The Body Speaks
On my bookshelves is an actor’s manual called ‘The Body Speaks’. In this wonderful book, Lorna Marshall explores, through theatre exercises, how the body mediates human experience. As she says, 'it is our body that climbs the mountain, whispers in another’s ear,...
Mental Well-being During The Pandemic
This is an ‘unprecedented’ time, as the newspapers keep reminding us. They use that word because it’s true: nothing in anyone’s lifetime has prepared us for this. Comparisons are with the Spanish Flu after the Great War, or much further back, with the Great Plague or...
Hope in Counselling
Last weekend, a friend gave me a ‘prayer stick’ – though she preferred to call it a ‘hope stick’. It’s a piece of wood, found on a walk and decorated with coloured wool and beads. While she decorated the stick, my friend ‘infused’ it with dreams of happiness, wishes...
Loss
Life is full of loss. From the overwhelming pain of bereavement, the death of a family member or friend, to the loss of a marriage that ends in divorce. There is loss inherent in the ageing process, loss of the physical identity we used to have and in all the changes...
Unravelling Your Feelings
‘My feelings are all mixed up.’ ‘I don’t know what I feel.’ ‘I feel nothing at all - but it isn’t good.’ When you know you feel bad, but don’t know why, it’s confusing. The root cause could be so many things. Perhaps difficulties have piled up over time and now...