There are lots of things you can do to overcome feelings of loneliness, from joining a group to reaching out to friends and family or choosing activities that are most enjoyable done alone, like listening to podcasts or reading a good book. You can broaden your ideas about the sorts of people that you can befriend and explore whether negative thinking is affecting how you view your life. Find out all about how and why we experience feelings of loneliness and what you can do about it in Alison’s free online course How to Deal With Loneliness.

Loneliness is the unpleasant feeling when you perceive a gap between your ideal level of social interaction and your reality. It’s a natural survival instinct, like avoiding pain, and almost everyone experiences it at some point. If you want to find ways to handle it, sign up for the free online course How to Deal With Loneliness. If you are feeling very depressed, please seek medical help.

Alison’s free online course How to Deal With Loneliness covers everything from how we experience loneliness to how to help yourself and other people to deal with it. It explains psychological insights into loneliness, how its connection to physical health was discovered and what is being done across the world to support people experiencing loneliness. 

Loneliness is a universal experience and affects people of all ages and demographics. Psychologists differentiate between emotional loneliness - the aching pain of loss or lack of a close relationship; social loneliness - where you feel you lack friends and connections and existential loneliness - that realisation that we are all alone in a sense, which is uncomfortable but a necessary part of our development. Find out more in the free course How to Deal With Loneliness.

The course can be completed in around five hours, however, you can take as long as you like as it is completely flexible and self-paced. 

Yes, the course is full of useful self-help advice and it also focuses on which types of people are worst affected, such as the elderly, children and people on the autistic spectrum, people on low incomes, ethnic minority groups and the LGBTQ community.

Alison’s How to Deal With Loneliness is packed with psychological insights and practical advice on how to help people to open up about their loneliness, how to use destigmatising language and it has sections for supporting young people and those with autism as well as the elderly.