Foxtales for Soulbuilding

with Barbara Clarkson

A psychotherapist’s musings on therapy, life stories and memoir writing, and the ways that these can support us on our path through life.

Welcome! If you’ve landed here with me, chances are you’re someone who is curious about the whys and wherefores of life, maybe someone who feels like they are searching to understand themselves, and to make sense of what is happening and has happened to you in your life story. Me too.

I’m also a therapist, a trainer and a supervisor, so I spend my entire professional life up to my elbows in mystery, working with the enfolding marvel that is each person’s individual experience of living and the meaning they can make from it. The Best Job In The World.

In 2019 I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and spent the best part of a year in unpleasant and debilitating treatments of various kinds. Coming face to face with my own vulnerability and mortality, having freedoms and choices taken out of my hands by both the cancer and the doctors, shifted my perspective on so much. I discovered that allowing myself to experience my complete terror and uncertainty about survival, actually opened a pathway into a new connection with myself, enabling healing of my own deepest, darkest aspects in a new way. It has left me with more resilience, more capacity for compassion, and a deeper belief in the richness to be found in that journey into the dark for each person who dares to undertake it.

I have a long standing fascination with stories, myths and legends, and have gradually learned ways of tapping into their imagery and metaphor at deeper and deeper levels. I work in similar ways with dreams, and the power of imagination, opening up unconscious wisdom and insights that hide behind symbolism and stories. These resources have been the assets I have turned to in order to Go Deep into new levels of self discovery.

I’ve also found so much learning in nature, whether the simple experiencing of a landscape as a way of clearing my head and heart of the complexities and stresses of my daily life and work, or in seeking answers to my inner dilemmas. When I need encouragement, support and reassurance that life is, and will be, ok the continuity of nature provides it. And it confirms that what I am experiencing, either in the present or from issues that I’m opening up in my own therapy, is more of a universal experience than it seems, and that I am not alone.

So, here on Foxtales for Soulbuilding, I’m inviting you to join me in my reflections and to consider what meaning if any they have for your life experience. I would love to hear from you about your reactions and responses to what I share.

I’ve been doing the majority of my work online since cancer treatment created its own “lockdown” for me in 2019. I’m now working on various projects to develop what I offer online, beyond the pandemic. Check out my “Work with me” page for ways to connect and go further in your own personal journey of discovery.

I look forward to connecting with you!