Mara – reporting blog #4 #metoo #churchtoo

The continuing story of reporting abuse and rape to the church and police. Shared in order to support survivors who wish to report and to support good practice by those whose job it is to respond, within a truth and restoration perspective. #Trigger warning# I will never share details of my abuse, but mentioning what

sorrow

Pain #metoo #churchtoo

In the abuse survivor peer group I belong to, we often discuss emotional suffering – “how much you hurt as a human being” (Shniedman 1996). We experience it as deep and contemporaneous, even when the trauma is not recent. At times we characterise it as despairing, dissociative, represented by Van Gogh’s image, Sorrowing old man

Therapy in seclusion

Some thoughts on the experience and practice of geographically ‘secluded’ therapy. Research into online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – in terms of measured outcomes – suggests it can be at least as effective as face to face therapy (Lewis et al. 2018). But is that true for all kinds of psychotherapy? And in what ways

An armful of mothers

Mothering Sunday is always an intense day for me, full of contradictory, bittersweet feelings. A day when I carry with me mothers, and women who mother, and children with all their experiences of mothering. A day for an armful of mother poems. George Szirtes wrote of the beginning of motherhood and of course we all

Untamed

To celebrate International Women’s Day, I want to share a poem I wrote to celebrate the resilience, capacity, creativity, wildness, and wisdom of women. Especially those of us who have faced abuse, oppression, violence, loss and trauma. Who have survived, overcome, risen, transcended. Who refuse to be caged, crushed, condemned, tainted or tamed. I was

Barefoot Tales

Welcome to the Barefoot blog. Pop on the kettle, put your feet up, and have a read. I’ll be sharing tales and poems, news and views about writing and the writer’s craft. I’d love you to join the conversation and share your tales too. I hope you’ll enjoy it here enough to come back again.