The aim of this blog is to be helpful - for clients who come to see me, for fellow health professionals, and for other website visitors. It's pretty obvious that I may be able to offer something useful from my knowledge and experience of being a doctor and therapist for several decades. What's less obvious is whether writing about my personal life might be helpful.

This blog is about stress, health and well-being. These are key personal interests of mine! I've thought about how best to lead my life since at least age 9 or 10. It was about around then that I thought I'd become a medical missionary (eventually I became a doctor and therapist instead). Changing subject at university to read philosophy for two years was part of the same exploration, as too were many hours spent in meditation retreats, monasteries, encounter groups, travels, books and conversations. The large amount of head knowledge I have from reading endless research, and the large amount of practical experience I have from over thirty years of working as a therapist, in many ways stands or falls on how I live my life. I don't at all mean that I've "got it all together" and lead some kind of perfect life. But if all the knowledge and experience don't profoundly colour how I live myself, then they're pretty meaningless. So sharing some of the struggles and joys and jokes and pain that I experience as a fellow traveller through this world - facing challenges that are often very similar to many other people's - this can also be something useful (even if it leads to you deciding that the last thing you want to do is to try some of the things that I do).