The purpose of Soula Psychology is to be a source of light for people whose world has become dark. The nature of being human unfortunately means that we all share a vulnerability to experience psychological suffering, but fortunately, we also share the predisposition to experience the pinnacle of authentic human happiness which is to flourish. This is what Soula Psychology does, it teaches people through blogs, videos and personal sessions how to bring the light back into their lives by overcoming psychological suffering and learning how to experience authentic happiness.
For any person who wishes to improve their life, one of the most vital insights they should be aware of is how our mental health is formed. When we know how our mental health is formed, we can then create a way of being that steers us away from psychological suffering and towards authentic happiness.
Here's that vital insight neatly explained for you - our mental health is formed by the co-action of two continuums. One continuum can be considered our psychological illness continuum and the other our psychological wellness continuum. The illness continuum represents the degree of psychological suffering a person is experiencing, whereas the wellness continuum represents the degree of happiness a person is experiencing.
Your psychological illness continuum becomes increased when your troubles with stress, anxiety, depression, a dysfunctional worldview, low self-worth and internal conflict go unchecked. If you ignore these psychological illness contributors when they begin to take root, then they will only grow worse and become more painful for you. It is vital to your mental health and long-term happiness that you work to resolve these issues.
Your psychological wellness continuum can be increased by working to improve important psychological wellness contributors like a healthy worldview, unconditional self-acceptance, self-confidence, finding a purpose in life, career alignment with values and strengths, goal setting/skill acquisition/personal growth, resilience, communication skills, social dynamics, romantic relationships and the upregulation of positive emotions. You can think of each psychological wellness contributor as an invisible energy cell of happiness. When you work on improving these areas of your life, you will find that your life becomes energized with happiness.
Importantly, the illness and wellness continuums are independent of each other, but co-act to form a person’s mental health. This means a range of mental health outcomes can materialize within us. The mental health outcome we should all aim for is to have low levels in our illness continuum combined with high levels in our wellness continuum. This combination is considered by many to be the pinnacle of authentic happiness which is termed human flourishing. Soula Psychology has the tools and knowledge to teach people from all walks of life how to flourish.
Hi, my name is Shaun Carter and I created Soula Psychology. Soula Psychology is the outcome of my mental health battles. Around 2012 when I was 25 things were not going well. A combination of circumstances and poor decisions had resulted in me having a dysfunctional worldview, a destitute self-image and an awful temperament. The glimpses of happiness I felt from family and friends were fleeting, but the pessimism, gloom and misery that had been rooted within my mind were inescapable. I developed a knack for appearing to people that I was fine, but behind those eyes, I felt like I was trapped in a maze of suffering. I knew I needed help to change.
Finding help was not easy for me. It was not easy for a combination of factors. The first was due to the stigma associated with mental health at the time of my adversity. The UK has taken strides towards changing this stigma associated with mental health, and while there is still work for us to do, we have moved in a healthier direction. However, at the time when I was in the midst of my psychological suffering, it was widely considered that a person suffering with their mental health was considered weak. The prescription for this weakness, which could be heard through indirect comments, came in the form of pseudo-wisdom like “they need to toughen up” or “they should stop being a baby”. Needless to say, when I was struggling with my mental health it was not culturally appropriate to reveal such personal troubles. The second factor that made seeking help difficult (and this is something I still have trouble with from time to time) was my stubbornness to ask for help. I have never been the type of person to seek out professional help when I need it. I have always been the type of person to find the answers for myself. This approach can sometimes feel like a curse, but climbing up the difficult side of the mountain is often a blessing.
One day I found myself wandering around a well-known bookstore when I stumbled across the self-help section. I had not picked up a book since school, and even back in school, I was far from what you would call studious. It would not be a stretch to say that during this time in my life me being in a bookstore was like seeing an Eskimo in the desert. I did not leave the shop empty-handed though. I purchased two books that day – How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie and Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky. These books altered the trajectory of my life.
They altered the trajectory of my life because they sparked a meaningful interest within me.
I went from being helplessly stuck in a maze of perpetual misery to having a hopeful direction. I became fascinated with the human mind, more specifically, how does the human mind need to perform for a person to move away from psychological suffering and move towards authentic happiness. This fascination resulted in my pursuit for answers through the study of psychology.
The pathway to finding the answers I needed to improve my mental health required sacrifice, dedication and faith that the obscure path I had chosen to take would lead to the answers I needed. In 2014 I decided to leave my job as a land drilling technician and complete the access to higher education course at Peterborough Regional College. In 2015 I sold my belongings and moved across the UK to study psychology at Swansea University. In 2018 I then moved to London to complete a master’s degree in applied positive psychology and coaching psychology. During my time studying psychology, I have spent relentless hours sitting in lectures, libraries, fields and different places I called home reading psychological perspectives, theories and approaches with the hope of finding the answers to the question that set me out on this journey, that is, how does the human mind need to perform for a person to move away from psychological suffering and move towards authentic happiness. And, I found those answers.
Finding the answers I needed has dramatically changed my life. My once dysfunctional worldview has been deconstructed and then reconstructed with a healthier perspective, my previous destitute self-image has been replaced with an esteemed self-image and my once awful temperament has been transformed into a mindful, knowledgeable and empathic temperament. Since attaining the instrumental knowledge that answered the important questions I had, I have used it to help many others overcome their psychological adversity, and help them create a way of being that allows them to flourish.
Psychology has been my compass. It has been my compass to navigate my way out of that maze that kept me trapped in a perpetual state of misery. It has also been my compass to find authentic happiness in an ambivalent world.
Soula Psychology has a lot of knowledge to share