Essays in development

Alongside my academic writing, I am developing a series of shorter essays exploring psychotherapy, relationality and some of the assumptions that shape contemporary professional life.

Asking courteous but awkward questions of things we have become rather comfortable believing.

At the Limits of Personal Reflection

Reflection is central to psychotherapy, but what can reflection actually tell us about an encounter that was never ours alone? This essay explores the limits of self-account and asks whether the value of reflection lies less in achieving greater certainty about ourselves than in learning to remain with what is unresolved between people.

Follow the Money: Do We Over-Psychologise the Lack of Diversity in Psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy has become increasingly concerned with the lack of diversity within the profession. This essay asks whether we have concentrated too readily on attitudes, identities and inclusion while paying insufficient attention to a more basic question: who can afford to become a therapist? It examines the substantial financial and temporal costs of training and the social selection that may occur long before anyone reaches the training room.

When Reflection Already Understands the Answer

What happens when reflection begins within a framework that already knows what the reflective person ought to discover? This essay considers the danger of reflection becoming self-confirming — where agreement confirms an interpretation, disagreement becomes resistance, and criticism becomes further evidence for the original account. It asks what changes when we put down the mirror and allow our understanding to become answerable to encounter.

What Sleepless Nights Reveal About Our Obsession With Control

Insomnia presents a peculiar paradox: the harder we try to make sleep happen, the further it can recede. Drawing on my current research, this essay considers sleeplessness not simply as a problem to be solved but as an experience that reveals something about our contemporary preoccupation with control, optimisation and performance — and about those parts of human life that cannot simply be mastered.

Responsibility Beyond Influence

We often assume that responsibility depends upon our ability to change what happens. Yet some of the most important human situations — illness, loss, organisational change, care — confront us with circumstances we cannot resolve. This essay explores what responsibility might mean when influence reaches its limits, and why listening, accompaniment and remaining present can still matter when nothing can simply be fixed.