One of my psychotherapy clients and I joke about how it is not going to be 'New Year, New Me' this year, as past experience is that can set up to fail. She said to me 'New Year, Same Me' just doesn't have the same ring to it, though! This made me laugh. Anyway, together we decided 'New Year, Intentional Me', and that goals were to be not overwhelming, and a step at a time was more likely to bring success than over-reaching and setting these vast heights. There is nothing wrong with having a big vision and big goals. However, as the saying goes, 'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time' (not that I am advocating eating elephants, and am very much for their protection ;-) ). Intentionality is a word that has been around for me strongly a few months now. Around in a way where I am allowing it to permeate many aspects of my life. To live intentionally. To choose my paths intentionally. To spend intentionally. To say yes intentionally and to say no intentionally. To dress intentionally. To manage my time intentionally. The list goes on. Whilst keeping my bigger vision and values in view, as I intentionally choose each day, each project, each outfit, each buy, even each book I read or programme I watch. Linked to this is Quality of Life. Given my 2019 breast cancer diagnosis and still being on Tamoxifen adjuvant treatment and under a consultant, quality of life is very important to me. However, you do not need such a diagnosis to occur in your life to live intentionally or to look at quality of life. Any of us could die tomorrow. The question is how do we want to live today, and what can we do to take intentional steps, however small towards that? In the light of that I, and Hannah and I, have been looking at Physis Creative, Educational, and Personal Development Services, and seeing what may be out of balance, what we want, what needs and rights we have maybe let go of and need to re-embrace. One thing that has bothered us is that because of some previous work we get seen very much as therapy and eating disorders work, but we are way more, and that is only one part. In fact, we are no longer treating eating disorders directly (not that that was necessarily the way we worked with it before in all cases by any stretch). I cannot speak for Hannah, as she will speak for herself, but for me, I do not want to focus on eating disorders. It is an area I have knowledge and a lot of experience of working with, but I have had more success with clients with eating disorders when we hardly focus on it, though of course it can be mentioned in sessions. I am not saying there isn't a place for that - and there are some very good teams that work with that, and sometimes it is necessary when a person's life is at risk to really hone in on the ED, or if some symptoms need dealing with that are getting in the way. However, that is better treated in an eating disorders team, not a private practice, especially one run from one's personal home and space, and especially not one that is not only a therapy practice, but has other areas of work. We are keen to work with utmost ethics, parameters, integrity in what we will and won't offer, and also what we do and do not want to offer by choice. If you check out Christine's Croner on this website, you will meet Christine Shields who has worked in therapy with us as a client for over 3 years now, and is free of an eating disorder she had for over 30 years. We worked little on the actual ED. She has also overcome other things. She now shares her story and experiences in encouragement, in poetry, and more, for others. In her 60s, she says you are never too old to work on yourself and overcome the things that have stood in your way of a full and happy life. Christine has been living intentionally these days, carefully crafting and choosing her 'handmade life' (to quote Clarissa Pinkola Estes in Women who Run with Wolves). As founder and co-owner of Physis, I am working on my own intentionality and handmade life. This means constant evaluating and assessing my energy, time, desire, gifts, goals, hopes, dreams and asking myself how I truly want to live. How do you truly want to live? What intentional choice and action could you explore and take today to step towards that? Here's to an intentional 2023.
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