Last week we began “tripping the dialectic fantastic” with a consideration of existence and essence; a couplet made explicit through Sartre’s famous expression “existence precedes essence”. This weeks couplet is also inspired by Sartre, as we will see in the following text from a first drafting of my second book*: for Sartre, the lack of …
Finding a little more freefall after a period of stuckness, I am engaging with my writing with much enjoyment. I am getting in a pattern of “Monday-for-Friday”: reflection and research on Mondays, bringing my ideas onto the page on Friday. Already I feel I am introducing the theme of this post – as the creative …
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 …
I will soon be facilitating another “Through the lens of the enneagram” group for therapists. Now in its third term, the group meet weekly to deepen a personal and professional understanding of the system. Its less ‘course’, and more an ever evolving interaction – we share some of the enneagram concepts; our own experiences of …
August makes way for September; and I find myself – like millions of others – making my way back into the familiar routines. It has been a good, long break for me this year: 8 weeks away from teaching commitments, 5 weeks away from therapist and supervisor roles. Next week, it all gets going again …
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 …
I’m in that strange bardo state commonly known as ‘jet lag’ having arrived back from a visit to Canada; Nova Scotia to be more precise…or to be right on the dollar, Halifax Shambhala Centre. Shambhala is the organisation originally formed by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. And while Shambhala has a history peppered with …
I had the luxury of a day to myself yesterday; a chance to bathe in “sabbath” and commit the whole day to my practice. From just after 7am in the morning until 5pm, I alternated between periods of meditation and the fourth of the Ngondro practices: a visualisation and mantra practice called “guru yoga”. As …
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 …
I am appreciating the turn of focus back upon my core, therapeutic training in the humanistic tradition that my second book is inviting. I have a general thirst for understanding psyche, and as a result my reading is spread wide across disciplines; this breadth not only helps my practice, it helps my teaching – especially …