Enrica Balestra Psychotherapist

An interesting take on infidelity

“Shrinking Women” and “When the Fat Girl Gets Skinny”. Two powerful poems for all the women who struggle with their relationship to food and to themselves. Those who have been taught to “filter” and “absorb”, and those who have been taught that their worth is linked to their body size. Whose dangerous, anorexic patterns of weight loss have been praised instead of being met with acknowledgement and understanding of the pain and the struggle lurking underneath those endless cycles of calorie counting obsessions.

A brave and inspiring speech

A worrying trend

https://www.theguardian.com/…/100-women -on-100-years-of-wom…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241z eg

In memory of one of the most gifted and influential women writers of the early twentieth century. A survivor of sexual abuse who struggled all her life with mental illness. She left behind a body of work of staggering depth, beauty and bravery. Her determination to keep on writing and to strive to find her voice in the midst of crippling fear, depression, self doubt and the restricting gender norms of her time have been an inspiration to me since I first came across her work some thirty years ago. Happy birthday Virginia, you will not be forgotten.
https://www.theguardian.com/…/this-burn s-night-consider-cel…

Thank you Nina: a powerful and inspiring message then and now. https://www.google.co.uk/search…

A hugely important landmark in the fight against revenge porn https://www.theguardian.com/…/chrissy-c hambers-youtube-reve…

To a courageous spirit and a gifted musician who was denied her dream because of the radical injustice of discrimination

https://www.theguardian.com/…/baby-advi ce-books-industry-at…

An interesting critique of the Oprah phenomenon and the ways in which it ends up reinforcing the neoliberal wish for a depoliticised and docile subject who demands little from the “system” and a lot from herself.
https://www.theguardian.com/…/oprah-win frey-neoliberal-capi…

On the shifting nature of friendship in the middle years

An important article that challenges the bio medical story of depression as a chemical imbalance and looks at the deeper factors that can cause it: from unmet psychological needs to power imbalances and alienation.

An inspiring speech

An interesting article that throws some light on estrangement among family members, the reasons why it can happen and the sad but true fact that “fatal” family ruptures are more common than one might think.