The Reward is the Journey

Anxiety is on the up.  It makes appearances ever more regularly amongst my clients/patients.*  It comes in different guises:  sometimes attaching itself to certain triggers, at other times preferring to float more freely. Anxiety is troublesome.  It demands attention yet does not like to be examined.  Anxiety does not always make sense.  There is often little value in seeking to ascertain its aetiology as, regularly, there will not be an obvious cause-and-effect in action. First things first.  Anxiety needs to be put in its place.  Therapy can be extremely helpful in right-sizing panic when anxiety has become unmanageable.   As a therapist supporting those for whom anxiety has got out of control, it is useful for me to understand what seems to be triggering anxious symptoms and how the individual experiences these.  No two anxiety presentations are identical, but there are patterns and traits I have become all...

I did not hesitate to heartily and heart-fully congratulated a parent who had contacted me to discuss support they might offer their primary school aged child who 'wants to be different' when they told me that they had sought to explain in no uncertain terms that their love is unconditional. In the midst of their angst about what they might do for the best in the situation which they felt was becoming increasingly urgent, my reassurance seemed not only highly appropriate but hugely valuable. My hope is that we are slowly, but hopefully steadily, moving away from a gender binary that demands conformity amongst children who wish to explore their gender identity and expression. I work with adults and young people.  I have colleagues who work with children.  It is a pleasure and a privilege to be able to refer potential clients to colleagues who, like me, practice in and around London.  At present, I am sadly less well placed to signpost more widely. ...

The Tube is being made fit for the future .  Or so we are being told...  People are being replaced by machines.  And the windows through which we used to interact are being bricked up.  The memory of dialogue is being erased.  To be forgotten forever? As someone who commutes, sometimes on two wheels, sometimes on public transport the implications of the closing ticket offices have struck me as significant - quite apart from the deletion of aesthetic pleasures and architectural archive are we not at risk of losing touch with an important facet of travel?   It occurs to me that many a journey is influenced and informed by a valuable engagement which may take place only briefly but which enables the person anticipating the journey to touch base and confirm their path with someone whom they imagine (rightly or wrongly) knows better. This casual but perhaps vital double checking would, more often than not, take place implicitly, seamlessly, ...