Welcome to the Therapy On The Hill Blog — a space dedicated to thoughtful reflections, practical insights, and supportive ideas for your mental wellbeing. Here, Dr. Richard Pomfret, an experienced HCPC-registered counselling psychologist, shares accessible and compassionate writing on topics that matter — from navigating seasonal emotional shifts and cultivating self-compassion to understanding everyday psychological skills like pacing and value-based living. This blog is designed to complement your journey with evidence-informed perspectives and gentle encouragement, whether you’re already in therapy or simply seeking tools to support your emotional health.
After weeks of negotiation and adjustment, momentum begins to build. You have shaped a few habits. Introduced friction. Softened self-criticism. And suddenly drive clears its throat and suggests that now would be an excellent time to optimise everything.
Read MoreDigital habit change has a peculiar way of activating perfectionism. Because technology is so visible and measurable, it tempts us into scorekeeping. Screen time totals. Daily averages. Streaks. The data can be useful, but it can also quietly recruit the threat and drive systems into overactivity.
Read MorePhones, gaming platforms, streaming services and now AI tools are not passive objects. They are responsive environments. They light up, vibrate, suggest, autoplay and remember what held our attention yesterday. Dr. Richard Pomfret discusses in his March blog series, how screens and habits…
Read MoreThe second post in the March blog series, identifies March as a time to negotiate between what has been resting and what now wants to move. Dr. Richard Pomfret is a HCPC-registered psychologist at Therapy On The Hill, and offers online therapy nationwide.
Read MoreMarch is not a restart. It is a negotiation between what has been resting and what now wants to move. Dr Richard Pomfret writes the first of his March blog series, on how to move forward gently…
Read MoreMarch often arrives quietly. Calendars turn. The language shifts. We start talking about spring, about fresh starts, about getting going again. Yet the body often lags behind the story. Winter does not end neatly on the first of the month, and neither do its psychological effects.
Read MoreWeek 3: In winter, particularly February, doing less often carries moral weight. Somewhere along the way, effort has become a measure of value rather than a response to circumstance. How to do less without self-blame.
Read MoreWeek 2: Across cultures, winter was never treated as a personal failing. Reduced activity in February was expected. Lower energy was normal. How to save energy and show yourself compassion.
Read MoreWeek 1: Wintering well in February might mean adjusting expectations before adjusting behaviour, reducing exposure to self-improvement noise and intentionally creating conditions of warmth, familiarity and rest.
Read MoreAt Therapy On the Hill, February is a month we often think about in seasonal terms. Rather than asking how to push forward, we become more interested in how to stay with where we are.
Read MoreWeek 3: February can often be the time when, like many periods in life, progress becomes difficult to see. No breakthroughs. No clear movement. But learning, emotionally speaking, continues even when behaviour slows.
Read MoreIf January has left you feeling unmotivated find out how showing yourself some self-compassion can help.
Read MoreBy the time January reaches its final stretch, many people are tired in a way that sleep does not fix. Pacing, a rarely talked about mental health skill, may be able to help.
Read MoreTherapy On The Hill tells how, this January, compassion is what allows people to notice when they have drifted without collapsing into self attack. How to create enough safety to turn back towards values rather than running away from them.
Read MoreWhy you do not need to fix January in order to live meaningfully in it.
Read MoreJanuary is rarely the moment for dramatic overhauls. It is often the moment for doable steps. How values can invite a steadier way forward.
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