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. …

Being a reflective practitioner

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, …

Not knowing is most intimate

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 …

Nine ways of seeing

Imagine nine people standing in a circle, facing inward. In the middle of that circle stands an elephant. If we were to travel around the circle asking each of those nine people about their experience, it wouldn’t be a surprise that each account would differ. The answer given by each of the nine wouldn’t simply …

MindTheGap

Minding the gap

This week, University staff across the UK are on strike, their action pointing towards pensions, pay and conditions. Not being a UCU member, I am still at work this week – not a straightforward decision. In fact, in the past 2 weeks I have felt a growing sense of anxiety. A child growing up in …

rest on the bridge

Bridge as bardo

This week I have continued to gather inspiration comes from Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s latest book “In love with the world” and a passage that I read… Why did this strike me? Those of you who read this blog regularly might spot the reference to the bridge as being significant – the name I was conferred …