Writing down the myth

In the last two weeks of this term’s enneagram for therapists group I have been facilitating, we are turning toward the “path quality” that the enneagram offers. What makes the enneagram so much more than a personality typing system is how it points to both our blocks to wholeness, and how to lever back into …

Nine gateways to contact

As well as my love for facilitating group work, one of my motivations for setting up and running a personal and professional development group for therapists was to deepen my exploration into the enneagram. I have been using this mapping of the “all what it is to be human”…self, soul, spirit… in my personal life …

Re-search, me-search

Back from retreat, and with a momentary detour into the activities of marking and exam boards, back into retreat….of sorts. A research retreat: a chance to indwell in the data I have collected at the back end of 2023. I interviewed five humanistic therapists who had undergone the training journey of counselling then onto psychotherapy …

My writing year

And so, here again another Friday morning I sit at my desk with a writing day ahead. My beautiful Mac, a wonderful Downs view, a mug of tea, and a cat happily warmed by my desk lamp. Ah yes, I kinda wait all week for this – a luxurious opportunity to immerse myself in solitude …

Prodding the wound

Recent experiences in my personal life and spiritual practice have led me into a deep contemplation of how I “prod the wound”. For those on a healing path, the metaphor of the wound is familiar: we bear scratches and cuts from relational environments that don’t allow our emotional, psychological, physical, spiritual needs to be met. …

Ten reasons

I was recently approached by the editor of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy’s spirituality journal “Thresholds” to write a piece for their upcoming Ten Reasons: a series that will focus on why therapists chose to integrate their faith as part of their therapy work. It was timely, as I have felt these past …

Call to awaken

Awake early this morning; and so I start my day of writing in the (pitch) dark. There is a synergy in this situation with writing – awakening and the dark; being a buddha and a human being. With a history of insomnia, such early morning awaking does not trouble me…in fact I enjoy these early …

Kid in a sweet shop

On Tuesday evening I celebrated the launch of my book with friends, colleagues and sangha – a real weave of my worlds across Buddhist-therapist-educator, and Helen as the thread that ran through. It was a joyous occasion. And that emotion itself was testimony to these past 10 years, much of the story told in the …