Summer Isn’t Always Sunny: What This Time of Year Can Stir Up and How Therapy Can Help

We talk a lot about winter being hard. The short days, the cold, the low mood that creeps in when the light disappears. But for many people, summer brings its own difficult season, one that’s harder to name because it runs so against the grain of what we’re supposed to feel.

So if summer tends to be a difficult time for you, you’re not alone. Here are some of the things I see coming up for clients at this time of year.

Family time and everything it brings with it

Not everyone finds extended time with family easy. The pressure to create a happy, harmonious holiday experience can be exhausting, and for many people it brings up feelings they spend the rest of the year managing at a safer distance. Old dynamics resurface. Difficult relationships become harder to avoid. And if your family situation is complicated (whether through estrangement, loss, or a relationship that’s never quite been straightforward) the noise around togetherness at this time of year can feel like a lot.

Body image and the pressure to look a certain way

Summer has a way of turning up the volume on body image. Lighter clothing, holidays, social media, it can all make it harder to feel comfortable in your own skin. For anyone already navigating a difficult relationship with their body, this time of year can feel relentless. Those feelings are valid, and they deserve to be taken seriously.

Social anxiety

The social calendar tends to fill up in summer (BBQs, weddings, festivals, gatherings). For anyone who finds social situations anxiety-provoking, this can feel like an endurance test. The effort of showing up, being present, and keeping it together while managing anxiety and wanting to leave, is real.

Loneliness

Summer can make loneliness feel sharper. When the world around you seems full of groups and couples and families doing things together, being on your own (or feeling unseen even within relationships) can sting in a way that’s hard to articulate to others.

A change in routine

Routine holds a lot of people together more than they realise. The structure of work, school runs, regular commitments, when that falls away over summer it can quietly unsettle mood, sleep, and a sense of purpose in ways that can catch us off guard.

How therapy can help

Therapy can offer something useful in this season: a space where you don’t have to be fine. Where you can bring whatever is going on for you, without having to dress it up or justify it.

Often, the things that surface in summer aren’t really about summer at all. They’re older feelings, longstanding patterns, grief or anxiety that finds its way up when life shifts around us. Having somewhere to make sense of that, with someone who isn’t going to judge you for it, can make a real difference.

Therapy won’t take the difficult parts away. But it can give you somewhere to put them, and someone to help you make sense of them.

If any of this resonates and you’d like to explore how therapy might help, I offer a free 30--minute telephone consultation. You can book online or get in touch to find out more.

Photo by Joseph Pearson on Unsplash‍ ‍