Wishing You Well

02/10/2026

This month I’ve written about when life changes in ways you never expected - the end of a marriage or long‑term relationship, bereavement, career shifts, redundancy or relocating. These moments don’t just alter your circumstances, they reshape you.

Rebuilding yourself after a big life change isn’t neat or linear… it’s slow, uneven, and deeply human. It asks you to meet yourself with gentleness, to honour your pace, and to recognise the strength it takes to begin again.

If you’re in that space, you’re not failing but becoming someone new.

You can read the full reflection here:

A counsellor’s reflection on upheaval, adjustment, and the slow, human process of piecing life back together.

27/09/2026

Some people don’t pull away because they don’t care… they pull away because closeness stirs something in their system that feels too fast, too much, too soon. These patterns aren’t about a lack of desire for connection, they’re often about a nervous system that learned early on that distance feels safer than closeness; that staying in control, keeping things steady, or sticking to routine helps prevent overwhelm.

It might show up in everyday life as:
- keeping routines exactly as they are because they feel grounding
- choosing hobbies or tasks that create space
- feeling overwhelmed when someone wants more connection than you’re ready for
- enjoying interest or affection, but finding the step into real contact unsettling
- going quiet when emotions rise
- feeling safer in predictability than in spontaneity
- wanting relationship, but struggling with the parts that require flexibility or vulnerability

And sometimes, these protective patterns create a different kind of pain; the loneliness of being on the outside of your own life, the sense of being unseen because you’ve learned to stay just far enough away, or the soft grief of wanting closeness but not knowing how to stay in it without feeling overwhelmed. These responses aren’t failures, they’re strategies your nervous system learned to keep you safe.

Counselling can help by offering a relationship that moves at your pace - one where distance isn’t judged, and closeness isn’t rushed. A space where you can notice what happens in you when someone is consistent, attuned, and not asking you to be more available than you can be. A room where the part of you that protects can be understood, and the part of you that longs for connection can have time to breathe.

You don’t have to choose between safety and closeness, you’re allowed to learn connection in a way that honours both.

See www.wishing-you-well.co.uk or https://www.bacp.co.uk/therapists/406729/sabrina-evans/ for more information.

20/09/2026

When life feels heavy, you don’t have to hold it all on your own. There are moments when grief lingers in the background… when unease follows you from task to task… when your chest tightens under the weight of everything… or when you feel stuck, unseen, or simply worn down by the pace of life.

You may be navigating change, moving through a transition, healing old hurts, or trying to make sense of emotions that feel overwhelming. My approach is calm and steady - a therapeutic relationship where you don’t have to hold everything alone, a place to slow down, breathe, and begin to make sense of what’s happening inside.

I provide grounded, professional support in-person in Exeter and online. Together, we create room for steadiness, clarity, and the parts of you that are ready to be heard.
In our sessions, you’ll find space to:
• Speak freely, without judgement
• Understand patterns and reconnect with your inner resources
• Feel truly heard, valued, and supported as you find your way forward

You deserve care, support, and a space that feels safe to land.

See: www.wishing-you-well.co.u or https://www.bacp.co.uk/therapists/406729/sabrina-evans/ for more information

Sabrina Evans is a MBACP Counsellor offering counselling therapy, coaching & support for Highly Sensitive Persons (HSP), Reiki & HypnoReiki in Exeter or online.

18/09/2026

There’s a particular kind of stress and tiredness that comes from being the only adult in the room; the one who holds the practical, emotional, financial, and future planning weight of a whole life.

When you’re living on one income in an economy built for two, every bill, every rise in cost, every unexpected expense lands on your shoulders alone, no other to absorb the shock - it’s carrying the entire financial architecture of your world.

Professionally, it can mean being the one who supports everyone else, while having very little support yourself.

Parenting alone or in a split arrangement often means carrying the invisible load: the remembering, the organising, the soothing, the planning. Even with co‑parenting, the mental weight doesn't always divide evenly.

Then there’s the constant decision making; the pressure of choosing alone, and the fear of choosing wrong, no second adult to sense check, no shared consequences. Just the constant hum of responsibility running in the background of every choice.

Counselling offers a space where you don’t have to hold everything alone - a room where your nervous system can soften, where the weight can be named, explored, understood and held with you.

Sometimes the most powerful support is simply not carrying it in isolation.

See www.wishing-you-well.co.uk or https://www.bacp.co.uk/therapists/406729/sabrina-evans/ for more information.

12/09/2026

There’s a phase of healing that can feel disorienting - when the crisis has passed, life is steadier, and yet your body still doesn’t feel safe.

It’s like the lighthouse inside you is still sweeping the horizon, searching for danger even though the storm has moved on.

Some feelings can stay muted or hard to reach, and then, without warning, danger signals spike; a sudden wave of anxiety, a tightening in the chest, a sense that something is wrong even when nothing is happening.

This isn’t you being “on edge”, it’s your nervous system doing what it learned to do in survival mode. After a long period of coping, the body doesn’t immediately trust calm; the beam keeps moving, the scanning continues, because part of you is still bracing for what used to come next.

Counselling offers a steady space where your system can slowly recognise safety again. Together, we explore what keeps the lighthouse on high alert, what helps it soften its scan, and how your emotional landscape can come back into view at a pace that feels manageable.

You’re not failing to settle, you’re learning what safe feels like again.

See www.wishing-you-well.co.uk or https://www.bacp.co.uk/therapists/406729/sabrina-evans/ for more information.

