Being an ethical practitioner of counselling requires us as therapists to take care of our own needs for nourishment so that we are able to offer a nourishing therapeutic relationship to clients. The risks of not doing so are potentially damaging to all of us.

“How do you know when your clients are lying? Their lips are moving!” a mentor once quipped to me. I believe clients’ lies have as much to say about therapists as they do about the people under our care.

The sea is like a non-living character in my life — a constant yet ever-changing presence, depending on the season. But it wasn’t until I returned to the seaside, having lived away for some years, that I truly appreciated how important it is to me.

It should trouble us all when anyone regards any of our most important philosophical, religious, or even scientific questions as “settled.”

It’s been known for centuries that animals have an important part to play in promoting feelings of wellbeing amongst people with emotional problems or physical ill-health. And it doesn’t have to be in a formal setting either; making positive contact with other people, and the good feelings this can foster, can sometimes be an awful lot easier if you have a four-legged friend alongside you.

As a young student with ADD, doing any writing was the furthest thing from my mind. But having taken that step so many years ago, I still receive an average of 8-10 letters or emails per week from persons in all walks of life and from places far and wide.

Life’s ordeals — whether invited by design or foisted on us by circumstances — and the way we deal with them can be not only instrumental to individual character development but also a testament to the human spirit itself.