I saw this on a site about wellbeing walking events and it resonated…

• Non-clinical: No therapy, no diagnosis, no obligation to share
• Accessible: Inclusive, welcoming, and paced for comfort
• Local: Rooted in familiar places and local wildlife
• Gentle: Slow walking, regular pauses, no pressure

and it got me thinking about the ‘kind of sessions’ i offer people. “Therapy” can be such a trigger word it seems and further to conversations with friends last week, it’s got me thinking about the way we describe what we do, who we are and how we can help.

Since i qualified in 1995 I have referred to my practice as ‘therapeutic’. And now, all these years later, I have developed a practice more aligned with the idea of it not being a ‘therapy’, not to diagnose, not to treat, not to cure, but to offer comfort and support.

Facilitate – To make easy or less difficult; to free from difficulty or impediment; to lessen the labour of

So instead of saying i’m a therapist I think now i’m going to say, if anyone asks me what i do, that i ‘facilitate’ by creating spaces in which you are able to assess your own sense of being well and offer support in being able to find better ways to maintain your health and wellbeing – whether that is through touch, or talking or from some kind of creative pursuit.

To wonder at the words we use and the definitions they bring to our collective experience.