The Spark Blog
Category: case study
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How to Be Happy – Part 2
Picture the scene. A teenager opens their exam results: an A in Art, two Cs in English and French and an F in Maths. The response from their parent is likely to focus on either the good bits or the not so good bits. For example, their response might be: ‘An F in Maths. What…
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![How to be happy – part 1]()
How to be happy – part 1
This is how to be happy according to Stacey Kramer. “Imagine if you will a gift. I’d like you to picture it in your mind. It’s not too big, about the size of a golf ball. So, envision what it looks like, all wrapped up. Before I show you what’s inside I will tell you…
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![Love like you’ve never been hurt]()
Love like you’ve never been hurt
Chances are you will have heard or read the idiom “love like you’ve never been hurt before”. Similarly, the chances are you have no idea where it came from or who said it first. This particular piece of simple but deeply profound advice did not come from any of the usual suspects like Confucius, Aristotle…
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![How to Fix a Broken Heart]()
How to Fix a Broken Heart
Though we will all try our hardest to avoid it, at some point in our lives we will experience heartbreak. Whether it comes from the end of a relationship or a sudden loss, a broken heart can be and often is the greatest trauma we will ever go through. Dealing with a broken heart and…
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![Social Media & Self Image]()
Social Media & Self Image
One of the common problems presented by school pupils to our counsellors is the tricky issue of social media. Children and young people are the section of our society that first embraced social media platforms. The highs and lows of social media They have been the first to experience the highs and lows of social…
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![The Need for Emotional First Aid]()
The Need for Emotional First Aid
When we experience aches, pains or a chesty cough where do we head? Straight to our local doctor of course. When it comes to emotional pain – guilt, loss, loneliness – what do we do? Most of the time we try to sort it ourselves. We (try to) keep calm and carry on. Instead of…
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![The Benefits of Online Counselling]()
The Benefits of Online Counselling
When we think of counselling most of us will picture people sitting together in a quiet room talking. For the majority of individuals, couples and families this is indeed what counselling looks like. But the growth of digital technology has opened up a new form of therapy that is changing how we view counselling. Limited…
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![A Nation of Unhappy Men?]()
A Nation of Unhappy Men?
The theme of 2017 Mental Health Awareness Week is ‘surviving or thriving?’ In the context of men’s mental health in the UK in 2017 it feels like a perfect question to pose. Data – and there is lots of it – points to only one conclusion: many men are, at best, just about surviving and…
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![Relationships and Social Media]()
Relationships and Social Media
Social media is becoming ever more intertwined in our lives and relationships. In an earlier blog we looked at the concept of the ‘digital shadow’ and the risk to relationships between parents and children. The conclusion being that parents who share every aspect of a child’s life on social media risk damage to their future…
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