I think everyone could benefit from counselling. Everyone struggles with something, and if you think you don’t, you are probably in denial and counselling could help with that.

There is a lot of stigma and confusion around mental health and the services available. I am making a distinction and giving signposts for those wanting to take control of their own healing in the area of mental health.

A Distinction Between the Medical and Social Model

There are two models of therapy, the medical and the social model. It is easy to get them confused.

1. The Medical Model.

Psychology began as a medical model. Freud and Jung and others set up systems…

Prince Harry has been bearing witness to the deep trauma he has held within himself since the death of his mother 24 years ago. He has discovered the key to mental health.

Nobody likes it. Least of all, his family and the UK press. Insults are hurled from all angles, and the hallowed halls of the BBC are echoing with recriminations.

He is carrying out the only known cure for mental illness — bearing witness.

He is battling for his own family’s mental health and, at the same time, championing the cause of mental health for everyone.

I feel a…

My sense is this is nonsense
but that makes no sense
I’m pretty sure I thought it
and lots of people bought in
to my worldview as
entirely sensible
so it's possibly ostensible that
what I say is true
or maybe reprehensible

You may think this is nonsense
but that makes no sense
the words came from my brainbox
and that may fox you
if they don’t fit in
to your template
for the sensible
or the comprehensible
but I think my views are defensible

You may be making no sense
from the strings of words from my sense
all I…

I drink to relax. I can stop anytime, I’m not an alcoholic, she’s not an alcoholic, I drink to be sociable, I drink too much, I drink alone, I drink to feel connected, I drink to feel something, I drink to feel nothing.

From The Beginning There Was Alcohol

An uncle used it to take his own life. The ultimate way to stop feeling the pain of being alive. Leaving everyone else to feel the pain for you. No one ever spoke of it—many lives left with hairline cracks and no access to healing them.

I swallowed a myth with every pint of beer that this…

I inhabit a comfortable space
I am safe

From the window of my centrally heated life
I peer out

There is a child running free in the dunes
Exploring rockpools

I look across the in-between
I want to venture out, but I can’t find the door

How do I inhabit the in-between?

The child shouts and waves and cartwheels in the sand
I sip my comfortable coffee and smile
I start to make a plan

How can I escape this place?
So familiar
Do I desire freedom?
How will I get back to safety if it's not to my liking?

…