Welcome to our collection of insights into the psychodynamic process and contemporary mental health. These reflections explore the unconscious dynamics of the inner life, and the complex emotional currents within our relationships.
Below, you’ll find our latest articles. Many come with a companion clinical worksheet — a focused, interactive exercise you’re welcome to request at the end of the relevant post, to support the reflective journey in your own time.
From Firefighting to Fireproofing: Learning from Crisis – Interactive Worksheet
A worksheet for learning from a crisis after it has passed
A clinical worksheet from Online Therapy Clinic — Ari Sotiriou MA PGDip (UKCP)
Ari Sotiriou, UK accredited psychotherapist · enquiries@online-therapy-clinic.com
Ari Sotiriou provides Individual and Couples therapy from a psychodynamic perspective, via secure Live Video. Dr Ruxandra Ion offers CBT courses and brings a psychiatric perspective, without providing psychiatric diagnosis or prescribing medication. UK practice · 50-minute sessions, on the hour.
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Your privacy is fully protected
This worksheet runs entirely within your browser. Nothing you write is transmitted, stored on a server, or accessible to anyone else. All responses are saved locally on your own device and are cleared only when you choose to reset. Online Therapy Clinic has no access to your answers.
Your progress will be saved automatically as you write.
Complete the worksheet, then save or print your responses
Many of us only pay close attention to our wellbeing once something has gone seriously wrong. This worksheet is for the calmer period that often follows — after the immediate crisis has eased, but before its lessons are lost to relief or distraction.
There are no right answers here. The aim is simply to notice: what led to the overwhelm, what helped you through it, and what a little regular “maintenance” might look like before the next challenge arrives. You do not need to complete it in one sitting — your answers save automatically as you go.
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This worksheet has a companion articleWhen You Think You No Longer Need Therapy — on the myth of therapy as an emotional emergency room, and why the calm after a crisis is often the most useful time to reflect.
Exercise OneLooking Back at the Crisis
Start by describing, in your own words and without judgement, the period of overwhelm you have recently come through.
Exercise TwoEarly Warning Signs
Overwhelm rarely arrives without warning — it usually builds. Looking back, which of these were present before things became unmanageable? Tick any that apply, and add your own.
Exercise ThreeWhat Actually Helped
Getting through a difficult period, on your own, says something real about your resourcefulness. It is worth naming clearly what carried you through — not to prove you don’t need support, but so you know what to reach for again.
Practical steps that helped
People, or personal strengths, that helped
Exercise FourRecurring Patterns
With more distance from the crisis, it’s often possible to notice patterns that a purely urgent focus doesn’t allow. Has anything about this period happened before, in a different form?
Exercise FiveThe Oil Change: Regular Maintenance
Most of us maintain a car before the engine fails. Emotional maintenance works the same way — small, unremarkable habits, done regularly, rather than a single dramatic fix once things have gone wrong.
Nothing appears to be wrong. It may even feel unnecessary. That is exactly the point.
Exercise SixYour Fireproofing Plan
Bringing the previous exercises together: a short, personal plan for noticing the early signs sooner, and responding before things become a crisis again.
Early sign to watch forHow often I’ll check inMy first responseWho or what I’ll turn to
ClosingWhat I Want to Bring to a Session
You do not have to wait until everything falls apart to benefit from therapy. Sometimes the most productive conversations happen after a crisis has passed, when there is enough space to understand not just what happened, but how you might meet the next challenge with more awareness.
A closing reflection
Before you close this worksheet, take a moment to write — without editing yourself — whatever comes to mind in response to the questions below.
A Space to Reflect — Not Just to Recover
If working through this worksheet has brought something into focus, an introductory conversation is available at no charge. Individual and couples therapy is offered via secure video — and if a connection is ever unreliable, a phone call or voice message works just as well. In English, French, and Greek.
If you are working with Ari, bring this completed worksheet to your next session. The sections that were hardest to answer, or that surprised you, are often the most useful place to start.
Ari Sotiriou provides Individual and Couples therapy from a psychodynamic perspective, via secure Live Video.
Dr Ruxandra Ion offers CBT courses and brings a psychiatric perspective; she does not provide psychiatric diagnosis or prescribe medication.
