As Yom Kippur approaches, I have been thinking about a word I recently learnt: preflection*. I had never heard it before, but it stayed with me. We know what it means to reflect: to look back at our actions, choices, silences, and mistakes. Reflection asks us to examine the past honestly enough to learn from it. Preflection asks us to look at that process before the moment is finished. It imagines looking back from the future and wondering: Who was I in that moment? What did

Why is anxiety like a box? To understand you’ll have to start with our previous blog, then continue here as we explore the idea further. Add time: anxiety changes as we develop Anxiety does not stay the same throughout childhood. What frightens a two-year-old is not necessarily what frightens a ten-year-old. And what worries a teenager is very different from the worry of an adult. As children develop, their cognitive abilities change, their interests change and the develo

What is the first thought that comes to your mind when you think about “anxiety”? what is the first feeling? Are you feeling heavy? Negative? Would you rather not think about it? People often think of anxiety as one thing, often coming to see us stating “I have anxiety” and wanting to eradicate it. But here, at CALM, we have a somewhat unusual relationship with anxiety – we love it. Why? First, what do we mean by anxiety? Before we go any further, we should make sure we are

Why understanding the child you once were can help you understand the adult you are today “The child is father of the man” is a line from a short poem by William Wordsworth. Its meaning is simple but profound: the adults we become are shaped by the children we once were. This idea is also at the heart of how we think about therapy at CALM. CALM grew out of CAYAC, the Child & Youth Anxiety Clinic. Our work with adults is therefore grounded in a deep understanding of how anxiet