04/09/2026

This month I’ve written about the kind of loneliness that doesn’t come from being on your own, but from feeling emotionally untouched even when you’re surrounded by people.

Loneliness doesn’t only appear when life is quiet or empty, sometimes it shows up in relationships, families, workplaces - places where you’re physically close to others but still feel unseen. It’s the experience of being present but not quite reached... included, but not met... spoken to, but not understood.

If you’ve felt that echo, it’s more common - and more human - than you might think.

You can read the full reflection here:

A counsellor’s reflection on unseen feelings, relational gaps, and the ache beneath loneliness

30/08/2026

Your stress response is not a personality trait - it’s a nervous system strategy. It’s shaped by your history, your wiring, your environment, and what your body has learned keeps you safe. Many people have one dominant response, but it’s also common to move between them depending on the situation, the relationship, or your level of depletion.

Stress responses can be activated in moments such as:
- conflict or tension
- being asked a direct question
- feeling evaluated or observed
- sudden change or uncertainty
- relational disconnection
- overwhelm or sensory overload
- situations that echo past experiences
- moments where your needs feel invisible or dismissed

These responses are automatic; they happen before you think and they happen because your system is trying to protect you.

Fight is often misunderstood as anger. It can also look like urgency, over‑explaining, defensiveness, or trying to “fix” something quickly. It appears when you feel cornered, you fear losing control, you sense injustice or threat, you’re trying to regain stability

Flight is not just running away - it can be mental escape; overthinking, planning, avoiding, staying busy. It appears when you feel overwhelmed, you fear failure, you sense relational tension, you need distance to feel safe.

Freeze is when the system slows down. You feel stuck, blank, disconnected, or unable to act. It appears when the situation feels too big, you fear making the wrong move, you feel exposed or scrutinised, your system is overloaded

Fawn (Appease) is people‑pleasing, smoothing, accommodating, minimising your needs. It appears when you fear conflict, you fear disappointing someone, you feel responsible for others’ emotions, you learned that harmony equals safety

Counselling doesn’t try to “remove” your stress responses, it helps you understand them, soften them, and build new pathways that feel safer and more supportive. Stress responses are not flaws, they are adaptations and they can become less overwhelming and more manageable.

See www.wishing-you-well.co.uk or https://www.bacp.co.uk/therapists/406729/sabrina-evans/ for more information.

22/08/2026

There are seasons in life where you realise you’ve outgrown old versions of yourself; ways of coping, ways of relating, ways of surviving that once made perfect sense but no longer fit. And it can feel disorienting - like you’re standing between chapters, no longer who you were, not yet who you’re becoming.

This in between space often shows up in the body first:
- a restlessness you can’t explain
- a sense of being “done” with something you haven’t named yet
- tension around decisions that used to feel easy
- a pull toward change mixed with fear of letting go
- emotional responses that feel unfamiliar or surprising

Outgrowing an old self isn’t a failure, it’s a sign of growth, but it can feel uncomfortable because the nervous system likes what’s familiar - even when the familiar is no longer supportive.

Counselling can help you make sense of this transition, it offers a place to explore who you’re becoming without rushing the process, a place to understand the parts of you that are ready to soften, shift, or be released and a place to meet the emerging version of yourself with compassion rather than pressure.

You’re allowed to evolve and allowed to change your mind, your boundaries, your needs, your direction, and you’re allowed to grow beyond what once felt like home. The in‑between is not a mistake - it’s a doorway.

See www.wishing-you-well.co.uk or https://www.bacp.co.uk/therapists/406729/sabrina-evans/ for more information.

15/08/2026

Sensitivity is often misunderstood; imagined as fragility or overwhelm or being “too much,” - yet sensitivity is simply a way of processing the world; deeply, thoroughly, and with a nervous system that notices what others pass by. Sensitive people don’t just feel more, they perceive more, picking up tone and nuance and shifts in energy, sensing the emotional undercurrents in a room and the beauty in small things - this is not weakness but attunement.

Softness is what allows that attunement to stay open; sensitivity is how you take in the world and softness is how you move through it without losing yourself. Together they form a gentle strength - a way of relating that is intuitive, compassionate, and profoundly human, even in a world that often praises hardness, speed and grit.

Softness is the courage to feel deeply, to cry when something hurts, to pause when the world demands momentum, to speak gently in a moment that could easily turn sharp. It is the strength to stay open when you’ve been wounded, to offer compassion when you’re tired, to forgive yourself for not being perfect, and to remember that healing doesn’t come from force but from tenderness.

Sensitivity becomes a strength when it’s allowed to exist without apology, when it isn’t rushed or criticised or forced into a pace that doesn’t fit, when it’s understood as a trait that brings depth, intuition, connection and meaning. Softness becomes a strength when it’s recognised as a way of being that honours your nervous system rather than pushing it beyond what it can hold.

Counselling offers a space where both sensitivity and softness can breathe, where you can show up without needing to perform or protect, where your nervous system can be understood rather than judged, where overwhelm can be soothed and boundaries explored, and where you can begin to build a life that doesn’t require you to harden or shrink yourself.

If you’ve ever been told you’re “too sensitive,” it might simply mean you’re tuned in... and you are allowed to be soft, you are allowed to be strong in ways the world doesn’t always recognise, and you are allowed to take up space exactly as you are.

See www.wishing-you-well.co.uk or https://www.bacp.co.uk/therapists/406729/sabrina-evans/ for more information.