An astrological art project…
I bought a book from a charity shop. It’s old and has a red hardback cover. On the spine is written, “The Way to Play”.
Continue reading “The Sun is the psychological empire of the Soul”In a dark place once, I felt utterly depressed; could not think of one thing I was grateful for. Not one. I hated where I was living in my sixth floor council flat, where I’d taken up the tiles leaving a bare, concrete floor in the lounge. It felt cold, looked freezing, like the night sky. I had no spiritual practice. I had isolated myself. I wasn’t working. I was on government ‘benefits’. I felt unable to work and bad for not working. Wretched is the word for it.
Continue reading “Gratitude: what’s the point?”
I created this piece using wool. The wool came from a cardigan I made where I found the seams to be too irritating so I unpicked it. I am very sensitive to seams and labels in clothing. I was left with lots of small balls of wool in varying sizes and I followed an intuitive prod to finger knit each ball into a long strand. This took a few months and during this time I was working on my dissertation for my creative psychotherapy master’s, which was a heuristic inquiry into the experience of othering people different from me.
Continue reading “Othering Me, Othering You”I completed my MSc Counselling and Psychotherapy – Contemporary Creative Approaches in August 2023 with a research project called Othering Me, Othering You – My Living Experience of Internalised Patriarchy. I’m going to share the following sections from my dissertation in this post: definition of terms, introduction, and conclusion. If you’d like me to send you the dissertation or have a conversation about setting up creative workshops to uncover hidden biases with compassion, please email me.
Some of my creative outputs from my research that I analysed for themes
Continue reading “Othering Me, Othering You Is This The Best We Can Do?”Just sit and be still;
Meagre sounds compete with massive silence.
Giving myself to it in a different way now,
Yet tinges of teenage angst touch me with cold, sad fingers,
Continue reading “I Am Loving Her Now”
Different threads linking me to the past
Through my time and beyond.
I carry the ancestors’ blood,
Continue reading “Different threads linking me to the past”You left me.
Wounded.
I needed help.
You turned away.
Hardened yourself.
Wrote a prescription.
Continue reading “Cold Medical Model Didn’t See Me”Being with you is beautiful
However you are
Whatever you’re feeling.
Continue reading “Loving You is Beautiful”
Given that an estimated 20% of women and 4% of men in England and Wales* have experienced sexual violence since the age of sixteen (and those are just the reported cases; therefore, these figures could be just the tip of the iceberg, not to mention the child sexual abuse figures; see Rape Crisis for more statistics), there is a high probability some of them will be your clients or customers or colleagues or students or apprentices or family members. There are also many people who have experienced emotional and/or physical abuse and/or neglect. You might not know this about them because they may never tell you. Since some of the people you spend time with at work and home are likely to have experienced trauma, it follows that being trauma informed in the ways you communicate with them will be helpful to both you and them.
Continue reading “Could being ‘trauma informed’ help you in your work and personal relationships?”