I’m a member of the Society of Analytical Psychology where I trained in psychotherapy and Jungian analysis.
My practice is registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council and the International Association of Analytical Psychology.
Stories and narrative have a particular interest for me, not just in creating them, but in the sense of the stories we have about ourselves. Sometimes these are easy to grasp. They may be factual accounts of things that have happened, or dreams you want to realise.
But often our stories lie beneath the surface of our experience of life. Even so – or perhaps even more so – they inform how we respond to the world. An example of this kind of subtle story might be: “I need to be clever so that I am accepted by my tribe.”
This kind of ‘subtle story’ may manifest itself in all sorts of ways: a drive towards perfectionism; a tendency to burn out through overwork; feelings of despair and emptiness despite external achievements.
This story will most likely have formed at a time when it was essential to be clever. Essential in the sense that it seemed to be the only way to gain validation and acceptance.
Yet when we can catch a story like this, running just beneath the skin of a day-to-day life, the better able we are to think about how it shapes our experience.
In time, being clever may become a gift to be enjoyed, rather than something critical to survival.
Our stories are not only held in the mind, they’re also held in the body. Our muscles and bones absorb and record what has happened to us. Sometimes our bodies ‘speak’ through physical symptoms and the way we hold ourselves and move through space.
I am continually learning, researching, and keeping up with new thinking in the worlds of psychology and psychotherapy.
I’m also fascinated by how digital technology is reshaping our experience of being human, and in particular the ways we connect and communicate with each other.