Young children need someone to look at the same things they are looking at to enjoy or understand their own experiences fully. This is a deep need that stays with us for life and perhaps explains something about how therapy works.

Empathy facilitates understanding between counsellors and clients who do not speak the same language. What about online therapy, in which the language is there, without the bodily resonant experience of empathy?

The ‘cuddly hormone’, oxytocin, seems to have a dark side, according to research suggesting that it only works on those who are within our own group. But does this say anything about our real lives?

What does it mean to be ‘natural’ or ‘wild’? Are these qualities, on an archetypal level, associated with women? Can we recognise the archetypes of wild women, incarnating freedom and desire, or earth mothers, here to nurture, who are ultimately very powerful, yet possibly not very bright?

A time to slow down and recharge, or a dark nightmare of miserable tension? A lot depends on whether we have to keep going with our usual hectic lives…and on our attitude. Here are some things I have learned from winter in Poland.

Pressured from all sides, from the Government to the pupils, teachers are increasingly suffering burnout. The problems may seem insurmountable, but the most important point in protecting yourself from burnout turns out to be a very simple one: treat yourself as if you were actually very important.

Some of us need to feel the fear before doing anything at all. Maybe some peace can be gained by just accepting that we function this way…