Man sitting on bench at water front

Tenderness and Compassion

One stormy day recently, I heard a loud thump as if something had been thrown against the window. When I looked there was a female blackbird lying upside-down with her little head bent back beneath her body. I ran outside and very gently picked her up. I was delighted to see her neck wasn’t broken and a few moments later, she moved her wings. Incredible that she wasn’t dead. I quickly found her a sheltered nook out of the wind. Watching her slowly recover, I was delighted to see her fly away about 30 minutes later. The point of this story is that

Opening the Heart can occur when we least expect it

While I held her warm body in my hands, when I felt her beating heart – the very aliveness of her, I felt so much tenderness and compassion towards this tiny creature. There is great fulfilment in rescuing and nurturing a small helpless creature. Experiencing tenderness truly opens the heart.
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Therapy sets you free concept with three birds flying and a broken chain symbolising emotional release

What to Expect in Your First Therapy Session

In a first session overview, we look at the overall picture of what’s happening in your life.  If two or three things are occurring at the same time (as is often the case), we focus upon the most pressing issue.  

While these presenting problems are usually current, the therapies I offer always work to reach the source of these issues.  Underlying emotional pain, fear, or anger will always have roots in childhood, where we have developed defensive behaviours to cope with parents’, teachers’ and society’s limiting demands

These defenses are seldom examined or upgraded as we get older.  It’s like there’s a frightened, angry and confused child directing our adult life from behind the scenes. 

The therapies I offer tend to avoid long discussions and stories with lots of detail.  In my experience, talk therapy can only reach the surface of an issue.  This keeps the intellect engaged in past/future thinking mode.   A first session overview shows me how best to proceed in future sessions.

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Tall trees in a serene forest symbolizing growth, grounding, and the healing of our inner demons through connection with nature and self-reflection.

In Healing Our Inner Demons, we gain priceless Self Awareness

However, when we push away and disown our unwanted behaviours, many things happen. Disowning our anger, jealousy, fears, and hatreds means that these emotions have nowhere to go. We then, unintentionally create these “demons” that come back to haunt us when we’re feeling low, tired or ill.

A calm cat sits beside a majestic griffin statue, symbolizing self-awareness and the journey of healing inner demons through balance and reflection.

Negative Conditioning from Childhood

Say I have had many ongoing childhood experiences of being found “wrong”, “not good enough”, or labelled “stupid” by either parents or teachers. Years later, I leave home/school, but by now I’ve turned this abusive behaviour back towards myself – beating myself up, condemning my every effort to connect with others.

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Dad holding newborn close to encourage relaxation and reduce insomnia.

Can’t Sleep? How to Overcome Insomnia and Restore Your Sleep

So often, the dread of something is far worse than the thing itself. Worrying about sleeplessness, and about how we’ll feel the next day burns up far more energy than simply accepting it; relaxing and focusing on letting go. Whenever we lack sleep and feel fragile, whenever we feel vulnerable or overstretched, we try to control our lives by mapping out our future. In attempting to “sort things out”, we can fall prey to obsessive “planning” in the small hours of the morning – a time when reality is often distorted and when we can’t do anything anyway.

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Healing Relationships for Spiritual Growth

Observing oneself instead of blaming another.

When two people come together, there is initially the exciting “honeymoon” period.  They’re getting to know each other. However, after a few months or even mere weeks, the gloss diminishes.  This is when the deeper aspects of each begin to surface. But how many realise that seeing their relationships for spiritual growth can be a very dynamic way to develop.

For instance we bring to every relationship, romantic or otherwise, all the unresolved baggage from our own past.

The more intimate the relationship, the more of our fears, anger or insecurities from the past will surface.  These emotional limitations rise up from our own deeper layers. Sadly, many potentially great relationships flounder at this stage.  It’s as if each person stands on either side of a great emotional mess.  Far from being aware of their own pain & limitation, they’re pointing the accusatory finger at the other.

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