Hello from Spain

Hello from the sunny window of a rooftop room in Guadalupe, Spain, a town famous for its monastery, its pilgrims and its Black Virgin - a fitting place, perhaps, to find myself unexpectedly for Easter.

This is my mother's home, and I’m here because of the recent loss of her long term partner in an accident, to support her as she crosses into a new phase of life, and navigating what that might mean for us both. Change is upon us, and it feels anything but straightforward, especially when it is bound up with such deep feelings.

I’m writing this sitting in a pool of sunlight, overlooking the Guadalupe monastery with its blue and white tiled, turreted, rooves, its blonde, stone crenellations, and the deep-green mountains behind. The occasional swift flits by, and a stork’s nest is just visible on one of the towers. In the foreground, the red-ochre roof tiles are either utterly transformed by black and pale-green lichens, or untouched by them. All around, lazy wasps with long, yellow legs, dance in and out of the overlapping tiles, mesmeric, hypnotic, and peaceful, as they go silently about their business.

Making time for peace has never felt more important.

Times of change can feel like a crisis, as we are rocked to our very core. Many of my friends are facing huge life changes too, bereavements, redundancies, challenges that feel bigger in some cases than they themselves feel. And yet they keep on putting one foot in front of the other. As the old dies away it can feel as if we are all at sea without a compass. Certainly, change seems to have been my only constant for the last few years. It’s been a roller coaster of loss and bereavement, of new ways of being, of trying to hold on to the old, and of finally relinquishing what is familiar to strike out in a new direction.

I completed my formal training with Wise Goose Coaching twelve months ago. and my course in ‘The Body, Psychotherapy and the World’ with Processwork UK a little before that.

Since then I have been finding my voice, my expression and unique style as a coach, alongside other activities: writing, artwork, creative collaborations. These experiences have allowed me to now set my course, which is to focus on my practice as a Creative Change Coach - a term of my own making which expresses what I care most about.

That is:

Helping people explore the creativity in their challenges and bring more of their gifts to the world.

So far I’ve shared my ideas haphazardly. Some blogs, some guest posts. My newsletter list has been made up of current and former clients, and people I think might be interested in this or that subject.

But now it’s time to build my list properly, by asking people to subscribe. It's easy and free and I'd love to keep you up to date - so please do sign up by clicking on this link!

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I’d be so pleased if you did. What will you get? Articles, links to resources, cross connections with art and creativity, invitations to events, and, as today, news from me. I’ll ask your opinion of what you like and what works for you.

I hope Easter is full of renewal for you, and, whatever changes you are facing yourself, that you make time for peace, and simply looking out of the window.

Thank you! And Happy Easter!

Helen