Marking Time

Living through a strange time of doing nothing much professionally, 'resting' as I might put it as an actor. I'm having an operation in four weeks time, after which I will be recuperating and getting back to driving and my 'normal' life. Meantime, I am dependent on others to take me places and generally help with stuff I can't do. Last week I said goodbye to the lovely German art therapy trainee who has been coming to me for supervision since last September. It was quite an emotional ending for both of us. She has been through major changes in her professional and personal life, and I have been privileged to help her negotiate these to some extent.

We talked about the nature of supervision and differences between expectation and reality. She had foreseen our meetings as her coming towards me as a kind of fixed point, taking away advice, coming back again for support. Her actual experience was of me falling into step beside her, walking with her on her journey. I was pleased about this, as I struggle constantly with not being the expert, the one with knowledge and power, although I have to had to admit to a little frisson of pleasure at her association of me with Baba Yaga, the archetypal crone!

One major change in my life during this 'downtime' has been a resurgence of my own creative energies. Partly inspired by my supervisee's artwork which she brought to show me, partly by new materials discovered through getting more involved with knitting and crafts, I've been felting and embroidering. The picture is an interpretation of a photograph of my mother and her older sister on the beach at Largs in 1923, needle and wet-felted with embroidery, crochet, applique and shells. I'm experimenting with making felted beads - disastrous soggy lumps so far, but I'll keep trying. I've also spent time with friends, meeting up yesterday with someone from my distant past whom I had not seen for eight years. We picked up our conversation where it left off, and found we still have much in common, and now plan to meet regularly.

When I do get back to working 'properly' again, I am determined to maintain these other strands of my life. They help me stay grounded and receptive to working creatively with clients and supervisees. I am also dealing with difficult personal issues just now; my creative work is helping me to process my feelings. So, marking time, but just until I'm ready to move on.

Leave a comment or email me at theatreandtherapy@googlemail.com