Blog

Jul 9
3 min

Staying with life even when the flowers don't yet bloom

When I planted my new garden last year, I put a row of floribunda rose bushes along the back fence, anticipating by this year I would be enjoying looking at a glorious hedge of abundant pink. What has ensued since has been an education in managing expectations! The two raised beds the roses occupy were filled with different soil, one side with new soil lovingly wheel borrowed in over back breaking days. On this side, the roses bloom. Their heights are not consistent, but t

Fe Robinson

Jun 24
3 min

Rowing your metaphorical boat

I popped into my kids school this week to talk to the Early Years and Key Stage 1 children about Spiritual Practice and Meditation. We had a blast, they were really engaged and interested, and asked some cracking questions. One of the things we enjoyed was to ‘Row, Row, Row the Boat’, and then talk about the themes from this simple but powerful rhyme. I thought today I’d blog about it, because it is packed with potential meanings, and it’s a lovely example of how we can take

Fe Robinson

May 20
1 min

Letting Go

I recently came across a cracking set of questions about letting go. If you’ve a sense of it being time to reflect on what energises you and what does not, why not grab a pen and notepad, and find a quiet spot where you feel safe and relaxed, and have a muse? What's heavy, what’s weighing me down? What am I tolerating, putting up with or settling for? What am I fantasising about leaving or radically changing? What would I love never to do again? What am I tired of feeling?

Fe Robinson

May 13
2 min

Recharging yourself

A dear friend asked me recently how I recharge myself. It says something about where my mind was in that moment that I really had to think about the question. In the midst of raising my family, caring for my clients, running a business and running a home I wondered if I was in fact doing enough to care for myself. I began to list the things that I find recharging. Gardening, but wait, that is also part of running the house and my business, given my therapy room faces the g

Fe Robinson

Apr 25
2 min

How comfortable are you with silence?

It is a very common occurrence for people to have a discomfort with silence. I wanted to reflect a little today on the benefits of finding your peace with quiet. I recall many years ago my first silent retreat. I fell into it really, an introductory retreat at a Buddhist Retreat Centre, for which I had somehow missed the essential information that there would be no talking. I was sat in the room, feeling daunted by the number of people, wearily summoning the strength to do

Fe Robinson

Apr 8
2 min

The importance of place

I've had a good old move around at home recently, changing the purpose of several rooms, and moving lots of furniture and it's contents. I've been interested in my emotional response to the process, so today's blog is about space and stuff and the way we interact with them. Like many people, I love my home to be settled. Clean and tidy for me is comforting, knowing where stuff belongs and having it be in that place. I knew therefore it would be a big deal to have a re-jig,

Fe Robinson

Mar 11
2 min

Is maybe good enough?

Do you say yes when you feel maybe, or even no? Or does it take a resounding inner YESSSSS for you to decide something is right for you? This is an important question for authentic living. So often, people have been conditioned to please others, to fit in, to do what is expected, and do so at the expense of their own integrity and well-being. This is an affliction that can affect anyone, regardless of gender expression. It is often painful, with a split between the person

Fe Robinson

Mar 4
2 min

The awe and ease of Beginner's Mind

“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few” Shunryu Suzuki I was reminded of this familiar quote while reading the lovely book Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko-pa Turner. In the book she remarks “To be in a constant state of learning is to be receptive to life itself.” These two quotes really spoke to me about the wonder and awe experienced when we look at anything with fresh, inquiring eyes. To know that we really

Fe Robinson

Mar 4
1 min

My experience of a Soul Circle

I had a profoundly moving experience recently, of sitting in the company of women, in a space of deep trust and warmth. I was participating in a Soul Circle, skilfully facilitated by Liane Maitland and Emma Cowan. As each woman spoke her truth from the heart, we listened as best we could with our whole beings. We were taking part in the practice of Council, similar to that of many indigenous traditions, where each person is heard and witnessed uninterrupted, and is respond

Finding comfort in yourself, and love in connection

Fe Robinson

Feb 12
2 min

Finding comfort in yourself, and love in connection

“When I am at home with myself, everything I do ends as a love poem” Yeats What we experience depends on our state, on our way of being, in any particular moment. I loved this quote from Yeats which so eloquently expresses how life can be when lived from a place of comfort and contentment inside. It reminds me that when there is a depth of connection between our own being and our surroundings and the people we are present with, then love is the natural expression that flows

Finding your bodily wisdom through grounding

Fe Robinson

Feb 4
2 min

Finding your bodily wisdom through grounding

As a psychotherapist and trauma therapist, a big theme in my work is somatic wisdom. The body remembers, we are all mammals, and to quote Stephen Gilligan “there is a whole pattern of intelligence and wisdom within the body to which you may or may not be attuned.” My role involves helping people to align and centre within their bodies, so that their way of being physically can become expansive, and generate new possibilities and patterns. As Robert Dilts says, when we lose

When you just can't take your own advice...

