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 …
Now I have a table of contents for my second book in skeleton form, I have been starting to sketch some of the flesh. This book, one focused on humanistic psychotherapy, will be more of a textbook than my first; but I still intend it to have a very personal flavour. Given the humanistic tradition …
Back from France, and more than content with the week: the creative and self-care intentions accomplished. When I arrived in Normandy, I pondered what a “good week” would look like for book number 2. I set the intention to know my rationale for this book, including who it was for and why it would be useful …
Easter, and Spring more generally, is a time of renewal and beginnings. As I sit here in my beloved Normandy overlooking the crabapple and magnolia blossom, I see life coming back to life. Five years ago, pretty much to the day, I drafted a table of contents for my first book; a year ago, pretty …
This past week, I have been spending some time gathering my thoughts and resources ahead of a writing retreat over the Easter break. I have been working on a research project since last autumn, and having now analysed the interview data, I am ready to start preparing the research article…or so I thought. I had …
…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, …