Please note I have online availability only at the moment 9-4pm Weds and 4-7pm Mon evenings.

Before training to be a counsellor, I worked for many years for a mental health charity called Viewpoint in Welwyn Garden City. I helped run the training arm of the charity. This involved enabling people with a lived experience of mental ill health and / or addiction to talk about their experiences to various audiences. I helped write, create and deliver course content and was privileged to hear people's stories about adversity and resilience.

I learnt a lot about psychosis and voice hearing and some less common mental health conditions. I heard about both good and bad practice within the psychiatric system and the importance of advocacy. I learned about the Hearing Voices Network which has helped people to make sense of their voices and learn to live with them.

I was particularly interested to hear about calls to drop diagnoses labels by The Power Threat Meaning Framework https://www.bps.org.uk/guideline/power-threat-meaning-framework-full-version and other groups. Some people feel a lot of shame around a diagnosis (especially Personality Disorder). My curiosity as a counsellor is around asking "What happened to you?" Rather than "What is wrong with you?". It became apparent to me that people who explored alternative types of healing and therapy and those who did not over-identify with their psychiatric label, often fared better with their mental health recovery and building a life worth living.

The Invitation - Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for

and if you dare to dream

of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool

for love for your dream

for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon

I want to know if you have touched

the centre of your own sorrow

if you have been opened

by life's betrayals

or have become shrivelled and closed

from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain

mine or your own without moving

to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy

mine or your own

if you can dance with wildness

and let the ecstasy fill you

to the tips of your fingers and toes

without cautioning us to be careful

to be realistic

to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another

to be true to yourself.

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal

and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty

even when it is not pretty every day.

And if you can source your own life from its presence

I want to know if you can live with failure

yours and mine

and still stand at the edge of the lake

and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes."

It doesn't interest me to know where you live

or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up

after the night of grief and despair

weary and bruised to the bone

and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know

or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire

with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where

or what or with whom you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you from the inside

when all else falls away.

I want to know

if you can be alone with yourself

and if you truly like the company you keep

in the empty moments.