A while ago a colleague of mine decided to be very honest with me. She acknowledged something quite taboo amongst helping professionals. She said that she sometimes notices a physical discomfort in the presence of others who are in need. It’s important to say that she doesn’t act on this discomfort. She described how she […]
Read 'Looking into the shadows' >
A little while ago at MyST, the parent of one of the young people that we were working with had an emotional crisis of his own. Already feeling fragile and unsafe in the world at times due to his historical life experiences, on this particular day, this Dad and his partner had ended their relationship. […]
Read 'Trusting in other people' >
Recently at MyST, we have been undertaking a process of reviewing the core principles and practices that underpin our service approach. Discussing the ‘MyST fundamentals’ as we’ve termed them, team members who are new hands and those who are rather older hands in the MyST approach have come together to exchange ideas. Discussing our clinical […]
Read 'Containment' >
Clinical supervision with a colleague the other day began with me asking her what she would like to focus on for the session. ‘Sarah’ replied: ‘Well, I’ve had such a great week off on leave last week, and I feel so calm and peaceful, I’m in a really good place to do my work. So […]
Read 'Want to win? Then consider surrender' >Meeting with a parent the other day, we were asked for help with a child’s behaviour. This Mum described her child as extremely picky about what happened at home, when it happened and how it was done. If the toast wasn’t buttered correctly, the child couldn’t be consoled. If a friend said the wrong thing, […]
Read 'Treasure hunting' >
How time can fly. This month marks a year since we began to write the MyST blog in 2020. When we noticed this anniversary arriving recently, we found ourselves in two minds about whether to note it. This dilemma had us thinking about a workshop a few months back when we joined with some colleagues […]
Read 'Happy birthday!' >
In our offices the other day, a young woman reflected upon her life. ‘I was born into drugs’ she said, explaining the logic, as it appeared to her, of why she feels compelled to use. It’s true that her parents used drugs throughout her life, leading to her growing up in foster care and children’s […]
Read 'I’ll do it my way' >
Some time ago, and thanks to a few staff changes at MyST, some team members were moving from their established clinical supervisor to a new clinical supervisor within our service. In readiness for this transition, the supervisees along with the ‘old’ and ‘new’ supervisors reviewed how they had been finding clinical supervision, and what they […]
Read 'Relationships bear the fruit' >
Our MyST teams each sit together in their shared office space, and this way, we are inclined to tune in to how things are feeling for one another. One of the benefits of an analogue world you might say. In the office recently, I had been noticing strong emotions being expressed in relation to a […]
Read 'Listening to our hearts…' >
Each week, the two of us meet together as a leadership pair to share information, explore challenges and agree ways forward. As well as helping us to make decisions, our weekly exchanges also help us to stand back and take a meta-perspective, to see the bigger picture, to notice themes. During one such meeting recently, […]
Read '‘What’ and ‘How’…' >
