Nothing in my background could indicate that now in my mid-seventies I have published four books on creative therapeutic writing, and have a practice anchored in writing.

I was born in 1948. My post-war childhood was spent living in a sea-side town which has given me a life-long love of the sea. 

Psychotherapy, Writing, Mental Illness

My first book A Fox Crossed My Path is about the episodic depressive illnesses I’ve suffered and how writing helped me come to terms with the experience of serious mental illness. The first illness took me into psychotherapy in my early twenties. My recovery felt so remarkable that I undertook training in one of the first experiential biodynamic psychotherapy courses running in London. 

Gerda Boyesen (1922-2005) was a Norwegian psychotherapist and founder of Biodynamic Psychology. We had amazing opportunities in the seventies of learning and practicing the subtle ways she worked with the body, emotions and mind. At the time, I enjoyed working with the body energies but I was more interested in how people related. I attended many experiential workshops in the newly formed centres for the emerging human potential movement in London. Encounter groups, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis and Psychodrama all fed into my training during my twenties.

Most of my life I’ve been well but my intermittent illnesses have meant I’ve had a zig-zag career. In 2024 the illness returned. It’s always a shock. I was ill for the first six months — all normal life and work stopped. The next six months was about recovery. 2025 is proving wonderful to be well, reclaiming my life again as I always do.  

Recently a psychiatrist gave me the latest diagnostic label which curiously I found helpful. Recurrent Depressive Disorder, he explained, is distinct and separate periods of depressive symptoms. The neurotransmission in a primitive part of the brain stops functioning and transmitting chemical signals. So the very basic functioning of sleep, eating, everyday life is disrupted. Medication helps to restore a bio-chemical balance. 

I have always accepted this medical framework alongside a life-time of understanding my particular psychodynamic make-up as much as possible. That is as much sense as I am able to embrace. Although not everything in life is neatly parcelled up with understanding . . . questions always remain.

In my life-time the taboo and stigma has lifted a great deal so we can be open about illness. It is a great relief.

The Zig Zag Career and Life Path

After each recovery I had to start again. In my thirties, I was working as a secretary (BBC Radio 4) for live current affairs programmes. This led to placements in research and finally as a producer for a year on the Woman’s Hour Team. The training I had at the Beeb gave me a rigorous approach to journalism. 

In my forties, we moved to Sussex and initially my role as mother took over. I helped in the classroom at the village primary school. My interest in mind-maps meant I was soon giving study sessions to the secondary age school pupils of teachers and parents. This practice spread and I began to take on more mature students. 

Writing has always been part of my life and at fifty I took an MA in Creative Writing (Sussex University, 2002). Over the years I have given presentations, readings and workshops at conferences and university festivals.

Writer to Author

In 2004 I began supervision with Dr Gillie Bolton and with her guidance my exploratory and imaginative writing took off.  I contributed short pieces for publication in the field of therapeutic writing. I published my four books independently, one a year (2017 - 2020), with Gillie as my editor. We’d worked on the material and content by then for a long time. I immersed myself in the process of turning from writer to author.

Practitioner: Creative & Therapeutic Writing

My practice of working with others has continually evolved as I seek to integrate the therapeutic and creative approach. I have spent my life being interested in understanding myself and others and I have always used writing and conversation to help make sense of life. In many ways I don’t distinguish between what works for my own life and using that approach to focus my attention to serve the needs of another person — exploring how best to use my knowledge to help them make their own connection with both inner life and sense of self.  

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Open Floor Dancing is a derivative of 5Rythms (Gabriel Roth) — I go to a class once a week in our village hall. This is a movement in meditation and complements my writing practice perfectly.

East Sussex is where I have lived for 30 years, having moved from North London. I am the mother of a grown-up daughter and son-in-law, grandmother of two boys under ten, and a little girl. 

MEMBERSHIP

NAWE: the National Association for Writers in Education  

Please use the contact form to find out more or arrange a phone / zoom chat if you’d like to consider working with me.