Written by annakinnaird
August 29, 2023
If you’ve read my previous posts, you will know that I have a special interest in working with problematic skin conditions and one of the most common issues is eczema. Atopic eczema affects 5-10% of adults in the UK and although for many people it is easily controlled by a skin routine, for many others it can be a highly distressing and controlling feature of life. Counselling for eczema is a highly effective treatment and I have a lot of experience working with it.
As an eczema sufferer you will be familiar with the way you and others think or talk about your skin; I am having a flare up, your skin looks really angry, I’m just having an angry flare, you’ve got broken skin, my eczema is weeping. What strikes me about these common phrases is the emotional content in the descriptions -angry, weeping, flaring, broken. It is unsurprising to know that the word eczema comes from the Greek meaning ‘to boil over’ which is another way we refer to a familiar feeling state: anger. Is my eczema telling me I’m angry? Maybe it is -we’d need to find out- but in any case, we could be really curious about what is boiling over in you. The Greeks had an intuition that eczema indicated that something hot and uncomfortable couldn’t be held in.
Eczema is fundamentally an inflammatory disorder of the skin barrier and as with other atopic presentations, there is evidence of a genetic component which roots it as a fundamentally physical condition, and, as yet, it cannot be cured. In this way, counselling for eczema offers a powerful way to manage the severity of symptoms.
If you come in for counselling for eczema we will explore what might be happening in your psychological/emotional world that needs acknowledging and sorting out. In this way we can alleviate the psychological component contributing to your eczema which could bring profound relief of symptoms and improved manageability.
Counselling for eczema really worked for me. When I started sessions with Anna I was taking quite serious immunosuppressant medication to keep my eczema under some sort of control. The therapy really worked for me and I am now off the medication and getting on with my life -AS
If you’re curious about how counselling for eczema could help you, get in touch and arrange an appointment with me. I offer psychotherapy and counselling in Wimbledon or online at your location, anna@annakinnairdfolkman.com