Pilamaya People

“When I teach, and when I step into a client session, the Natural World is always, always by my side.”

As well as working as an Integration Psychotherapist, I have been fortunate enough over the last couple of years to write a series of small Nature guides for Penguin and am about to dive into book No. 7 which will be an exploration of Deep Time and Evolution through fossils. I will write this book over summer and it will be published in the spring of 2027.

For many of us, the natural world offers a doorway not only to our own connection with [choose your preferred term] Spirit/Source/the Divine/the Field/God/Goddess/Mother Earth/Father Sky … but also to pathways that can support our clients as they work within the multidimensional IP framework.

My books are mainstream and published for the gift market so you’ll find them in places like the Tate Modern art gallery and quirky little local gift shops — but as with so many things in life, they are not quite what they may, at first glance, seem.

I am what I have come to think of as a sideways “sleight-of-hand” nature writer, offering an invitation to the reader to notice for themselves the wonders in their own locality: in other words, The Ordinary Place which many of you will have heard Shaura talk about (it’s one of her favourite topics) and which we plan to dedicate an upcoming episode of the Pilamaya Podcast to soon.

This is not being in Nature meaning diving with wild dolphins off the coast of New Zealand or swimming with the more exotic (and alarming) wildlife in the Amazon although I have done both — this is opening the front door and noticing a snail trail on the doorstep and stopping to think about the strong homing instinct of that species which uses that trail to track its way home, or feeling joy when a butterfly skims past and thinking about the extraordinary life events it has gone through to emerge as the glorious creature you just spotted.

Not surprisingly then, my work with the natural world (and I see these books as a co-creation) underpins much of my teaching for Pilamaya and of course my own creative circles, the newest of which (see details below) is exclusively for therapists.

🍄Tending the Edge — a new creative circle for therapists which honours the link between creativity and wellness

In September, we will be opening a new creative circle for those who hold space for others as a way of resourcing and supporting their own wellness. 

The deep links between creativity and wellness have been getting more attention from the scientific community and Tending the Edge is a new online creative circle created specifically for therapists. The main focus is our own inner resourcing but you will also be inspired to work, from time to time, with your clients in a way that invites the natural world into the therapeutic space as part of a three-way alliance and this circle will give you the confidence to do that..

I like to keep my creative circles small and intimate so there are only 11 places in this circle.  

We will gather on the third Thursday of every month from 7pm-8.30pm for 11 months from September 2026 - July 2027. The cost is £30 per session if you pre-book all 11 sessions and £40 PAYG. 

To secure your place, WhatsApp me through one of the Pilamaya groups or email [email protected].

“I write the monthly newsletters and co-host and co-produce the new Pilamaya Podcast with Shaura.”

When I write this Pilamaya People newsletter I usually interview the person we are introducing but I cannot interview myself and honestly, there are no photos of me either, so I will just say: one of my first memories (a question I ask all our Pilamaya People) is of skipping down the road wearing my mum’s pink Maribou slippers singing Puff the Magic Dragon (always with the four legs and a great excuse for using one of Mark Duffin’s dragon pix in this newsletter!)

I found my way to becoming a psychotherapist after training as a newspaper journalist, working as a magazine and book editor and, as a result, spending decades hearing and telling people’s stories.

I’ve written over 30 wellness books, been a high-profile and award-winning Sunday Times columnist, worked in radio, avoided TV and stepped into every new decade of my life … now in decade no. 7 … with a deep breath and a willingness to stay open to the challenges, instead of clinging to an earlier version of me.

It’s been a rollercoaster but truth be told, it has calmed down a lot in my sixties!

I have a pre-loved copy of Rhythms of Recovery: Trauma, Nature and the Body by Leslie E. Korn on my bedside table, along with Florence Knapp’s highly rated debut novel, The Names, which (without saying too much) tackles domestic violence in a way that had me holding my breath when reading those parts of the story.

I parted company with social media when I stepped away from mainstream editorial work which by that time had hijacked most of it anyways, and one of my happiest days was the day I LinkedOut (who doesn’t love a good Dad joke?)

This means most of my clients find me by word-of-mouth. I run a small private practice and also work as an Associate Therapist for Pilamaya’s sister organisation IPS (Integration Psychotherapy Services) which is a CIC set up to offer affordable therapy — a commendable ethos and one I actively support.

I trained with some of you, either on the Transpersonal Yoga course or the Integration Psychotherapy diploma, and others I have now met as part of your current training via workshops and in-person teaching, but if our paths have not yet crossed, I hope they will soon …

The best way to contact me directly is via my Pilamaya email: [email protected]