As I have done each year since 2012, I spent the b’twixt and between days this festive holiday reflecting on what has been in 2025 and what is to come in 2026. I think its fair to say that over the past 15 years there has been a gradual shift in focus and energy from …
I can’t believe its Friday again. Time goes ever so fast these days anyway; but this week it has been stretching and contracting, and I don’t quite know where (and when) I am. I don’t really know HOW I am either… This time last week, I was receiving the news that my Dad, who was …
A couple of weeks ago I shared that it had been a good summer: one that ticked all the boxes across body, mind, and spirit. I also mentioned that it was not without its challenges. One of the ‘good’ things about being an existential psychotherapist – a Buddhist one at that – is the reality …
Last week, after a day with clients I closed the door of the Wilbury Clinic for the final time; tomorrow, I will walk through the door of the Wilbury Clinic for my scheduled client sessions for the first time. After many years of the clinic being in Wilbury Road, it (and all of us practitioner-client …
Last Friday, as part of my birth ”day”* celebrations, I was treated to a concert at the Royal Festival Hall. Set in the ‘brutalist’ exemplar of the Southbank Centre, the contrasting ‘gem’ of a music venue was the ideal setting to see a concert that carries much value…and the performer, “Sleeping at Last”, has come …
…and grace will follow; or so that is what I have been reflecting on in recent months. “Faith and Grace, Helen…I thought you were a Buddhist?” Yes, these are two words one might associate more commonly with the Christian, and indeed other theistic, traditions. And so why am I pondering on them this week? Well, …
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 …
As I complete one book’s birthing, thoughts have turned to what comes next on the writing front: I have many ideas. I sense there will always be many stories to tell along my life path as Buddhist-therapist-educator. Two ideas that I hope to come to fruition* are vying for my attention and affections. I am …
…when she has nothing to write about? I’m not even sure that is true, but it is the outcome thought / feeling I awoke with this morning: Friday, my writing day. In the last blog (painfully, over a month ago) I explained how writing time had been diverted to reading time; and a month later …
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 …