Take the Plaster Off is a guided self-reflection journey to help you gently explore the stories, feelings and patterns you may have been carrying with honesty, curiosity and compassion.
One plaster. One wound. One layer at a time.
Take the Plaster Off began during my own therapy journey, when a simple creative writing exercise helped me realise that although I knew the story of what happened to me, I had never fully connected with the feelings underneath it.
That moment changed the way I understood myself.
It also sparked the idea behind this book: that many of the behaviours we judge ourselves for (staying busy, people-pleasing, perfectionism, anger or shutting down) may once have been ways of protecting something that hurt.
Through Take the Plaster Off, I invite you to explore your own story and begin to understand what may be sitting underneath the patterns you carry today.
Explore what happened and put the experience into words.
Explore how the wound has affected your life.
Recognise the ways you learned to cope and how those patterns may still be affecting you today.
Begin to reconnect with yourself beyond the wound and the ways you learned to protect it.
Consider what you want to carry forward and what you may be ready to leave behind.
We all carry emotional wounds. They can shape the way we think, feel and respond, often without us even realising.
Take The Plaster Off helps you gently explore those wounds, understand how they have shaped you, and recognise the patterns and behaviours you may have developed to protect yourself.
I’m not a big book reader and often find books difficult to get through, but this was different. It was simple, easy to follow and really made me stop and think about my own wounds, why I’ve kept them covered and what I might be holding onto. Writing things down helped me see myself and my patterns in a different way. A simple but powerful book that stays with you long after reading.
I absolutely loved Take the Plaster Off. Beautifully simple in its approach, yet never minimising the depth of the wounds we carry, this book gently invites us to get curious about what lies beneath the surface and the ways we learn to protect ourselves from feeling. Through honest reflections, practical exercises, and creative journalling, it offers a meaningful opportunity to deepen our understanding of ourselves. A thoughtful and relatable book that I will be highly recommending to others.
I loved the way the book and journal gently gave me the space to explore what was underneath, rather than forcing me in the direction I thought I needed to go.
For me, this isn't a book you read once and put away. It's something I know I can come back to when I'm ready to take another plaster off and work through another layer of emotions or experiences.
It’s both. Take the Plaster Off combines reflective reading with guided writing exercises, giving you space to explore your own experiences as you move through the book.
There is no set timeline. Some readers may choose to work through the sessions over consecutive days, while others may leave more time between them. The book is designed to work around your pace, not the other way around.
No. The book is designed to support self-reflection and personal growth, not replace medical, psychological or mental health advice, diagnosis or treatment.
It may resonate with you if you want to understand yourself more deeply, particularly if you recognise patterns such as people-pleasing, staying constantly busy, perfectionism, anger, shutting down or always needing to appear strong.
