Welcome to our September Newsletter!
I hope this email finds you well. Autumn is in full swing in the UK with its magnificent colours, shifts in temperature and light throughout the day. It’s inviting us to slow down, snuggle up, pull out the hot chocolate mug and warmer blankets.At work, many of my clients report feeling busy with the grind speeding up after the summer holidays, so it may be worth thinking and feeling into the right pacing for ourselves.
I feel the temptation to move in the opposite direction to the stream of increasing work, even though my work schedule is very busy in autumn (the busiest time at Voxel Hub, actually). My inner pirate part wants to drop the busy routine and escape to the allotment to watch the pumpkins plump up… but I am here and I tend to the call for escapism by softly slowing down where I can: longer breaks, less busy mornings, calmed evenings spent at the gym or swimming pool (away from tempting philosophy books!). I am standing at the door of the master’s research too, so slowing down feels healthy - we need the thinking and feeling time to digest work and to regulate our systems after days of busy schedules. Here is the beauty of this paradox of pacing: the more we slow down and restore, the more effective, productive and balanced we become at work.
At Voxel Hub, I have opened a few more counselling slots, so if you need support, check out my directory entries here and here. The slots are limited and mainly online, but you are very welcome to book a free consultation call to discuss an opportunity for healing or ongoing wellbeing support.
I am also very excited and honoured to be working with my first few clients at OPOKA Bristol , offering them free counselling.
I wish you a slow and balanced autumn!
Monthly reflection
Today, I am inviting you to reflect on slowing down when life gets busy:
Reflect on the quality of your work breaks - in my professional experience, my clients often take regular breaks but do not leave their work behind. Their work still occupies their headspace, thus they never rest during working hours. So practice real, deep, relaxing switching off - even if for 5 minutes. It may mean a small breathing exercise supported by your smartwatch or smartphone. It may also be a moment of the mindful five senses exercise over a cup of tea or over that last dahlia bloom in your garden. If you are in an office and your breaks get hijacked by well-meaning, friendly people, remember that co-regulation and connection can be restful; however, if it’s not, you have the right and freedom to make quiet time for yourself, too, or go for a short city walk.
Reflect on the quality of your work-rest and rest-work transitions. Many of my clients come to our sessions initially unaware of the idea of transitions, while those are at the core of good wellbeing and digital wellbeing. We all know by now that booking Zoom calls one after another is exhausting, of course. However, do we pay attention to how we enter and leave work? What thresholds do we cross and may need to mark - especially if we don’t cross office doors when working virtually. What rituals do we need to mark the transition? Be playful, experiment and then put those new, healthier habits in place. For example, I have a soft light behind my screen, which marks my working time. I switch it on when I start work, and I switch it off when I shut down my computer.
Consider pausing when at work. Since we can take work into our coffee breaks and carry it in our headspace, we can also take some of that restful feeling into work - especially its mundane parts (admin, emails, task lists, timesheets, etc.). When I am not in sessions, I allow my Springer Spaniel to lounge in my office - just looking at her or giving her a soft cuddle during work regulates and calms down my system. Or sometimes it is as simple as taking off our shoes and socks and enjoying the fluffy carpet under our feet.
Finally, remember your boundaries, especially in relation to co-regulation. Regulating our nervous system with other people’s systems and moods can be helpful - if they happen to be calmer and balanced. If you are in contact with a dysregulated person, notice the impact on your body, lean back, maybe lean on the back of your chair, stepaway and take a deep breath. If needed, offer support to them with a bit of a time and space boundary - “I hear you and I see this is stressful. Would you like to discuss this over a cuppa at lunch time, so we both have more space to sit with it and get it out of our systems?” You can maintain boundaries and show care, too. And no, you cannot pour from an empty cup. So take care. And if the support is immediately needed, make time and a safe space for it, so that you can transition back into work regulated again.
My favourite topic this month
This month, I am researching the cyberfeminism and I need more ideas, so please let me know your tips too:
“Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature” by Donna Haraway containing the “A Cyborg Manifesto” essay
“Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto” analysis by Christien Garcia
“Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life” by Kember Sarah
“The Good Robot: Why Technology Needs Feminism” edited by Eleanor Drage and Kerry McInerney
“Glitch Feminism” by Legacy Russell
“The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny” by Laura Bates
Resources and offerings
This is a must-read for all mental health practitioners, as it realigns counselling and psychotherapy with social justice. I was incredibly honoured to review a few chapters of Mamood Ahmed’s newly published “A New Introduction to Counselling and PsychotherapyEmbedding Context, Diversity, and Equity into Practice” and I can assure you that it is a game changer for all of us. You can join the online book launch with the OnlineEvents on the 11th of October or the 7th of November. I also recommend his courses over at TADF.uk.
Featured blog post - Is AI therapy helpful?
This question frequently arises during my daily conversations and studies, so I would like to share my thoughts on the topic today. First, let’s consider the reality of the adoption of AI therapy. Mental health chatboxes were favoured by 31% of young adults in the UK over a year ago. Every week, I speak with people who refer to conversations with Perplexity or ChatGPT, which destigmatised their worries about mental health challenges. AI tools have been around for quite some time, but 2025 feels like THE year of their adoption by the general public.
So, is AI therapy helpful?
As a counsellor, I believe it can be helpful at times if used wisely. AI chatbots offer stigma-free conversations without the worry of being judged by another human, and all of that at a fraction of the cost. Tools like Perplexity can crawl the Internet fast to suggest helpful calming, mindfulness and grounding practices. And finally, AI software can offer psychoeducation if we know what to ask for and if we validate the results against professional websites. It is always crucial to remember that AI tools hallucinate, so we can never be sure of the quality of their responses.
Thank you for reading our Newsletter. Talk to us online, check out our blog and let us know what else you would like to see here in the upcoming months.
Stay safe. Stay well. Stay connected.
Sylwia
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