The Empower Yourself Series of books (republished here as articles) evolved as a common sense step by step approach to personal dilemmas that can happen to anyone, at any time, during their lifetime. Our aim is to reach as many people as possible in order to help them to empower themselves.

You are the person best equipped to identify what you need to live a happy and satisfying life. In these articles we aim to provide you with essential information and therapy skills to enable you to deal with your immediate problem on a 24/7 basis.

Think of this collection of articles as a toolbox that will assist you in building up your own skills and in so doing, help you to use the talents that you have to deal with what is causing anxiety, stress, panic attacks, and anger in your life.

Each category of articles in the series is a stand alone, single problem solution based aid.

The strategies outlined in this series can be used by anyone as needed throughout their life, regardless of gender, culture, religion, political affiliations, ethnicity or sexual orientation. However we stress that this series of articles is not an alternative to prescribed medical interventions, or to therapy itself, but rather to support them.

Those considering therapy, or those who have no knowledge or experience of therapy whatsoever, or who are fearful of what therapy involves, will benefit greatly from the articles extracted from the Empower Yourself Series. The series is also a helpful reference / guide to those who are already in therapy.

The strategies and information outlined in these articles may give the reader an insight into what might happen during counselling sessions. This in turn may help to reduce the mystery, stigma, and fear-factor sometimes associated with the counselling process.

Embracing the strategies detailed in the Empower Yourself Series will empower you on a personal level, and will also promote both your physical /mental health, and help to improve many other aspects of your life.

Be sure to bookmark the updates page on our site, or subscribe to the RSS feed, so you don't miss out.

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The information above is extracted from The Empower Yourself book series, written by Mariad Burke and Dr. Phil Robert. Dr. Phil Robert can be found online at: www.philrobertcounsellor.com.

Some more of Dr. Robert's work can be found at : www.youtube.com/channel/UCvf7cfpoDr1aXPJco6edbVA

Disclaimer: The material presented above is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute care, treatment or other professional advice. Should you require specific help, you should seek the assistance of an appropriately trained professional person.

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​Much of the upset that we endure in day to day life can be healed with a little understanding of how our thought affects us. Our minds influence our emotions, which in turn influence our bodies.
 
When we understand how this connection works it becomes a lot easier to choose how we want to feel, rather than being victim to whatever the day throws at us. I’m going to give you three easy ways that you can stop fear, stress, anxiety or anger from getting in the way of your happiness.
 
These emotions are typically our bodies’ response to a perceived threat. It’s what’s known as the fight-or-flight response. It would be more accurate to name it the fight-flight-or-freeze response however, as these are the ways that our body adapts to deal with danger. The medical term for this is the sympathetic nervous system.
 
Historically this response system has served us very well, as our bodies would adapt to face danger. Various physiological changes occur, such as increased blood flow to our arms (for fighting) and legs (for running) and numbing of the pain receptors in our body, and a rush of adrenaline to help us respond faster to whatever threatens us.
 
When the threat is real this response system works brilliantly, and gives us our best chance of survival. Today though, rather than the threat being real (something like a predatory animal), it is often imagined (judgement or criticism for example)...