Karen Macmillan Counselling

What you feel and what you want are not permitted. Andrew Motion and Richard Beard talking powerfully about .

Boarding school boys rule Britain, at what cost? For both the survivors of these institutions and for the whole country.

For When People Ask
-- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

I want a word that means
okay and not okay,
more than that: a word that means
devastated and stunned with joy.
I want the word that says
I feel it all all at once.
The heart is not like a songbird
singing only one note at a time,
more like a Tuvan throat singer
able to sing both a drone
and simultaneously
two or three harmonics high above it—
a sound, the Tuvans say,
that gives the impression
of wind swirling among rocks.
The heart understands swirl,
how the churning of opposite feelings
weaves through us like an insistent breeze
leads us wordlessly deeper into ourselves,
blesses us with paradox
so we might walk more openly
into this world so rife with devastation,
this world so ripe with joy.

Excellent podcast on cults and the experience of children raised in them from a therapeutic point of view

‎IndoctriNation: In My Father's Footsteps, Following Rajneesh w/Sam Jahara on Apple Podcasts ‎Show IndoctriNation, Ep In My Father's Footsteps, Following Rajneesh w/Sam Jahara - 14 Sept 2022

Positive and encouraging feedback received today via onlineevents encourages me to recommend the recording of Introduction to Boarding School Syndrome (for therapists) from Oct 8th - available here for £9.99. It won't make me rich - I think I get 99p per sale - but it is an affordable way to access the training.

Introduction to Boarding School Syndrome - Karen Macmillan Based on the work of Joy Schaverien and Nick Duffell, this workshop will outline the key theories behind boarding school syndrome and how they might present in clients in the therapy room.

Great article on faux self care

‘Just take a bubble bath!’ Why faux self-care won’t solve our problems Everything from journals to air purifiers, crystal jewellery to ‘poop stools’ has been packaged and sold as the answer to stress, burnout and depression. So why aren’t they working?

CPD for therapists: a short series of online training for counsellors working with boarding school survivors, starting Oct 8th

Boarding School Syndrome Workshop Series Boarding School Syndrome Workshop Series with Karen Macmillan

Proud of my colleague Amelia for this piece in the Daily Mail - ignore the headline and read what she has to say

Boarding school is seen as a privilege but I viewed it as a punishment Amelia attended Christ's Hospital, a boarding school in Horsham. She says boarding school is seen by many as a privilege, but she came to view it as a punishment.

Deeply humane and thoughtful podcast on post cult shame - though it might seem niche, has wider implications

Deep Cut: Post-Cult Shame — Conspirituality In this contemplation, Matthew unpacks various aspects of survivor shame, with help from the writing of cult theorists and recovery counselors Alexandra Stein, Daniel Shaw, and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi.

"The wounds of trauma are not merely those caused by the perpetrators of violence and exploitation; the actions or inactions of bystanders—all those who are complicit in or who prefer not to know about the abuse or who blame the victims—often cause even deeper wounds. These wounds are part of the social ecology of violence, in which crimes against subordinated and marginalized people are rationalized, tolerated, or rendered invisible. If trauma originates in a fundamental injustice, then full healing must require repair through some measure of justice from the larger community."
This applies absolutely to .
Wonderful short interview with Judith Herman on her book "Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice"

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