Nick McNamara

It is different for everyone, but I think it is fair to say that it always involves a journey into the unknown in some way. From the first moment of meeting, the therapist and client begin to make a relationship, to build understanding and trust. The client shares their experience of their challenges and of what they want to get from the therapy. The therapist listens and absorbs and aims to step into their client’s world as fully as possible so that the client can feel that someone is really alongside them in their struggle. The client begins to feel accepted for who they are – even when they show parts of themselves they thought no-one should ever see. The therapist works to shed light on the nature of the client’s difficulty; to create a framework for thinking about it. This illumination of the problem often helps to normalize it so that it feels less overwhelming. The therapist shares tools for working through the problem and this, too, brings relief and hope.

Just now there are less than 8 hours of daylight each day and we spend much of our time in darkness. Many living things - plants, animals, insects - are asleep, often underground. Last years vegetation is rotting down and energy is being stored in readiness for new life and new shoots to appear as the days lengthen.  As we enter a New Year this can be a time for us to reflect, to ruminate, for our conscious and subconscious mind to sort through whatever aspects of ourselves we might want to let go of and what new growth we might want to make.  We often to tend to live our lives according to well established routines and patterns. But sometimes we yearn for something to be different; to shed a part of our experience that is painful or stuck or stagnant - to experience something more nourishing, fresh or creative. To stride out in a new direction. Often, finding out what we want can be half the battle. We can hide the knowledge of what we most desire from ourselves, perhaps