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Light of Longing. Acrylic on paper. Green mountains against otherworldly purple background.

Creative Conversations

Online Mentoring and Coaching with soul at the center

My experience and background

Influences on my work as a Mentor

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​Although separate activities, my art practice and working with people through psychotherapy or mentoring are both rooted in the same source; a devotion to the weave of psyche and soul, that marries inner or interior life with outer form and expression. At different times in my own life the respective currents of art and healing have flowed underground as my focus has shifted, eventually surfacing again to insist that ultimately they belong together. 

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The names of artists, writers, and schools of thought mentioned here are intended to offer some reference points to my experience and the ideas an sources of inspiration that inform my work as a mentor, rather than suggest that our conversations will involve the teaching of any particular method or philosophy. You will also have your own valuable influences and inspirations, and these are also invited into our work. Perhaps these are traditions that my work emerges from, my own mentors and elders.

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Art

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I’ll begin with art, because too often that is regarded as secondary. I believe art is an essential aspect of what it is to be human, at its best seeking to 'make visible' the inner life of the soul through imagination. In my own work I use a language of landscape imagery to explore a sense of the Numinous. I describe the themes I circle around in more detail on this page, and galleries of my art can be found here.

 

Growing up, music and films offered a huge source of inspiration, and over time that has expanded or shifted more towards painting and drawing. I gravitate to art that approaches existential qualities or questions, sacred art, that which explores the esoteric or themes of myth. The Italian painter Agostino Arrivabene is one of my contemporary favourites in this regard. I recall the first time I encountered a work by Anselm Keifer as an important moment, a powerful experience that stopped me in my tracks. I find his work a unique exploration of both the vast mysteries of existence and the earthly place of the human within it. Other artists of note who have lived through their own sense of artistic vision include William Blake, and Cecil Collins.

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Depth and Transpersonal Psychology

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The main influences of significance from this field would be Carl Jung and some of the ‘post-Jungian’ scene, particularly in relation to Alchemical traditions. James Hillman and his take on an Archetypal Psychology, which values image as the psyche's primary mode of communication and revelation. The Transpersonal or spiritual psychology presented by Roberto Assagioli as Psychosynthesis, which was my first experience of engaging in Psychotherapy, and I am currently continuing my experiential learning in this area as a student on Transformational Mentoring: A Psychosynthesis Coaching Training (with Mark Jones and Keith Hackwood). You can find details of the course here.

 

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Spirituality and the Esoteric

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My interest and engagement with spirituality includes elements of what is often termed ‘The Western Mystery Tradition’, Earth mysteries, some aspects of Shamanism, the work of Peter Kingsley, Sufism, and ‘non-dual’ sages such Nisargadatta Maharaj and Ramana Maharshi. When written down such diverse influences (which also extend beyond those mentioned here) might appear to be something of a pick-and-mix, but for me there is a profound sense of connection, which perhaps has to do with what I’ll describe as the mystical core of all wisdom traditions.

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Nature and the more-than-human world

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I have always had a love for walking through landscapes, and much of my inner artistic and spiritual work happens through this act. This was one of the key elements that brought together my interests in healing, and art (further detail here). The term Ecopsychology describes an approach or attitude to inner work which recognises that because we are connected to all life around us, (including plant, animal, microbial, and even the rocks and substance of the Earth), that our bodies and minds are influenced accordingly. See the Ecopsychology page for further information. 

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Beyond boundaries - Myth, Story, Poetry

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My vision for this mentoring work sees it moving beyond art, spirituality, the psychological, and Nature being considered as entirely separate categories, into something more holistic, where when we speak of one aspect we are able to consider it from the other perspectives too. Much of what I enjoy has a kind of synthesising quality to it which brings together different strands. I am a member of The Scottish Center For Geopoetics, which is interested in the creative expression of the Earth. The Spiritual Ecology movement and Joanna Macey's 'The Work That Reconnects'. Myth, story, and folklore often have the ability to bring together seemingly disparate elements both within the psyche, and also in an interdisciplinary sense. I am thinking here about the likes of Martin Shaw (mythologist and storyteller), David Whyte (poet, philosopher, speaker), John Moriarty (Nature mystic ?), and Stephen Jenkinson (author, teacher, farmer).

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Professional experience

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As an artist I am dedicated to the development of my work, which falls somewhere between the contemporary and the devotional as a practice. My paintings and drawings have been shown at exhibitions in England, Scotland, and Wales, and I have sold work to private collectors in the UK, Europe, USA, and Australia. In 2019 I became an elected Professional Member of the Society Of Scottish Artists (SSA), in recognition of commitment, originality and skill.

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For the past 5 years I have worked in private practice as an Art Psychotherapist in Newport, and also online. Prior to this I independently ran art and ecopsychology groups, and have also worked in the NHS as an Art Psychotherapist. For ten years I moved between in a variety of roles within mental health and social care services in England and Scotland, including work with children and adolescents, adult psychiatric settings, and people with learning disabilities. My experience includes supervising staff, and managerial duties.   

 


Education

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Something of my story…

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Where to begin in tracing the roots of an endeavour like this is difficult, as it is a synthesis of strands that have been present throughout my life. Perhaps ‘randomly’ plucking two particular volumes from the shelf of a bookshop during my mid-late teens is as good a place as any. 

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This takes us back to a more or less pre-internet period of history, and I had no idea who either author was at the time. Firstly, Modern Man In Search Of A Soul, by Carl Jung. This might have me classed as something of a ‘cradle Jungian’, but I remember a distinct sense of connection, that it felt as if this person was seeing the world through my eyes and describing it to me, even though I knew nothing of psychology, and even less of psychoanalysis. Perhaps that is not so dissimilar to the blurring of self and other that can occur when profoundly connecting with art and music. I was certainly intrigued by what came across quite clearly to me as the mystic Jung, as much as the professional/psychologist Jung. 

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The second text was The Tree of Life by Israel Regardie, an English ceremonial magician who was one of the first to compile and publish certain aspects of the ‘Western Esoteric Tradition’. This was my introduction to many and diverse sacred paths, and crucially a person who sought to bring together spiritual, psychological, and healing arts by eventually becoming a psychotherapist and chiropractor. Perhaps his most well known and focused work in this area is a concise volume called The Art Of True Healing.      

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Mentioning these early (and to varying extents continued) influences, serves to illustrate two worlds which are at times overlapping, opening up helpful new insights for one another, and at other points are best kept quite separate. On one hand, Depth and Transpersonal psychologies offer invaluable assistance in avoiding pitfalls posed by spiritual philosophy and practice without first developing a grounded psychological understanding of oneself, and coming to terms with all aspects of our humanity (‘spiritual bypassing’). On the other hand, there is a great disservice, if not outright harm done by psychologising the spiritual (using a reductive ‘nothing but’ approach), which is also something I take great care to avoid in my work. 

 

 

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We Drew Sleep From Stones

2024

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The Green Veil

2024

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Cecil Collins altarpiece 'Icon Of Divine Light'

Chichester Cathedral, West Sussex

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Glastonbury Tor

Somerset

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If you would like to contact me please use this form, or click here for email

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