Fe Robinson

Jan 7
2 min

When you just can't take your own advice...

We’re not always in touch with all of the capability, wisdom and resourcefulness we have inside. While we are all multi-faceted, it's easy to get disconnected from our own sense of perspective, humour and groundedness. When this happens, you might not feel at your best, you might get stuck in repeating patterns that you know don’t do you any good, you might even feel like you go round and round in circles. When simple grounding isn’t quite doing it, another way of getting ba

Fe Robinson

Jan 1
2 min

When the lights go out

Here we are, another festive season over, and the winter ahead of us. The Christmas lights are coming down. For many people the coming couple of months are the toughest of the year, there is little light or warmth, and the spring can feel far away. Add to that the ongoing pandemic and its consequences and whatever your perspective on it, it’s a complex and challenging picture. Often the advice is to look forwards, to skirt around uncomfortable feelings, and to imagine bett

Fe Robinson

Nov 19, 2021
2 min

What's your life story?

I’ve had the pleasure of making some new connections personally and professionally in recent weeks, which has felt good after the extended period of altered social interactions we have been living through. I was intrigued to notice what it was I said in response to questions from people, and to notice how I explained who and how I was. This reminded me that we are each continually updating our own narration of our story to this point in our lives. As things happen in the her

Fe Robinson

Oct 22, 2021
2 min

Grounded adaptation

“Adaptability does not prioritize drastic change over fierce rigidity. Adaptability is the conversation within us between stability and change, between continuity and innovation. It is the marriage of our fundamental needs for security and adventure. Adaptability is our ability to bend and come back to center over and over again, increasing our flexibility each time, whether we’re in our daily stretch or the fight of our lives. And the more we practice becoming adaptable, the

Fe Robinson

Oct 8, 2021
1 min

Shedding your bark

“Like a tree, our growth depends upon our ability to soften, loosen, and shed defenses we no longer need.” Daily OM This quote popped into my inbox from Daily OM a few weeks ago, and it resonated so strongly. The post went on as follows “ Trees grow up through their branches and down through their roots into the earth. They also grow wider with each passing year. As they do, they shed the bark that served to protect them but now is no longer big enough to contain them. In t

Fe Robinson

Sep 24, 2021
2 min

Maximising your experience of life

I’m introducing another simple reflection tool today, one I met many moons ago when I trained as a life coach. It’s called a Life Wheel, and it’s a good way of taking stock of how life is feeling for you at the moment and why. First, you need to list out the areas of your life that are important to you. The list won’t be the same for everyone, but often includes dimensions like family, friendships, work, learning, physical health, mental health, leisure, finances and home.

Are you at peace with showing initiative?

Fe Robinson

Aug 7, 2021
2 min

Are you at peace with showing initiative?

Today I want to talk about the third stage of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development model, which is one way of explaining the phases we move through psychologically as we grow. It’s relevant not only to parents, but to us all, as it can help us understand some of the places we may have got stuck in the past, meaning the same themes play out for us again and again through adult life. Stages 1 & 2 were about developing a sense of trust in the world, and finding autonomy and

Fe Robinson

Jul 3, 2021
1 min

Being alone (all-one)

I discovered recently that the root of the word alone is all-one. Clarissa Pinkola Estes expresses this beautifully, saying “To be all one meant to be wholly one, to be in one-ness, either essentially or temporarily. That is precisely the goal of solitude, to be all one.” I sense most of us know this experience, to be wholly in the one place, to feel complete, to come home to who and what we truly are. We may find it looking at a beautiful landscape or a tiny flower, or fin

Fe Robinson

Jun 26, 2021
2 min

You are a unique unfolding universe

In my twenties, I recall going on a Dale Carnegie training course, and being told ‘seek first to understand, and then to be understood.’ As an incessant talker at the time, I found it a weird concept, but it was one that resonated with me and I took to heart. Funny perhaps that decades later I find myself working as a psychotherapist, deeply invested in hearing and seeing the other, and leaving my own personal story at the door! “Every person in our life is a unique, unfold

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Fe Robinson

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