Therapy is not your only resource

Before there was therapy, people have been caring, healing and surviving life's indiscriminate bashes and bruises using a myriad of resources.

Here are a few ways to care for yourself (that you very probably already use) on a daily basis. They may sound simple, clichéd or even predictable, but when you assemble what you need into your own personal kit, they will hold you fast. We all saw how people's mental health suffered when they lost access to resources during Covid, such as the gym, the weekly chess club or that incidental neighbourly 'hello' on the way to work, so their power cannot be underestimated.

One of the job's of therapy is to support someone in expanding their capacity to care for themselves. Sometimes that is by boosting or diversifying their existing resources, sometimes it is reminding people that they are already doing a bloody good job. And our resources may need to adapt as we face new challenges.

Therapy should not create another experience or relationship of dependency. It should show you the way to greater inner and outer variety and vitality.