Nesting and Working.

Wow where has the year gone, were in Spring now and I really feel this year has just flown by, we have been back from travelling a while now and life has just got in the way of writing, I was writing my blog monthly when away and feel I have really neglected it since home, so here goes, I thought my first update this year i could share what’s been happening and what’s been making these last few months.

Work.
My working week is 3.5 days at Acorns working as a Children’s Counsellor with children impacted by domestic and sexual violence, the therapeutic work is carried out using play therapy techniques and is just wonderful to watch the process children/young people go through whilst working in the room.

My initial plan was to work more self-employed but my role at Acorns is amazing and diverse and I feel so many of my skills lie within this role, I have really put a lot of energy into it and its beautiful to say but I really do love it, hence why the private counselling I had thought of being more involved in has gone quiet.

Acorns are supporting me through a play therapy course at the institute of art psychotherapy www.artspsychotherapy.org which is an incredible institute and I hope to study further with them in the future. The course covers a number of different techniques, theory and experiential work to understand play as a therapeutic form, its hard going and means a lot of time back in London town but the learning I am getting from it is brilliant and is enhancing me as a practitioner each week I learn.

I am managing ½ day a week with Yogabud teaching one public yoga class and seasonal workshop’s which run on a Saturday and have a different theme each season. I have offered a few different options with the yoga but it feels right now the teaching I am offering is working best. The public class and workshop are going fantastic with full numbers and a mix of gender and age which is fantastic to see.

I have also been asked to par take in a workshop run by the lovely Shanti Bee www.shantibee.co.uk in June which I am really looking forward too.

Home.
Sam and I bought a house, bit crazy and unexpected but it all came about as I wanted my hens back and felt it was just annoying paying rent and not being able to have my feathered friends to say hello too. So we found a nest in an area we wanted and was lucky enough to have the offered accepted and now were in with our 6 hens and half decorated house. We weren’t sure whether we wanted to live country or city but felt that the stage we are in now the city suited us more with plenty of country adventures.

We had a few things we knew we wanted, like a wood burning stove and a good sized bath, which were two of the things we got sorted asap. We also knew we wanted to use reclaimed wood as a focus for shelves, my house plants seem to be growing so I wanted a place for good light for them. We also have so many books so wanted to use one of our alcoves to storage them so went searching in my dad/s workshops and found a number of old batons that we upcycled and made shiny and new. Really pleased with how far we have got and its really starting to feel like ours.

Bathroom Tiles.

Bedroom Wall

Hallway,

Stove tiles.

Hello to 2015.

I am well aware we are in May now, so saying hello isn't that new but wow so much has happened and so many decisions were made that I wanted to share a few with you all.

I made a few NY Resolutions and so far things seem to be working out.

• Starting 2 business - Yoga and Counselling.

The Yoga side of this has actually become more developed, which at first I found a challenge as that wasn't the plan and I wanted my energy to be more focused on developing a women's only counselling service, however with funding the way it is I wasn't getting anywhere and have decided to work privately at home with 1-2 women a week which is a nice balance with my employed part of the week. I am still managing to connect with women, offer my skills but work in an empowerment way which was the prime focus, its not about how many I work with, working with 1-2 women allows my full energy to be present, so although things haven't worked how first imagined I guess that's business and I feel its working right for how it should be right now.

Yogabud is booming, I use Tuesday as my 'yoga day' and work with 3 women privately during the day and then teach a class on an evening in Gosforth. I carried out my first workshop this weekend which I hope to do every 6-8wks, the workshop sold out and was really successful, with a lot of great feedback coming back from it.

• Start a new job as a Children's Counsellor

I honestly have to pinch myself at times at how lucky I feel, I have literally walked into a perfect role, I work 3 days a week as a Children's Counsellor for children impacted by sexual and domestic violence. The role is challenging, heart breaking and difficult but I love the balance of being there 3 days and then have two days to do my own thing, yoga, create, learn. I work in an integrative way and bring in a lot of play therapeutic style which is incredible when working with children. I am 5 months into the role and already have planned my next training to go further in the role.

• Learn how to look after houseplants.

I decided when away I wanted to become more green fingered, so far so good, orchids are blooming, streptocarpus are flowering, spider plants are reproducing, its just the sneaky aloe vera that I haven't got to grips with yet.

• Use my day off on Fridays to be more creative.

So this hasn't happened as much as recently I have been back and forth to London, however now Sam is residing in the North I feel this is definitely a plan that will start soon, the knitting needles have been clicking on other nights though and lots of baby projects for friends in place.

• Spend more time exploring Northumberland.

This I have definitely been doing, beach walks at Newton by the Sea, walking Hadrian's Wall, exploring castles and going out to Kielder, I purchased two walking books with some Christmas money so lots more planned for 2015.