigue and intrusive thoughts. We reflect back on our very first episode 'Being with Emotions in Helping Conversations' which fea...

Elizabeth and Paul consider the impact of dehumanising systems on well-being, both in the workplace and wider society. They also discuss some of the ways in which helping professions can support clients/patients/customers etc through the effects of these dehumanising systems. The powerful ITV drama about the post office scandal discussed in this episode is linked to below; https://www.itv.com/watc...

Elizabeth and Paul discuss whether they love their clients, the different types of love experienced in human connection, what love means in helping conversations and the effect that attentive, accepting, warm, therapeutic relationships can have on clients and why this is the case. They also consider potential problems within meaningful professional helping relationships and how to address them.  ...

Episode 21: Transitions in Work and Life: how do big changes in life (parenthood, retirement, loss, redundancy, ill health, etc) impact us and what can be useful to know about coping with changes to our roles, whether chosen or imposed on us.   Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and role transitions from article in the Clinical Psychology Review: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4109031...

Rehare of our first, and second most downloaded, episode  Dr Oliver Jenkin's article Engaging with the emotional content of career guidance can be found at https://indigo.careers/engaging-with-the-emotional-content-of-career-guidance/ A good explanation of Carl Rogers'  Core Conditions of congruence in counselling is here https://medium.com/achology/carl-rogers-and-the-core-conditions-of-counselli...

Reshare: Episode 3: Self-Care for Helping Professionals, part 1. Want to start the new season with good habits for your own wellbeing? We have plenty of ideas for self- reflection on possibly the How We Care Podcasts most important topic: Practitioner Wellbeing. Elizabeth and Paul discuss their best self-care hacks, as well as some of the ways in which helping professionals can neglect caring for...

With special guest Dave Wood Phd: illustrator & graphic designer, educator, researcher, author and course leader at Dundee University. Elizabeth and Dave discuss the informal but vital role of supporting people in educational settings through emotional challenges and mental health, what this takes and how to take care of yourself while doing so. We consider the lifelong learning, curiosity, creati...

Here is a link to a full transcript of Episode 19 https://www.elizabethturp.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/6083?opendocument&part=7 Engaging in reflective practice can help you to; * Evaluate your strengths and areas for development as a practitioner in your field * Identify your core professional values and ways to incorporate them into your practice  * Develop your plans for your own continuous pro...

Elizabeth and Paul take a lucky dip approach to the card resource '50 Acts of Professional Self-Care developed by Siobhan McLean of Kirwin Mc Lean Associates and Self-Care Psychology and pull out some cards at random to prompt discussion. More information on this resource is available via Twitter @SelfCarePsy, via facebook @selfcarepsychology or at selfcarepsychology.com Two exercises mentioned at...

Episode 17: Keeping up with social change as a helping professional – the importance of challenging CPD. Elizabeth talks with guest Dr Peter Blundell, counsellor/psychotherapist, social worker, lecturer, researcher and founder of Therapists Connect. Discussion on the importance of continually learning and challenging yourself as a helping professional in a changing and sometimes divisive world. We...

They discuss practitoner wellbeing, individualised care and the power of being open to anythng in the work, with insights into how effective helping conversations are based on deep empathy and trusting human connection and how person centred the podcast is too!   Contact us on twitter @howwecarepod or Instagram @howecarepodcast or via www.elizabethturp.co.uk or paulgaunt2@gmail.com  

Show notes:   Episode 15: Working and Training as a Helping Professional when you have a chronic condition.   Elizabeth and special guest person-centred counsellor Natalie Rodil discuss their experiences in the counselling profession while living with chronic illness. They describe their journeys to getting support, learning self-management and the ongong challenges of both organisational and priv...