The other day, whilst out for an al fresco meeting, on the breeze we overheard a passing waft of two friends gossiping about a third. ‘O she’s always been difficult that one!’ they agreed. It struck us, how easy it is to assume that what people do is just down to them personally, their personality […]
Read 'Don’t take it personally' >
I remember first taking up running just after my first child was born 11 years ago. I had always believed that I couldn’t be a runner, but I was a new mum, short on time and on spare cash for gym subs, and in need of some exercise. When first learning how to work up […]
Read 'A runner’s journey' >
Although as rookies, we can enjoy some lovely beginner’s luck, to really master the art of something, we usually need to develop an intimate understanding of how it works. A mechanic knows how an engine works. A cook knows how a spaghetti bolognaise works. A parent knows how a family Christmas works. Whilst a knowledge […]
Read 'Studying ourselves' >
All of our locality MyST teams get together once a fortnight for a joint reflective practice session. This week we discussed data. More specifically, we discussed scores on a psychometric scale gathered six monthly about all of the young people using our service. We wanted to know what this data told us about our work […]
Read 'Falling in love with an accountant' >
Last week, my daughter was the first of our family to have a lockdown birthday. A new experience for all of us, she seemed to navigate her way with ease. She knew exactly what she’d like to do to celebrate, and ‘pass the parcel’ was right up there. This good old party favourite didn’t disappoint. […]
Read 'Pass the parcel – A story of fractals' >Whilst talking together the other day about some endeavour of ours or another, one of us remarked ‘Well, change takes time.’. ‘Mmmm’ we both agreed, hunkering down for the long haul, when a spark struck: Yes, change takes time, but transformation can happen in any given moment. It can be instantaneous. ‘Change’ speaks of movement […]
Read 'That’s transformation folks!' >
One of the guilty secrets of being a middle aged parent is taking the opportunity to pilfer the forbidden fruits of the cultural property of youth. Unfortunately, my children are getting wise to my misdemeanours and my nearly teenage daughter now tells me straight if I have strayed into trainers that are too platform or […]
Read 'Let it breathe' >I’m very partial to 1970’s kitchenware, and the charity shops in my neighbourhood are too often my Aladdin’s cave. A few years ago, in one of these lovely charity shops, I acquired a 1970’s apple shaped glass apple bowl. Now each to their own, but to me, this fruit bowl was top of the pops. […]
Read 'Developing risk awareness' >
It was mental health awareness week a little while ago, and this year the theme was kindness. People shared lots of messages about acts of kindness and celebrated its impacts. A few people also commented that kindness on its own isn’t enough given the nature and extent of the issues which bring about responses of […]
Read 'The many faces of kindness' >
In the midst of the 75th anniversary of VE Day recently, we happened to be thinking about the high prevalence of mental health problems amongst children looked after. This distress is commonly attributed to the impacts of early relational trauma and adversity upon these children. However, maybe there are also other sources of distress which […]
Read 'War! What is it good for?' >
