Hello this is my first blog post on my new website. The blog is something I have been looking forward to for some time now. Writing for me is a bit like breathing. I seem to have to do it. Being a reader and a writer feels like a big part of who I am and how I express myself. Reading and writing have been long time companions and therefore it makes good sense to have a therapy blog. I am interested in writing about therapy, my experiences, challenges and insights. And this will mean writing about Relational Narrative Therapy or a Relational Narrative Orientation as Johnella Bird describes it. I love this way of working in therapy, in supervision and in my life because it is about life generating therapeutic inquiry and an engagement with my creativity in the present moment. This orientation to therapy enables me to be connected to my resources and the resources of my clients. Here in the presence of discovery I can imaginatively follow my muse. This is a good place to be.

There is much I’d like to share from my PhD research on unnamed moments in therapy and the therapeutic relationship and I plan to blog on that regularly. I also want to write about my lived experience as a therapist related to wellness, illness and mental health. I recently decided to have a fairly high tech procedure to energetically change the electrics of my heart. It took me a long time to finally take this step and while I haven’t had a chronic condition as such, I have some insider knowledge of living with a condition that has been life limiting. Sharing some of these experiences is about (for me) being fully present as a therapist and attending to the body, mind, spirit and breath.

Reflections on therapy, openness and learning will also feature in the blog. I have been practicising Mindfulness Meditation for a number of years and intend to engage with training in 2016. In addition to exploring mindfulness and learning more about mindfulness based cognitive therapy I also plan to undertake a Masters in Social Work. Both of these opportunities are before me and I hope to share more as I go along.

Then there is art and then there is poetry. I hope to weave art and poetry in too.