Quotes

 "We cannot choose where we start out in life, but we may finish where we will" Tony Judt. 

 

"Isolation exists only in isolation, once shared it evaporates"  Irvin Yalom.

 

“In my early professional years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?”  Carl Rogers.

 

 

If you are in immediate crisis, contact:

www.samaritans.org

www.befrienders.org

Books I recommend as a starting point
  • If Not Now, When? (Abacus Books)
    If Not Now, When? (Abacus Books)
    by Primo Levi
  • The Gift Of Therapy: An open letter to a new generation of therapists and their patients: Reflections on Being a Therapist
    The Gift Of Therapy: An open letter to a new generation of therapists and their patients: Reflections on Being a Therapist
    by Irvin D. Yalom
  • The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control (Unabridged)
    The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control (Unabridged)
    by Walter Mischel
  • H is for Hawk
    H is for Hawk
    by Helen Macdonald
  • Everything I Never Told You
    Everything I Never Told You
    by Celeste Ng

Couples counselling and psychotherapy

 

I sarted training to work with couples in 1988 and have completed a number of courses on couples work since then.  Couples bring topics where they need the support of a third party, possibly because they are in conflict and can't move forward, sometimes because they want a space to look at their connection, often because a difficult conversation about past, present or future can be easier with a third party present. They may want to save a relationship, enhance it, or leave it with as little stress as possible for all concerned.  They may have difficulty around family life or in relation to children, there may be extended family or step-family issues. Topics may include parenting, money, sex and intimacy, an affair, staleness in communication, life transitions, a secret that needs to be aired.

Online work can be a particularly helpful tool for this work, the couple can be in different places or different countries from the therapist and/or from each other, and having a session from home means that child or elderly care may not be a problem.