About My Writing

 

My interest in psychotherapy has always extended beyond what happens within the therapy room. It is also concerned with how we come to understand ourselves, how we experience our relationships with others, and how the circumstances of our lives influence who we are and who we become.

As a Gestalt psychotherapist, supervisor and teacher, I have found that clinical practice continually raises questions that theory alone cannot always answer. Equally, theory offers ways of thinking about experiences that might otherwise remain difficult to understand or express. It is within this continuing relationship between theory, experience and practice that much of my writing has developed.

GestaltUK brings together writings from different periods of my professional life. Some began as academic assignments, others emerged from teaching, workshops or clinical reflection. More recent essays have grown from questions that have occupied my thinking over time, particularly those concerning relational experience, field theory, phenomenology and the nature of therapeutic contact.

I do not regard these writings as presenting definitive answers. They reflect my understanding at the time of writing, informed by the literature, my professional experience and my encounters with others. Some explore established theoretical perspectives; others offer my own interpretations or develop propositions that remain open to further consideration.

Alongside my original writing, I have included Book Notes drawn from published psychotherapy literature. These bring together selected passages and references that I have found useful in studying, teaching and exploring particular theoretical subjects. They are intended to make relevant material more accessible while acknowledging the authors whose work has informed my thinking.

I have chosen to make these materials freely available through GestaltUK. They are offered to students, colleagues and others who may find something of interest in them, whether as a source of information, a contribution to their own enquiries, or simply an invitation to think further.

For me, writing is part of an ongoing enquiry rather than a declaration of completion.

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