Welcome To The Saltmarsh

Once upon a time I worked as a trauma-trained CBT therapist: charting individual mental health in a room with two chairs and a box of tissues (and, most likely, a generic image of pebbles). This way of working remains necessary and important for a great many people and situations.

But then, in 2020, I travelled to the Outer Hebrides as part of my storytelling apprenticeship. And found myself accidentally locked down for the pandemic winter. It will take the rest of my life (and beyond) to unpack the sea-chest of riches my time in that wild landscape gave me. What I can say is that through the dark night of those storms, I had a series of mystical encounters, and my own mythology of healing was radically restored. 

In that clarity, I also realised that Venice had been calling my heart ever since my first visit in 2012 (a story for another time), so as soon as it was safe to travel, I made this saltmarsh harbour my home.

My Craft

Here in Venice, a boatyard is called a squero. And I live next to one. Since moving here, then, I’ve worked on my craft. Her sails are full of contemplative spirit, she creaks with the seasoned wood of the old fireside tales; and the magpie’s nest atop her mast is kitted out with the shiniest tools from my previous life as a CBT therapist.

I am convinced that within each of our stories is a sacred gift; inviting us onto a pilgrimage to find it — a voyage that often takes us beyond familiar maps and into the restorative saltmarsh of our (healed) wounds. And while it is a privilege to help guide others in that journey, it’s through my own peregrination that I’ve met this broken starlight most keenly. My own story is my deepest medicine teacher, inspires my fellowship with other peregrini, and insists I testify to the wonder found even — especially — in our darkest tales.

How I Navigate

The world’s greatest itinerant storyteller regularly reminds me to love God and love my neighbour. This is the true north that guides my compass.

In these night times, I feel most at home in the reedy waters between mythopoetic storytelling, psychology and theology; gazing at the dusky horizon where the secular and sacred meet.

I’m particularly inspired by these constellations:

Reimagining Care: trauma wise to its own medicine; calling time on capitalist and colonialist definitions of wellbeing; personal testimony to the limitations of professional beliefs; communal tending of grief, wonder and imagination; soul as a story beyond rational minds, lived in relationship with other humans, place and the wild, and forever restored in the divine.

Rewilding Christianity: living scripture; church hurt daring prodigal return; practical, embodied theology; new rituals and liturgy; devotional longing; the page turn between heresy and holy; reclaiming the Sabbath; the still utterly radical Jesus and his Christ gift.

Remembering Community: letting go the weight of familial and societal monomyths, and yielding to the rich ecosystems beneath; feasting tables set for strangers and exiles and the untold in between; trusting the wisdom of ancestors, seasons and more than human kin; remembering how to deeply witness and listen.

I travel the way I do because I believe true medicine is never in one single thing but shines from the gaps in between; because as a magpie I see light in every broken thing; and because I know from experience that those cracks are precisely how God gets in.

La Serenissima’s lagoon barena is a constant creative mentor, while the city encourages me to journey sustainably. 

A Bold-Hearted Crew (That’s You)

Perhaps, like me, you’re curious to explore beyond the periphery of familiar maps. Perhaps, like me, you sense that some of those maps may no longer fully serve their purpose. Perhaps, like me, you feel the feather-ruffling call of waters more mysterious, perhaps a little daunting, yes, and certainly timeless..

While I love travelling alongside anyone who longs to restore wonder in these night times, we might be especially good crew mates if:

You’ve returned from your voyage aboard the great ship therapy; are excited to unpack the cargo of wonder you carry; and are keen to weave the story of your healed wounds into a more timeless tale.

You are a Christian seeker with a bold and salt-stained heart committed to formation, are on the periphery of the established church, and are hungry for wilder, more informal table fellowship.

You are a therapist wondering if your gifts could be more fully used in these times, can hear the call to adventure, and are ready to explore beyond professional maps in order to answer.

If you would like to find out more, please contact me to arrange a discernment call.