About Recipe for Life

Following a series of life events I retrained as a psychotherapeutic counsellor by taking a postgraduate training in Existential therapy at The New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling. I chose this methodology, and school in particular because of its use of philosophy as therapy.

As well as working as a counsellor online, I continue to work as a software consultant. I have worked in web development since graduating with a degree in Industrial design at Brunel University - itself underpinned by the philosophy of the Bauhaus movement.

Part of the understanding of who we are in existential therapeutic thought is that we are more than just the role we portray ourselves at any given moment. In this spirit, I have created this site to write about both of my professions and anything that sparks my interest (and seems relevant).

Psychotherapy

I work with clients for a standard 50 minute session online at a frequency and as many sessions as they feel is valuable to them. What clients can expect is an in depth exploration of what they bring to the session using phenomenology, and the techniques of Narrative Exposure Therapy - a NICE guideline treatment for PTSD when the work feels too intense to handle.

Key to my interpretation of phenomenological therapy is “describe, don’t analyse”. I want my clients to explore the different ways events affect us - not how we make sense of them, but how our different senses interpret what is happening.

Philosophy

My interest in philosophy goes back to teenage struggles and/with Sartre and Camus, and to the art and philosophy of modernist Germany. It was learning about existential therapy that rekindled my interest, and on this site I will explore thinkers who I find interesting and have some relevance to therapy or software development.

Programming

I may occasionally write about things I think people might find interesting in the programming world.