Domestic violence occurs when a person consistently aims to control their partner through physical, sexual, or emotional abuse.  Domestic violence can be physical or psychological, and it can affect anyone of any age, gender, race, or sexual orientation.  It may include behaviors meant to scare, physically harm, or control a partner.  Domestic violence involves an unequal power dynamic in which one partner tries to assert control over the other in a variety of ways. Insults, threats, emotional abuse, and sexual coercion all constitute domestic violence. Abusers may use children ..read more

Intimate partner violence, also known as domestic violence/abuse is a global concern that continues to ail our society. Although women continue to be the majority of domestic violence victims, men are also abused by their current and former intimate partners. According to a 2017 study, in every 1000 Kenyans, 3.8 women and 1.3 men are victims of domestic violence. Domestic violence occurs when someone aims to consistently control their partner through physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. Interestingly, most of us only focus on the issue of mental health post-domestic violence while giving ..read more

Why is therapy so expensive? Many times I have encountered this question be it face to face or through various media platforms. More often than not frustration, irritation or even anger is the main feeling or emotion that is expressed. Let me first define what therapy is all about. Therapy is a broad treatment system with many far-reaching branches. In this context, therapy refers to the use of psychological methods and systems to treat people with depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders. Various types of therapy in psychology exist. It is also important to identify the difference betw ..read more

Gone are the days when you would eat your ugali and sukumawiki and sleep soundly. We would appreciate the kind of life that our parents were able to give us regardless of whether we walked five kilometres to school or lived in a mud house. It didn’t matter. It only pushed us to strive for a better future. Today? It’s completely different thanks to social media. When I see someone bothered that they cannot afford a certain lifestyle, I never judge them. I only empathize with them because sometimes the pressure is too much to bear. What do you do when all your friends are making it in life but y ..read more

Killings. Suicide. Domestic violence. Police brutality. Troubled marriages. We could go on counting. Horrendous things are happening right, left and centre. The moment you switch on the TV, you want to put it off immediately. The news we see every day is a shred of clear evidence that it’s no longer business as usual. It’s time to act now, or, tomorrow will be too late. When a country records 483 cases of suicide in only three months, we know that for sure, we are failing somewhere as a society. And, it all comes down to our state of mental health. Almost every day, we hear of bizarre stories ..read more

The other day, I asked my friend if she could do me a favour. Before I even explained further, she objected. “I have anxiety and I cannot leave my house. I hope your favour doesn’t involve me going outside” She explained how the Covid-19 situation has affected her mental health. This is not new. Most people, especially these times we are facing a global pandemic, are struggling with anxiety.  Both you and I have been anxious at one time or another. It happens all the time and sometimes we cannot help it. In fact, some degree of anxiety is necessary as it’s an alert to potential danger hen ..read more

From time to time, I hear people using the terms mental health and mental illness interchangeably. While the line between them is not crystal clear, they are definitely not one and the same thing. There is a difference between mental health and mental illness. Once we understand this difference, then we know when it’s time to seek help as well as the signs and symptoms to watch out for. So that you don’t get confused by these two terms, I am going to make it as clear as possible. Next time you mention that someone has a mental illness, you are going to be talking from a point of knowledge. For ..read more

MAKING MENTAL HEALTH A PRIORITY FOR WOMEN! According to the journal Action steps for improving women’s health “rates of anxiety disorders are two to three times higher in women than men; this includes post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which affects women more than twice as often as men. Women represent 90 percent of all cases of eating disorders, which carry the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses. Eating disorders frequently are associated with other psychiatric disorders, such as depression, substance abuse, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and social phobia” Although overa ..read more

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR MENTAL HEALTH We have adopted dysfunctional coping styles that employ avoidance, denial, self-blame, or detrimental ways of coping such as alcohol or drug abuse. Reson Sindiyo Mental health or psychological well-being is an integral part of an individual’s capacity to lead a fulfilling life, including the ability to form and maintain relationships, to study, work or pursue leisure interests, and to make day-to-day decisions about education, employment, housing or other choices. Disturbances to a person’s mental well-being can adversely compromise this capac ..read more

DEMYSTIFYING THE CONVERSATION AND LIMITED KNOWLEDGE ON MENTAL HEALTH! In this episode Emma shares her unique insights on her role as a therapist and also as a client. Emma helps demystify the misconceptions often associated with therapy and brings a fresh perspective into the benefits of partaking in therapy. She states that we all experience personal challenges or issues in our lives. We can deal with these times by talking to friends or family, or trying to deal with things ourselves. There are times, however, when issues are too much for us to manage on our own, or cannot be resolved by su ..read more