What else?

Human life is paradoxical and very challenging at times. No matter what your circumstances, no one escapes this simple premise and certainly not me. As a middle aged man who has survived his own share of confusion and uncertainty in this ever-changing and unpredictable world, I am by far perfect despite years of personal development. Rather, I am my own project, continuously working to align with nature and it’s complex contradictions. For example, the above list of qualifications and career details obscure the struggle through bereavement and a Brixton comprehensive during the 1980s riots. My school was bottom of Lambeth’s league tables in all categories (apart from truancy – apparently we were good at that!). My achievements and qualifications also obscure the personal tragedies, the losses, the health challenges, the anxieties and the perpetual striving to transcend being thrown into a situation and context, certain aspects of which I might not have chosen, had I a choice. These hurdles are a part of human existence. We struggle through life not just because life routinely presents us with difficulties but because we believe it shouldn’t be and imagine we can control the chaos, uncertainty and pain of existence through will power and acquisitions (of accolades, friends, objects, money, beauty, etc). Therapists are humans too and just as all humans breathe air to survive all coaches/therapists must face the anxieties of their existence each day also. Maybe it’s that I own my struggle that I can be of some service to others – not because I have reached some Utopian, elevated position in life where these things don’t bother me. If enlightenment exists, perhaps it begins by becoming friends with this paradoxical view of human nature.

Further to this, my formal qualifications fail to give credit to the amazing people I have had the pleasure to meet and who have shaped how I am in the world more than any qualification or workshop. This includes countless brave individuals who have contacted me, taken risks along a journey of self discovery and transformed their lives and mine in ways hitherto unimaginable. You know who you are and I thank you.