I am landing at my desk after a celebratory bike ride and breakfast at my favourite local cafe: The celebration? The publishers Routledge are offering me a contract for my book: “Weaving the paths of Buddhism and psychotherapy: the practice of human being”. I heard on Wednesday, and since then I have been too busy …
There is one song (outside the back catalogue of Wham!) that comes back to me as an anthem of my childhood in the 1980s – “Words”, by FR David (please only click that link after a deep breath, and forgive the 10 year old me). I found it enchanting, playing it over and over again…something …
This morning I went back to face to face working. It wasn’t simply a “return” however. This resume involved a relocation. Rather than seeing clients at my home in Eastbourne, I am now working out of the Wilbury Clinic in Hove. Today is my second day back at work; client work at least, this being …
At last, my book wobbles its way toward its date with destiny – this week I submitted by proposal to the publisher. I am both jubilant and relieved…and now I must wait for the commissioning editor’s verdict…so throw in a measure of anxious waiting into that emotion cocktail too. The book is entitled “The practice …
Each year, a psychotherapist on the UKCP register needs to submit an account of their training updates and detail the continued professional development activity. Given I am a self-confessed “CPD junkie”, it takes some time to go back over my activity in the past 12 months – the reading, the workshops, the courses, the podcasts, …
As I slowly wind down toward a summer break from client work, the past two weekends have been on retreat – not a geographical move, but still a shift into (another) space. Since the pandemic, my teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, has been conducting Vajrayana Buddhist programmes online. Whilst I miss the element of being-with sangha …
In continuing the work on my book manuscript, I have been visiting – or rather re-visiting – ideas on the Masculine and Feminine. I make mention of the importance of re-dressing the balance of these energies throughout the book, and I saw the need to anchor the ideas in a more personal context: it has …
Teaching over, marking completed, exam boards seen to…a chance now to reflect on curriculum development. I have been teaching on these courses for six years; and every now and then it is good to return to the curriculum and taught content and update the material to include the latest in theoretical and philosophical thinking. I know …
…or at least, its more about soul than I once thought. There have been a few events in the past couple of years, the pandemic years, that have brought “soul” to my attention. So much so that it has been an unexpected addition to the book I am writing. As a Humanistic psychotherapist, my training …
On my recent holiday, I read the excellent book “The Wakeful Body” by Willa Blythe Baker. As is often the case, the right books tend to jump off my bookshelf when I am selecting my holiday reading. This was a timely read having been exploring the three kayas teaching of Vajrayana Buddhism in some depth …