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I’ve been developing an idea for a one‑day forum called Unsettled Minds. A space for reflective conversation rather than debate. Shaped around areas of psychological life that feel pressured, constrained, or prematurely settled. Before finalising the shape of the day, I’ve been interested in hearing where others feel thinking has become most difficult: the questions that feel risky to ask aloud, the conversations that close down too quickly, the places where curiosity seems

Little Red Riding Hood is a tale of innocence betrayed, its roots tangled in centuries-old folklore. A young girl, basket full of gifts, steps into a forest to visit her sick grandmother, only to meet a wolf whose charm hides fangs. Charles Perrault’s 1697 version is the most popular version that most are familiar with. A curious feature in older tellings, is that the wolf poses a pivotal question: “Which path will you take—the path of needles or the path of pins?” This choic

Recently, I watched an old BBC Horizon documentary Freak Wave (2002). The show explores the mysterious and terrifying reality of rogue waves: massive, unpredictable walls of water once dismissed as mariners’ myths. The documentary unveils these giants as real: a 26-meter wall striking the Draupner platform in 1995, and satellites detecting ten such behemoths within weeks. Science transitions from linear disbelief to nonlinear truth - the Schrödinger equation demonstrating how

Lately I have been having a rather strange split experience. I move in some groups and there is a feeling of angst and fear - conversations are consumed with how we are about to face something terrifying: Leaders of the world have gone mad and we are in imminent danger. In other spaces people are exhaling: Finally someone is doing something about the insanity we have been living in the past few years. Yes we are moving in to a period of noisy instability for the purpose of

Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable. ~David W. Augsburger “And you, and you You're gonna love me” ~ Jennifer Holliday, Dream Girls. The recent riots in the UK, triggered by the knife attack and murder of a group of children in the coastal town of Southport, is adding to the evidence that there is something that feels very powerful and dangerous bubbling just below the surface of English society. Parts of our s

Dream I am in the basement of a make-shift house on the seafront. The room is full of windows that have a huge compelling vista over a beach and the ocean. There is also a small concrete defence. I can see on the horizon a tsunami moving at speed towards the coast line. A clock ticks and I worry about a crocodile. I see a group of young boys lost in the room with me. It is a kitchen. We have to leave quickly, to get to higher ground. The boys move swiftly out and up

Over the summer I took a camping trip to the Isles of Scilly. For anyone who hasn’t been, these are a small group of extraordinarily beautiful islands off the Cornish coast. As an English woman, I was left with an uncanny feeling of the familiarity of being in the UK yet in a landscape that feels other worldly. On Fraser island we came across a golden sand beach inlet, filled with seals. I witnessed more than 20 seals poking up their heads just off shore, with two intrepid s

I recently attended a conference in Finland. A small group of clinicians travelled from across the world to meet in person and think together about psychotherapy practices when working with people who are questioning their gender. Given the powerful political context, the polarised opinions on the nature of the experience of being gender questioning and the insight that significant harm has been enacted by our professions, meant the valuable diversity of both thought and life

A while ago I moved to live on a smallholding where we have, at different stages, kept chickens, turkeys and guinea fowl. Whilst we had chickens when I was younger, it was in an urban setting and I spent very little time with them and so, this way of life has felt very new to me. If I am honest I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with chickens - I can get fascinated by their behaviour but I also reach a state of panic if I get too physically close. I know how irratio

The wind blows over the lake and stirs the surface of the water. Thus visible effects of the invisible parts of our environment manifest themselves. It would seem the word narcissism is everywhere at the moment. The term is thrown around to describe both individuals such as political leaders, as well as entire professional groups or even linked to national identities. There are several ways of understanding the use of the word narcissism, and I have a preference for returnin

"When, lo! as they reached the mountain-side, A wondrous portal opened wide, As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed; And the Piper advanced and the children followed, And when all were in to the very last, The door in the mountain-side shut fast." Robert Browning, The Pied Piper of Hamelin: A Child’s Story Pied Piper of Hamelin by Aldin, Cecil Charles Windsor (1870-1935) One of the stories from my childhood that used to both fascinate and frighten me was "The Pied Piper of Ha

I have recently been engaged in several emotionally heated discussions concerning the complexities of the use of gender affirmative therapy for people who go through a gender transition and later de-transition. In reflecting on these conversations I remembered a 2019 blog post I wrote called ’The Cost of Compromising to Belong.’ I thought it might be useful to revisit the fairytale I mentioned in that particular blog - the Hans Christian Andersen story of ‘The Emperor's New

Have you ever completely changed your mind about something? Like waking up from a dream and experiencing yourself as changed or shifted in some way, and you think- what was that all about? Except you know what it was about and you have to take a deep breath and face the fact that the thing you were so sure of, wasn’t such a safe bet after all. I have - more than a few times now. The occurrence of these world view shifts has taught me to be wary of my certainty. Areas of

Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There were enough princesses, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to have a real princess. One evening a terrible storm c