A recent article in a Sunday newspaper (The Observer, 06.07.25, “Those who walk away”, Sophie McBain) referring to the calamitous India air crash intrigued me. Notwithstanding that awful accident, from a counselling perspective it’s inference to the human fascination with tragedies (that may expedite departure from this mortal coil) and the link to what seems to be the instinctive survival mode, stopped me in my tracks. Perhaps, indeed, even a light bulb moment.

Putting to one side the aberrations of society and the current turbulence of the world, in reality we are much safer than our distant cousins. Nothing is going to jump out of the shadows and eat any one of us alive! Yet we have a predisposition to be fascinated with danger, and by default an over propensity for negative thoughts, due innately of the need for keeping safe.

Of course that doesn’t detract from the daily fears that many encounter; war, famine, disease. But apart from that explicit immediate environment, the human condition is not only affected by genetic personality and socialisation, those animalistic responses still exist, and the subconscious awareness is perhaps one of the reasons why we catastrophise so much and feel so adversely about our lives. We see danger as a defence mechanism and our sense of self-preservation.

And that is where counselling steps in, to challenge those beliefs, address behaviours, and help to negate the trauma. Not to eradicate what has taken place, but to rationalise and give meaning to perceptions, and fundamentally learn from the past. Knowing and understanding the root cause becomes the foundation to build upon, and by utilising therapeutic methods, irrational fears can be explained that will take us on our journey and enable positive growth. The recognition too that some of what we feel emotionally cannot always be prevented, only managed and dealt with appropriately, can often by itself bring peace of mind to a tortured soul.