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 …

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 …

You can lead a horse to water

It’s not uncommon after a day of working with clients and meeting with supervisees that I sit mulling over how therapy works. My teaching role also allows such reflection; I recently wrote about the nature of change and some thoughts that came to me whilst preparing new teaching material for our MSc psychotherapy course. Today …

Therapy in five chapters

Last week, the morning I was pressing “send” to launch an email with my final book submission in tow, I paused…I had forgotten something. As I walked back home after a celebratory breakfast I settled in my mind on one last amendment that was needed: to the acknowledgments. Writing the acknowledgements section was one of …

Letting it sink in

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 …

Words

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 …

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, …

The nature of change

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 …

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 …